Seventeen years ago, Lianne Kowiak’s life changed forever.
On Nov. 17, 2008, Kowiak got a phone call at her home in Tampa from one of her son’s fraternity brothers at Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Theta Chi chapter. Kowiak said she was told Harrison, her son, had been hurt in an accident.
“He had said they were playing football on campus,” Lianne said. “Harrison tried to catch the football and landed down hard and he hurt himself.”
Lianne cried when she heard the news, doing her best not to wake her daughter, Emma, and flew from Florida to North Carolina as fast as she could. But when Lianne arrived at a trauma center in Charlotte, she discovered that the story she was told may not have been the truth.
“They had bloodshot eyes, and, you know, just wearing muddy clothing and just looked very disheveled,” Lianne said, “They had been there all night. And so to me, that just seemed like a red flag.”
Lianne later found out that Harrison was hurt in a hazing ritual. 19-year old Harrison, who attended Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, North Carolina, on both academic and golf scholarships, was told to run across a field while wearing light-colored clothing and touch a sacred rock. Harrison, who was six- foot-one-inch and about 170 pounds, was tackled repeatedly on all sides and hit his head, which caused swelling and bleeding in his brain.
Harrison died the next day.
“No parent ever expects to send their child off to college and not have him or her come home,” Lianne said. “Certainly no parent ever expects to have to bury their child.”
Now “Harrison’s Law” will go into effect in North Carolina on Dec. 1 and includes major changes to anti-hazing law in the state.
Some of the major changes include the definition of hazing and penalties for hazing offenses.
Prior to “Harrison’s Law,” hazing in North Carolina centered on physical injury within college Greek life.
North Carolina now defines hazing as any serious physical or psychological damage as part of initiation for or as a prerequisite to join any organized school group. This includes any athletic team, fraternity or sorority, society, or other similar group. “Harrison’s Law” also increases penalties for hazing offenses. Originally, offenders would receive up to a Class 2 misdemeanor, which in North Carolina can result in a maximum of 60 days in prison or a fine of up to $1,000. Now any students who are found guilty of hazing can receive a Class A1 misdemeanor, which has a maximum punishment of 150 days in jail and is the most serious misdemeanor offense a person can receive.
The legislation also includes a penalty for any North Carolina school personnel who engage in hazing rituals or aid others in rituals. School personnel such as teachers, administrators, student teachers, school safety officers or coaches found guilty will receive a Class I felony, which includes a prison sentence varying from 3 to 12 months.
The bipartisan law was cosponsored by North Carolina State Senator Amy Galey, who represents Alamance County.
Galey said that the law includes a difference in punishment because she did not want students to be defined by a mistake they made while at school.
North Carolina also has a law stating that witnesses in hazing trials will not be indicted if they incriminate themselves.
Galey also said that she wants to make sure that educators who take part in hazing are held accountable for their actions.
“If you’re in a position as an educator, you have a responsibility to look out for the students under your care,” Galey said.
While North Carolina has taken steps against hazing, Todd Shelton, the executive director of the Hazing Prevention Network, said the law is not perfect.
“It doesn’t acknowledge that consent to being hazed should not exclude it from being hazing,” Shelton said. “Just because the victim agrees to go along with it, shouldn’t minimize that it’s hazing.”
Forty-four out of 50 states have some form of anti-hazing legislation; however, North Carolina is one of 13 states that have anti-hazing laws but do not include a component about consent.
Shelton also said that he would like to see the penalties in “Harrison’s Law” strengthened to a felony for all who engage in hazing, regardless of if they are a student or school personnel.
“It would be important down the road to strengthen that by increasing it to a felony, particularly if it involved physical harm or death,” Shelton said.
Regardless of how North Carolina and other states across the country address hazing, Lianne and her husband, Brian, still lost their son. Emma lost her older brother.
Harrison died.
“He was talking about getting a degree in business and potentially being an entrepreneur and maybe even tying it in with the golf,” Lianne said. “By now, perhaps he might have been married and have children, and sadly, all that we as parents want for our children, that won’t come to be for Harrison, and Emma always wanted to be an aunt, and she will not have any nieces or nephews.”
Lenoir-Rhyne’s Theta Chi chapter was shutdown and became inactive at the university in 2010.
Fifteen months after Harrison’s death, Lianne started speaking at colleges and universities across the country, telling Harrison’s story and advocating against hazing. Lianne was even invited to Indianapolis to speak at Theta Chi’s national conference as its keynote speaker.
“I had no interest in talking to Theta Chi right in the beginning years,” Lianne said. “It took a while to get there, but then I realized I’m not going to claim to be the expert when it comes to hazing. Theta Chi has the connections. I don’t have the connections around the country. They have the alumni all over, and this is how this bill got started, too, through the alumni.”
Now “Harrison’s Law” has been passed in North Carolina and will go into effect on Dec. 1.
“Nothing is going to bring back Harrison,” Lianne said. “I’ve got a huge portrait of Harrison, and in the mornings, when I walk by it, I’ll just, you know, just talk to him to myself, and it brings a smile to my face.”
Lianne will be speaking at Elon University as the annual hazing prevention speaker on Oct. 27.