The Medical Amnesty initiative was passed in the state of Louisiana in 2014 and usually schools follow pursuit in adding the policy to their own code of conduct however, LSU was delayed in that process.

Heather Sullivan, chief of staff of LSU  student government began writing the Emergency Response Amnesty proposal April of 2016. It was passed for review September 13, coincidentally the same night of Maxwell Gruver’s passing due to hazing at the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity house on campus.

Sullivan began the policy because she never wanted a student to be afraid to call for help.

Sullivan said, “I never want them to be afraid to get in trouble for helping someone else do the responsible thing and that’s one reason why I have pushed so hard on this initiative.”

The Emergency Response Amnesty policy will be in place to protect students from reporting alcohol or drug related incidents to police without consequence from the university.

A study done at Cornell University concluded that while 19 percent of college students reported that help should have been called for highly intoxicated individuals only four percent decided to call the police.

Sullivan said, “ I want people to be able to pick up the phone and not have that fear. I want people to make a responsible choice and not even question it.

Student Government is working as a whole to prevent situations similar to Maxwell Gruver’s.

“We don’t want the university to have to go through that again so we want to do as much as possible to prevent actions like that,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan also says that LSU as a whole including President F.King Alexander has shown their support and approve of the entire process.

This policy can be in effect as early as Spring 2018.