Hazing in Texas: A Comprehensive Guide for Rains County Families Seeking Justice & Accountability

If Your Child Was Hazed at a Texas University, You Are Not Alone

Imagine your child, a bright student from Emory or Point who worked hard to get into college, is now lying in a hospital bed in Houston or Dallas. Their kidneys are failing because they were forced through hundreds of squats and push-ups until their muscles broke down. Their phone is filled with threatening group chats from fraternity brothers who told them failure meant expulsion. The university is sending polite emails about an “internal review,” while the national fraternity headquarters claims the local chapter acted alone. As a parent in Rains County, you feel isolated, angry, and powerless against these massive institutions.

This is not hypothetical. Right now, in Harris County, we are fighting one of the most serious hazing cases in Texas. Our client, Leonel Bermudez, a University of Houston student, suffered rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney failure after enduring brutal hazing as a Pi Kappa Phi pledge. According to the Click2Houston report, his urine turned brown from muscle tissue breakdown before he was hospitalized for four days. The lawsuit alleges he was forced to carry a degrading “pledge fanny pack,” endure hose spraying “similar to waterboarding,” and complete extreme workouts at Yellowstone Boulevard Park until his body shut down.

For families in Rains County—whether your student attends a local college, commutes to nearby campuses in Greenville or Sulphur Springs, or has ventured to major universities like Texas A&M, UT Austin, or the University of Houston—hazing presents a real and present danger. The culture that harmed Leonel Bermudez exists across Texas. This guide exists to arm you with knowledge, reveal the legal pathways to accountability, and demonstrate how our firm uses unparalleled data-driven investigation to stand up for families like yours against the wealthiest fraternities, sororities, and universities.

Immediate Help for Hazing Emergencies in Rains County

If your child is in danger RIGHT NOW:

• Call 911 for medical emergencies.
• Then call Attorney911: 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). We provide immediate help—that’s why we’re the Legal Emergency Lawyers™.

In the first 48 hours:

1. Get medical attention immediately, even if the student insists they are “fine.”
2. Preserve evidence BEFORE it’s deleted: Screenshot group chats (GroupMe, texts), photograph injuries from multiple angles, save any physical items (clothing, paddles, receipts).
3. Write down everything while memory is fresh: who, what, when, where.
4. DO NOT: Confront the fraternity/sorority directly, sign anything from the university or an insurance company, post details on public social media, or let your child delete messages.

Contact an experienced hazing attorney within 24–48 hours. Evidence disappears fast. Universities move quickly to control the narrative. We can help preserve evidence and protect your child’s rights. Call 1-888-ATTY-911 for a free, confidential consultation.

Hazing in 2025: What It Really Looks Like for Rains County Students

Hazing is not just “boys will be boys” or harmless tradition. For Rains County students on campuses across Texas, modern hazing is a calculated system of control, humiliation, and danger that often flies under the radar until someone is seriously hurt.

Texas law (Education Code Chapter 37) defines hazing broadly as any intentional, knowing, or reckless act that endangers the mental or physical health of a student for the purpose of initiation, affiliation, or membership. Consent is not a defense.

Today’s hazing tactics are designed to avoid detection, often blending digital pressure with psychological manipulation and physical abuse. They generally fall into three escalating categories:

Tier 1: Subtle Hazing – The Gateway

These behaviors establish power imbalance and are often dismissed as “tradition” by Rains County students wanting to fit in.

• Servitude & Control: Being on-call 24/7 as a designated driver, cleaning older members’ apartments, running personal errands.
• Social Isolation: Being told to cut contact with non-members, family, or romantic partners.
• Mandatory “Study Blocks”: Hours-long sessions that interfere with academics and sleep.
• Digital Monitoring: Required to respond instantly to group chats at all hours, share live location via apps, and submit to social media policing.

Tier 2: Harassment Hazing – Crossing the Line

These acts cause clear emotional or physical distress.

