Seven years following the death of their son, Penn State student Timothy Piazza, Evelyn and Jim Piazza have spent their time advocating for stricter and harsher anti-hazing laws.

Timothy Piazza, a 19-year-old sophomore from Lebanon, New Jersey, died in February 2017 from a traumatic brain injury sustained after falling down a flight of stairs at Penn State fraternity house Beta Theta Pi. Piazza’s fall was due to a loss of balance as a result of an intense alcohol-related hazing ritual that forced its pledges to consume copious amounts of alcohol in a short period of time.

Piazza, unfortunately, died from to the injuries he sustained in the fall, causing the Centre County police to launch an investigation into his death and those held responsible for the hazing.

While it has taken years for those responsible for Piazza’s death to be sentenced, Piazza’s parents have used their grief as a motivation to push for stricter anti-hazing laws, naming them in their son’s honor as the Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law. Signed into law by former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf in 2018, Piazza’s law toughens criminal penalties for hazing and increases requirements for institutions and organizations to deter those from hazing.

The Piazza’s spoke to the importance of the implementation of stricter anti-hazing laws as those before were “weakly written” and those found guilty of hazing faced minimal repercussions.

“There were only misdemeanor charges if hazing was found, which is just minorly impactful and is not going to deter anyone from hazing,” Jim Piazza said.

So, Evelyn and Jim Piazza got to work. With the help of the Pennsylvania senator at the time, Jake Corman, the pair worked on legislation that created stricter punishment for those held liable for hazing. The law called for third-degree felony charges for those complicit in causing serious bodily harm or death through hazing, as well as up to one-year imprisonment if the hazing resulted in some form of bodily injury.

Since the implementation of Piazza’s law, the Piazzas spoke on the importance of holding those involved in hazing accountable.

“People need to realize how harmful hazing is, and once you recognize that this is terrible, you need to put a stop to it,” Jim Piazza said. “If you don’t speak up about it, you’re complicit, and you don’t want it on your conscious that you let this happen.”

In 2018, the Piazzas, along with four other families who suffered the loss of loved ones from hazing, partnered with the North American Interfraternity Conference and the National Panhellenic Conference to create The Anti-Hazing Coalition (AHC) to eradicate hazing.

With the AHC, the Piazzas are hoping to create a nationwide anti-hazing felony law that would deter organizations and groups from hazing.

“We’ve shopped it around to some states that already have hazing laws,” Evelyn Piazza said.

But a nationwide anti-hazing law is hard to create.

While most Pennsylvania universities supported the passing of Piazza’s law, with the exception of Penn, the Piazzas became aware of how difficult it would be to pass nationwide anti-hazing legislation since individual states have their own hazing laws.

However, the AHC has traveled and spoken to over 150,000 students across the nation to teach them about the dangers of hazing.

“We’ve seen an increase in reporting and hearing about it,” Jim Piazza said.

Piazza’s law has helped bring awareness to young adults and parents of the dangers of hazing, but there’s more to be done. Under Piazza’s law, anyone experiencing or witnessing hazing can make a report for any type of hazing.

“Don’t let anyone do it to you, because you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone,” Jim Piazza said. “Whether it’s through abuse or alcohol, you don’t need to do those things to make someone like you.”