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Query from reader

Hi Hank! Your website is facinating! Question, have you done any studies or ready anything about the conflict between social host immunity laws & hazing laws when involving alcohol? In CA in 2007 they instituted PC 245.6 re anti hazing as well as amending & updating the Education Code re hazing, but CA also has a social host immunity law (B&P 25602 that says a (private) person that provides alcohol to an obviously intoxicated person is guilty of a misdemeanor (i.e., a fine), BUT cannot be civilly liable for injuries to the drinker or a third party for injuries caused by the drinker’s alcohol consumption. This would seem to be in conflict with the hazing laws for purposes of being able to sue a a fraternity brother for being involved in hazing that involved alcohol. Thoughts? Tx. for your input. Nicki S.

Moderator: I am away from email with a few exception suntil Jan. 28 with my class. I have written about the dram shop laws in 1990 and 2001 books, but the writer certainly has an intriguing legal tangle here. Thoughts? Email me at hnuwer@hanknuwer.com and I’ll post on return.

By Hank Nuwer

Journalist Hank Nuwer tracks hazing deaths in fraternities and schools. Nuwer is the Alaska author of Hazing: Destroying Young Lives; Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing, High School Hazing, Wrongs of Passage and The Hazing Reader. In April of 2024, the Alaska Press Club awarded him first place in the Best Columnist division and Best Humorist, second place.

He has written articles or columns on hazing for the Sunday Times of India, Toronto Globe & Mail, Harper's Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press. He is married to Malgorzata Wroblewska Nuwer of Warsaw, Poland and Fairbanks, Alaska. Nuwer is a former columnist for the Greenville (Ohio)Early Bird and former managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in Alaska.
Nuwer was named the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists columnist of the year in 2021 for his “After Darke” column in the Early Bird. He also won third place for the column in 2022 from the Indiana chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He and his wife Gosia, recently of Union City, Ind., have owned 20 acres in Alaska for many years. “The move is a sort-of coming home for us,” said Nuwer. As a journalist, he’s written about the Alaskan Iditarod sled-dog race and other Alaska topics. Read his musings in his blog at Real Alaska Daily--http://realalaskadaily.com and in his weekly column "Far from Randolph" in the Winchester Star-Gazette of Randolph County, Indiana.

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