After they lost their son to a hazing incident at Penn State University in 2017, Evelyn and Jim Piazza are determined to make hazing a felony, one state legislature at a time, and now New Jersey lawmakers are considering such measures.

On Tuesday, S-3150, known as "Timothy J. Piazza's Law" passed the New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee and now heads to the full Senate for a vote. It would upgrade each grade of hazing to a felony, and clarifies prohibited conduct to include causing, coercing or forcing consumption of alcohol or drugs.

"The hazing law is a necessary thing," Jim Piazza, 58, testified before the committee on Tuesday, seated next to his wife, Evelyn, 51. "Hazing is occurring way too often in colleges, high schools and middle schools and people are dying."

Evelyn and Jim Piazza, whose son died in a hazing incident at Penn State University in February 2017, testified in Trenton on Sept. 10, 2019, on a bill seeking to combat hazing. Photo by Suzette Parmley/ALM

The bill passed by a 8-0 vote, with Sens. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, Nellie Pou, D-Passaic, Joseph Lagana, D-Bergen, Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex (sitting in place of Sen. Paul Sarlo), Linda Greenstein, D-Middlesex (in place of Sen. Bob Smith), Christopher "Kip" Bateman, R-Somerset, Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen, and Michael Doherty, R-Warren, voting in favor.

Sen. Troy Singleton, D-Burlington, was absent from the hearing and did not vote since he was chairing another committee hearing across the Annex.

Singleton has a separate bill, S-3628, which calls for adopting anti-hazing policies at colleges, high schools and middle schools, and expands the activities encompassing criminal hazing. That measure was also scheduled for a vote Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, but it was held by Scutari, the committee chairman, for a future hearing because of its broader reach and definition of hazing compared with S-3150.

S-3150 would increase hazing to a crime of the fourth degree, and aggravated hazing to a crime of the third degree. Currently, the charge reaches aggravated hazing when the criminal act results in serious bodily injury to another person.

Timothy Piazza, who died in a hazing incident at Penn State University in 2017. Courtesy photo.

"We're trying to stiffen the penalties for hazing because we want to prevent the tragedy that happened at Penn State in 2017 to Tim," Bateman, the bill's prime sponsor, said to the Law Journal after the hearing. "He was a great athlete and a great student. It was irresponsible what happened at the frat house, and we need to have stronger penalties to deter this from happening again because it's happening all over the country."

An Assembly version of the bill (A-4728), sponsored by Assemblyman Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy, D-Burlington, Assemblyman Roy Freiman, D-Somerset, and Assemblyman John Armato, D-Atlantic, was referred to the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee and has yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

The New Jersey legislation is essentially the same as one that passed the Pennsylvania Legislature last October and was signed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf on Oct. 19, 2018.

In Pennsylvania it's known as the "Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law," or "Tim's Law," after the Penn State sophomore from Readington who died during a fraternity hazing ritual at the on-campus Beta Theta Pi fraternity house in early 2017.

An investigation determined Piazza was pressured into consuming 18 alcohol drinks in 90 minutes on Feb. 2, 2017. He died two days later. Bateman said given the circumstances of his death, S-3150 prohibits causing, coercing, or forcing the consumption of alcohol or drugs.

"College students have the right to live and learn in a safe environment without fear, and parents who send their child off to school should demand no less," Bateman said in a statement following the hearing. "Unless we explicitly prohibit the deep-rooted custom of hazing, more families will suffer. It is my hope that this tragedy leads to real change."

Jim Piazza, who looked on with his wife as Wolf signed the bill in Harrisburg, said hazing events can escalate into life-threatening, and even fatal, ones such as his son's, because of the perfect storm of peer pressure and often alcohol or drug consumption.

"These are well-orchestrated and planned [events], and these people are taking other students' lives in their hands," he told the committee on Tuesday. "It's no different with people driving drunk. We strongly encourage the passage of this legislation to prevent hazing from happening."

Added Evelyn Piazza: "We want a deterrent so it doesn't happen in this state. The new law in Pennsylvania is a game changer. It's a deterrent."

The couple is planning a trip to Clemson University in South Carolina this Sunday and to the University of Florida on Monday to talk to students there about the dangers of hazing.