After their son died pledging a fraternity, Tyler Hilliard’s family helped pass a new anti-hazing law in his name
A new law on the books in California set to take effect next year that targets campus hazing was pushed forward by a Black family.
Tyler’s Law, which the state recently passed, expands existing hazing laws in California and makes way for students injured in hazing rituals to sue their schools and institutions.
Before the law, those who experienced hazing could sue the individual actors responsible for the abuse but not necessarily their college or university.
“The passage of this law was long overdue. Colleges and universities are in the best position to prevent or intervene to stop hazing on their campuses,” attorney Toni Jaramilla told ABC 7.
The law was brought forth in the aftermath of the death of Tyler Hilliard, who was a 20-year-old junior at the University of California Riverside, pledging the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity at the time of his death in 2018. His parents claim he was essentially abused for weeks before he collapsed at Mt. Rubidoux in California as his fraternity was preparing for a run.
Initially, it wasn’t clear if hazing contributed to his death as there were no visible signs of trauma. However, evidence on his phone, including text messages labeling the event he collapsed during as “gold paddle day,” painted a clearer picture of what led up to his collapsing. Tyler’s mother also rushed him to the ER weeks before he died after he had severe chest pains following a hazing ritual that involved him being forced to eat a whole onion covered in hot sauce. He was prescribed medication to manage heartburn.
“I watched my son die. I held his hand,” said Tyler’s father, William Hilliard.
“Tyler had a loving spirit, a sense of humor,” said Tyler’s mother, Myesha Kimble. “He was a big brother. He was a wonderful son.”
Before his death, however, the school had been aware that that particular chapter of the fraternity had a history of violent hazing. Had Tyler’s law been on the books then, his parents feel the school would have been moved to do more to dissuade fraternities and sororities from taking it too far.
Since Hilliard’s death, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity was dismissed from the school’s list of recognized organizations in 2019 due to “risk management concerns.”
In an open letter to Alpha Phi Alpha’s president, Tyler’s aunt, Patricia Hilliard, says all the students who witnessed his abuse, were also hazed but were encouraged by the organization’s lawyers to withhold what they knew.
“Pledges who met with the police gave statements that they were physically abused every night for at least a five-week straight period. Unfortunately, some of these pledges and Alpha Fraternity members who were part of a brotherhood Tyler believed in and sacrificed so much to be a part of which cost him his life have all pleaded the 5th amendment,” she wrote.
Tyler’s Law arrived just weeks before another college student’s death allegedly following a fraternity hazing ritual, and has renewed calls for action. Caleb Wilson, who had been a junior mechanical engineering student at Southern University and A&M College in Lousiana, collapsed after he was punched in the chest at an off-campus location.
“It’s not just hazing. It’s violence that is being inflicted upon another person,” Byron Hurt, director of the 2022 documentary “Hazing,” told theGrio recently. “In this case, someone’s child, someone’s cousin or loved one, or bandmate, classmate, and so when you look at it from that perspective, then you have to ask questions, ‘Well, why does such violence exist?’”
