Texas Hazing Injury Law: What Injured Students and Families Need to Know

Was What Happened Hazing Under Texas Law?

The definition lives in section 37.151 of the Texas Education Code. In its words, hazing "means any intentional, knowing, or reckless act, occurring on or off the campus of an educational institution, by one person alone or acting with others, directed against a student for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into, affiliating with, holding office in, or maintaining membership in an organization" if the act is one of the kinds the section lists.

Those listed kinds include physical brutality, "such as whipping, beating, striking, branding, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on the body, or similar activity"; sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement or calisthenics that subject the student to an unreasonable risk of harm; and coercing the student to consume a drug, or alcohol in an amount that would lead a reasonable person to believe the student is intoxicated. The list is partial here; the section names other kinds as well.

The word organization is broad. The section covers a fraternity, sorority, association, club or student government, a band or musical group, and an academic, athletic, cheerleading or dance team, among others, "whose members are primarily students."

Section 51.936 of the Texas Education Code says this subchapter "applies to a postsecondary educational institution under this section in the same manner as that subchapter applies to a public or private high school." So the same definition reaches colleges and universities.

One limit matters a great deal. Sections 37.152 and 37.153 set out criminal offenses, and the subchapter does not itself create a right to sue. A civil claim rests on other law, described below. For a family, the definition still matters: whether the acts fit its words often shapes how the event is understood and described in reports, even off campus or in a group that is not a fraternity. A conversation with an attorney can cover how the specific acts a student describes compare with the statute's words.

Who Might Answer for a Student's Hazing Injury?

Responsibility in a civil case turns on conduct, not labels. The people and groups who may be named fall into a few types: the individual members who carried out, directed or joined in the acts; the organization itself, such as a fraternity, sorority, team or club, where the facts show the group acted as an entity; and, in some cases, the institution or another party that owned or controlled the place where the hazing happened.

Each legal theory asks a family to show something specific. A negligence claim, based on a failure to use reasonable care, would need a duty owed to the student, a breach of that duty, causation linking the breach to the injury, and damages. A negligent supervision claim would look at whether someone responsible for overseeing others failed to use reasonable care in doing so. A premises liability claim, about those who own or control property, would look at what that party knew and controlled. An injury alone does not prove anyone's fault. Our hazing injury lawyer overview explains these elements in more depth.

Public institutions raise a separate rule. Section 101.051 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code provides that, except as to motor vehicles, the Tort Claims Act chapter does not apply to a school district or junior college district. That says nothing final about any particular school. If you are trying to understand who may be accountable, the answer depends on what each person did and what kind of institution is involved, which is the kind of question an attorney conversation can help sort out.

Filing Deadlines Under Texas Law — and What Starts the Clock

A statute of limitations is the deadline for filing a lawsuit. Under section 16.003 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, except as provided by sections 16.010, 16.0031 and 16.0045, a person must bring suit for personal injury "not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues." For an injury resulting in death, the same section sets two years and says "the cause of action accrues on the death of the injured person."

Minors are treated differently. Section 16.001 of the same code treats a person younger than 18, regardless of whether the person is married, as under a legal disability, among the conditions it lists. It provides that if a person entitled to bring a personal action is under a legal disability when the cause of action accrues, "the time of the disability is not included in a limitations period." For a high school student or a college freshman under 18, that can change when the period runs.

A claim against a public body carries its own earlier step. Under section 101.101 of the Texas Tort Claims Act, a governmental unit "is entitled to receive notice of a claim against it under this chapter not later than six months after the day that the incident giving rise to the claim occurred," and the section sets out what the notice must reasonably describe.

When a period started, and whether an exception applies, depends on the facts of each case.

Proportionate Responsibility and What It Means for a Hazing Claim

Families are often told, sometimes by the organization itself, that the student "agreed to it." Texas handles that argument differently in criminal and civil cases.

On the criminal side, section 37.154 of the Texas Education Code says: "It is not a defense to prosecution of an offense under this subchapter that the person against whom the hazing was directed consented to or acquiesced in the hazing activity." That provision speaks to prosecution.

A civil claim runs under a different rule, proportionate responsibility, which means dividing responsibility among everyone whose conduct contributed to the harm. Section 33.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code states that "a claimant may not recover damages if his percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent." The percentage is assigned by the trier of fact, meaning the judge or jury, to each claimant, defendant, settling person and responsible third party.

If the claimant is not barred, section 33.012 provides that "the court shall reduce the amount of damages to be recovered by the claimant with respect to a cause of action by a percentage equal to the claimant's percentage of responsibility."

So a defense may argue that a student's own choices played a part. Whether that argument carries any weight depends on the facts: the pressure involved, who controlled the event and what each person did.

