THE ISSUE: A petition circulating at Western urges Kentucky legislators to make hazing that causes serious injury or death a felony.

OUR VIEW: Creating a harsher penalty for hazing will force organizations to think twice before engaging in behavior that might result in serious harm to their members.

In what is often a black-and-white world of criminal wrongdoing, hazing is one of those issues that falls firmly into the gray between either extreme.

Hazing comes in many forms, and it’s often hard to tell where the line between harmless and harmful actually falls.

For example, professional baseball teams often haze their rookies by making them wear children’s backpacks to spring training games.

Sure, it’s embarrassing, but wearing a Dora the Explorer backpack is a harmless case of hazing that’s funny for all parties involved. No one gets hurt, and the rookies feel like a part of the team afterward, making it a great example of how to handle an initiation rite.

On the other hand, the organization that forces its new recruits to drink themselves into oblivion is clearly engaging in an activity that could have serious ramifications.

Just ask the family of Gordie Bailey, a freshman at the University of Colorado at Boulder who died of an alcohol overdose after his fraternity brothers forced him to drink too much alcohol.

Even though it can be hard to define what constitutes hazing, it doesn’t mean that legislators shouldn’t try.

Making hazing activities that cause injuries and deaths a felony would act as a preventative measure for organizations that think their dangerous rituals are necessary for initiation.

The state’s current statutes place the burden for punishing hazing on the universities and recommend expulsion or suspension as appropriate measures.

By taking that burden off the university and establishing a consistent punishment, legislators shift the pressure to organization leaders to ensure they’re not engaging in activities that could be considered hazing.

Having such a severe penalty for hazing might also encourage organizations to go after worthwhile recruits instead of just taking those who are willing to get crazy to get in.

If legislators decide to make dangerous hazing a felony, they would need to clearly define what constitutes “hazing” and what constitutes “injury.” Otherwise, it would be too easy for people to find and exploit loopholes in such a law and use that to their advantage.

Some might see a harsh penalty as a scare tactic, but when it comes to preventing serious injury or death, such techniques are sometimes a necessary step toward prevention.

Organizations might roll their eyes or claim that such a law would suck the fun out of their proceedings, but they fail to realize an unshakable truth.

There can’t be another Gordie Bailey.

This editorial represents the majority opinion of the Herald’s 11-member editorial board.