• Sleep Deprivation: Late-night “meetings,” 3 AM wake-up calls for meaningless tasks, multi-day events with minimal rest.
• Verbal Abuse & Humiliation: Yelling, screaming, demeaning nicknames, public “roasts.”
• Forced Consumption: Eating excessive amounts of bland food (milk, bread, hot dogs) or unpalatable substances (spoiled food, hot sauce) until vomiting.
• Extreme “Workouts”: “Smokings” with hundreds of punitive push-ups, squats, or wall-sits framed as “conditioning.”

Tier 3: Violent Hazing – Catastrophic Risk

These activities have a high potential for severe injury, sexual assault, or death. This is what hospitalized Leonel Bermudez.

• Forced Alcohol/Drug Consumption: “Lineup” drinking games, “Big/Little” nights with handles of liquor, trivia games where wrong answers mean shots. This is the most common cause of hazing deaths nationwide.
• Physical Beatings: Paddling, punching, kicking, “branding” with burns or cuts.
• Dangerous Physical Tests: Blindfolded tackle rituals (“glass ceiling”), forced fights, being restrained or tied up.
• Sexualized Hazing: Forced nudity, simulated sexual acts, sexual assault or coercion.
• Environmental Dangers: Locked in freezing rooms, left outside in extreme weather, denied bathroom access.

For Rains County parents, the key is to understand that what starts as “mandatory meetings” (Tier 1) often escalates to forced drinking (Tier 3) within weeks. The psychological pressure to belong is immense, and the line between “tradition” and torture is deliberately blurred.

Texas Hazing Law & Liability: What Rains County Families Need to Know

When hazing impacts your family, you are navigating two legal systems: criminal and civil. Understanding both is crucial for Rains County families seeking justice.

Criminal Hazing Charges in Texas

The State of Texas can prosecute individuals and organizations for hazing under Chapter 37 of the Education Code.

• Class B Misdemeanor: Basic hazing offense (up to 180 days jail, $2,000 fine).
• Class A Misdemeanor: Hazing that causes bodily injury.
• State Jail Felony: Hazing that causes serious bodily injury or death.
• Organizational Liability: Fraternities/sororities can be fined up to $10,000 per violation if they authorized or encouraged hazing, or if an officer knew and failed to report it.
• Critical Protections: Texas law provides immunity for good-faith reporting and explicitly states that victim consent is not a defense.

A criminal conviction can result in jail time and a permanent record for perpetrators, but it does not provide financial compensation for your family’s medical bills, trauma, and loss.

Civil Hazing Lawsuits for Compensation & Accountability

This is where families in Rains County can seek justice for the full harm caused. A civil lawsuit aims to hold all responsible parties financially accountable and force institutional change. We pursue claims like:

• Negligence & Gross Negligence: Failure to exercise reasonable care.
• Negligent Supervision: Against nationals and universities that failed to monitor chapters.
• Premises Liability: Against property owners (housing corporations, landlords) where hazing occurred.
• Wrongful Death: When hazing claims a life.
• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.

The civil system allows us to uncover, through discovery, what the organization knew and when they knew it—often revealing a pattern of ignored warnings.

The Full Universe of Liability: Who Can Be Sued?

In a serious hazing case, we look beyond the individual members to every entity that enabled the culture and failed to prevent foreseeable harm.

1. The Individual Perpetrators: Members who planned, executed, or covered up the hazing.
2. The Local Chapter: As an organizational entity.
3. The National Fraternity/Sorority Headquarters: For failing to enforce policies, ignoring prior incidents, and benefiting from the chapter’s existence.
4. The University: For deliberate indifference under Title IX, Clery Act violations, or negligent supervision (though public universities like UT and Texas A&M have certain immunity hurdles).
5. Alumni Corporations & Housing Entities: Which own and control the physical spaces where hazing occurs.
6. Third Parties: Bars that overserved alcohol, landlords of off-campus houses, or security companies.

