BATON ROUGE — The Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Task Force met at the Capitol on Monday, where lawmakers discussed the need for early hazing education at the K-12 level and for more clearly defined consequences for organizations at the university level. 

Wilson died as a result of a hazing ritual for Southern University's Omega Psi Phi fraternity. Members of Wilson's family were in attendance for the meeting.

A majority of the meeting consisted of lawmakers speaking with a panel consisting of:
- Tavares Walker, Executive Director of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
- Michael Faulk, Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents & Administrators
- Janet Pope, Executive Director of the Louisiana School Boards Association

Lawmakers voiced their concerns to the panel that while bullying is widely addressed in Louisiana elementary, middle and high schools, hazing does not get the same attention. 

Their concerns were backed by Dr. Patrick Biddix, Associate Vice Provost for Student Success and Executive Director of the QEP at the University of Tennessee.  According to Biddix, 47-48% of students experience hazing before college, and 25% of those students "were first hazed before age 13."

Several lawmakers expressed their hope to have early hazing education without needing legislation.

"We shouldn't have to legislate all of this," State Sen. Gerald Boudreaux said. 

Walker, Faulk and Pope said that the responsibility would fall on school superintendents and principals to educate organization sponsors on how to prevent hazing. The three largely agreed with lawmakers that hazing education is more needed in K-12, and appeared confident they could provide guidance to school systems on how to accomplish that. 

In the second portion of the meeting, representatives from each Louisiana university system presented currently defined consequences for organizations convicted of hazing, particularly suspension and expulsion. 

Lawmakers called on schools to more clearly define their punishments to show whether or not an expelled organization could eventually return, whether it be several years down the line, under a different chapter, etc.

State Rep. Jason Hughes said that an organization that has done something worthy of expulsion should never be allowed to return to campus. Using the example of Caleb Wilson and the since-expelled Omega Psi Phi fraternity, he asked if there would ever be a window for the fraternity to return to campus under a differently named chapter and explaining that, in his opinion, they should never be allowed to. 

"Under the definition of expulsion, they should not be able to return," said Corrine Blache, who presented Southern's suspension versus expulsion policies at the meeting. However, when grilled further on whether the organization was defined as the local chapter or the national fraternity, Blache was unable to provide a clear answer. However, she did say Southern is actively working to amend its current policies to include specific definitions and time frames. 

LSU's definition of an expulsion did not differentiate between a student and an organization, seemingly leaving a door open for an expelled organization to return to campus. LSU did, though, provide guidelines on what the return process looks like, whether it be from suspension or expulsion. Those guidelines involved a general closure time of at least four years to ensure "bad actors" have graduated, tailored return plans and live-in chapter consultants for "housed chapters."

The task force's next and final meeting will be on January 8, and its final report is due on January 31.