What Losses Can a Hazing Claim Address in Texas?

Damages are the losses the law allows a court to address with money. In a personal injury case, compensatory damages are generally discussed in two groups: economic losses, such as medical expenses and lost earnings, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. For a family, these are the losses that medical bills, missed work and the student's own experience bring into the picture, and whether any category is available depends on what can be proven.

Exemplary damages, sometimes called punitive damages, work differently: they punish conduct rather than replace a loss, and they set a higher bar for a family. Under Chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the claimant would have to prove their elements, which include fraud and gross negligence among others, "by clear and convincing evidence," and that burden "may not be shifted to the defendant or satisfied by evidence of ordinary negligence."

Section 41.008 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code limits exemplary damages to the greater of two times the amount of economic damages, plus an amount equal to any noneconomic damages found by the jury not to exceed $750,000, or $200,000. Under subsection (c), the limit does not apply to a recovery based on conduct described as a felony in certain listed Penal Code sections, including murder, where, except for sections 49.07 and 49.08, the conduct was committed knowingly or intentionally.

If the claim is against a government body, separate limits apply. Under section 101.023 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, the state government's liability under that chapter is limited to $250,000 for each person and $500,000 for each single occurrence for bodily injury or death, and $100,000 for each single occurrence for property. Except as provided in subsection (c), a unit of local government is limited to $100,000 per person, $300,000 per occurrence for bodily injury or death and $100,000 per occurrence for property. A municipality is limited to $250,000 per person, $500,000 per occurrence for bodily injury or death and $100,000 per occurrence for property. Which of these limits, if any, touch a family's claim depends on who is involved, and an attorney conversation can help sort that out.

When a Student Dies: Wrongful Death Claims Under Texas Law

Losing a child to something that was supposed to be about belonging is a grief few families are prepared for, and the legal questions arrive at the worst possible time. A wrongful death claim is a civil action brought by family members for losses caused by a death that resulted from someone else's wrongful conduct.

Section 71.004 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code states that the action "is for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children, and parents of the deceased." Those family members may bring the action, or one or more of them may bring it for the benefit of all. If none of them has begun the action within three calendar months after the death, the executor or administrator "shall bring and prosecute the action unless requested not to by all those individuals."

For a college student, that usually means the parents, and a spouse or children if there are any. The two-year period in section 16.003, discussed above, applies to an injury resulting in death and runs from the death.

Texas also keeps the student's own claim alive. Section 71.021 provides that a cause of action for personal injury "does not abate because of the death of the injured person." This is often called a survival claim. Whether either claim can be brought, and against whom, depends on the facts.

What Records Can Show What Happened?

What happened on a given night is usually pieced together from several kinds of records. If you were hurt, or your child was, these records are often what shows the injury, who was there and what the organization knew. They include the medical records documenting the injury and the treatment that followed, and incident reports made to the dean of students or another campus office, or to campus police or another law enforcement agency. Our page on hazing incident reports and records describes what each kind of record captures.

Texas adds a public record of its own. Under section 51.936(c-1) of the Texas Education Code, each postsecondary institution "shall develop and post in a prominent location on the institution's Internet website a report on hazing committed on or off campus by an organization registered with or recognized by the institution." The report may not include personally identifiable student information and must comply with the federal student privacy law. For a family, that report may show whether the same group has appeared before.

Families also often gather witness names and contact details, photos and video, text messages, group chats and social media posts, and, where they can be found, organizational records such as membership lists and event plans.

People who saw what happened sometimes hesitate to come forward. Section 37.155(b) of the Texas Education Code gives immunity from civil or criminal liability to a person who voluntarily reports a specific hazing incident to the dean of students or other appropriate official, a peace officer or a law enforcement agency, before being contacted about it, and who cooperates in good faith. That immunity does not cover reporting one's own act of hazing or reporting in bad faith. A conversation with an attorney can cover which of these records exist and what they may show.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Speak With an Attorney About a Texas Hazing Claim

A conversation with an attorney tends to be more useful when the family has thought through a few basic questions first. None of these needs a polished answer, and each ties back to a rule on this page.

The first is what happened, and when: the specific acts, as best anyone knows them, and the date, since the Texas periods described above run from particular events. Next is which organization was involved, and whether the institution registers or recognizes it, which bears on the posted hazing report.

Then there is the institution itself. Whether it is a public school district, a junior college district or a private college matters because of section 101.051 and the Tort Claims Act rules described earlier. Families also think about what injuries resulted and what medical care followed, what records already exist, and whether the student was under 18 when it happened, given how section 16.001 treats a minor's claim. Having rough answers ready lets that conversation move from the general rules to which questions remain open.

When you are ready, you can request a case evaluation. Our page on hazing injury legal services describes the kinds of matters this site covers.