Federal Laws Overlaying Texas Cases

• Stop Campus Hazing Act (2024): Requires colleges receiving federal aid to report hazing incidents more transparently and maintain public data by 2026.
• Title IX: If hazing involves sexual harassment or gender-based hostility, universities have specific obligations to investigate and remedy.
• Clery Act: Requires reporting of certain campus crimes, which can include hazing-related assaults.

For Rains County families, this multi-layered legal framework means there are multiple avenues for accountability. The challenge is building a case that connects the dots between the individuals who committed the acts and the institutions that allowed it to happen.

National Hazing Case Patterns: The Tragic Scripts That Repeat in Texas

The hazing that harms Texas students is not unique. It follows well-documented national patterns. Understanding these “scripts” is crucial because they demonstrate foreseeability—the legal concept that organizations should have anticipated and prevented the harm.

The Alcohol Poisoning Script: “Big/Little” Nights & Drinking Games

This is the most common fatal hazing pattern, repeated in fraternities across the country, including those with chapters at Texas schools.

• Stone Foltz – Bowling Green State (Pi Kappa Alpha, 2021): A pledge was forced to drink an entire bottle of alcohol during a “Big/Little” event. He died from alcohol poisoning. His family reached a $10 million settlement with the national fraternity and university.
• Timothy Piazza – Penn State (Beta Theta Pi, 2017): A bid acceptance night with extreme drinking led to fatal falls. Brothers delayed calling 911 for hours. The case resulted in dozens of criminal charges and inspired Pennsylvania’s Timothy J. Piazza Anti-Hazing Law.
• Max Gruver – LSU (Phi Delta Theta, 2017): A “Bible study” drinking game where incorrect answers meant forced drinking. Gruver died with a 0.495% BAC. The case led to Louisiana’s Max Gruver Act, a felony hazing statute.

The Texas Connection: The same national fraternities involved in these deaths—Pi Kappa Alpha, Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta—have active chapters at UH, Texas A&M, UT, SMU, and Baylor. The “Big/Little” night is a standard part of their pledge calendars. When a Texas chapter uses this script, the national organization cannot claim it was an unforeseeable “rogue” act.

The Physical Torture Script: Brutality Disguised as “Tradition”

• Chun “Michael” Deng – Baruch College (Pi Delta Psi, 2013): A pledge was blindfolded, weighted with a backpack, and repeatedly tackled during a “glass ceiling” ritual at a Pennsylvania retreat. He died from traumatic brain injury. The national fraternity was criminally convicted of aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter.
• Danny Santulli – Univ. of Missouri (Phi Gamma Delta, 2021): A pledge was forced to drink until his BAC was 0.486% during a “pledge dad reveal.” He suffered severe, permanent brain damage, leaving him unable to walk, talk, or see. His family reached multi-million-dollar settlements with 22 defendants.

The Texas Connection: Extreme physical hazing is not limited to alcohol. The allegations in the UH Pi Kappa Phi case—hose spraying like waterboarding, forced overeating until vomiting, 100+ push-up sessions—fit this pattern of deliberate physical degradation that national organizations have seen before.

The Institutional Failure Script: When Universities & Nationals Look Away

• Northwestern University Football (2023-2025): Former players alleged systemic, sexualized hazing within the football program. The head coach was fired, and the university faced multiple lawsuits, revealing how athletic departments can harbor abuse.
• Sigma Alpha Epsilon Nationwide: SAE has faced so many hazing deaths it eliminated the traditional pledge program in 2014. Despite this, chapters continue to face serious allegations, including a traumatic brain injury lawsuit at the University of Alabama and a chemical burns case at Texas A&M.

The Lesson for Texas: These cases prove that when nationals and universities treat hazing as a public relations problem rather than a life-threatening practice, they enable future harm. For Rains County families, this history is a powerful tool: it shows juries and insurance companies that the defendant organizations were on notice.

Texas University Focus: Hazing Realities at Schools Rains County Families Attend

Rains County students often attend colleges close to home or venture to major state universities. Each campus has its own Greek life and organizational culture, and each has faced hazing scand