BATON ROUGE — Educators, advocates, students and parents gathered in Baton Rouge on Thursday for a statewide conversation focused on preventing hazing on college campuses.

The Hazing Prevention Summit, held at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, brought campus professionals and community leaders together to discuss how Louisiana's strengthened hazing laws can translate into action on college campuses.

The summit comes after lawmakers strengthened the state's hazing laws through the Caleb Wilson Act, legislation named after Caleb Wilson, a Louisiana college student who died in 2025 following a hazing incident involving fraternity members.

State Rep. Vanessa LaFleur said the legislation represents a significant step in the state's efforts to combat hazing.

"The Caleb Wilson Act is the strongest hazing prevention act that has been passed in the state of Louisiana," she said.

But higher education leaders emphasized that legislation alone cannot prevent future tragedies.

Dr. Kim Hunter Reed, commissioner of higher education, said changing campus culture will be critical to making the law effective.

"Legislation alone is not enough. You need campus culture. You need education and training," she said.

That message was at the center of Thursday's summit, where organizers focused on practical strategies to prevent hazing, reduce injuries and establish clearer expectations for student behavior.

Caleb Wilson's parents attended the summit and said the event gives colleges and universities an opportunity to better understand the new law and what it requires.

"For us, with the anti-hazing summit, it gives the opportunity for the universities and the colleges to know exactly what this bill is, what it does, what it entails," Wilson's mother, Urania Wilson, said.

While much of the conversation focused on college campuses, one member of Louisiana's Board of Regents said prevention may need to begin years earlier. Allison Smith, assistant commissioner for student health and wellness, said research indicates hazing behaviors can begin during childhood. "Research tells us that hazing starts much younger, as young as fourth, fifth grade."

Organizers say the goal is to turn laws written in response to tragedy into prevention efforts that can begin before another family experiences a similar loss. The summit brought together those working to make hazing prevention part of campus culture — with an emphasis on education, training and accountability alongside the state's new legal requirements.