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Orientation now requires information on Lifeline Law

DN Photo Illustration Jonathan Miksanek

Summer Orientation

Ball State now requires Summer Orientation leaders to learn the Lifeline Law and inform incoming students and their parents about it.

The Office of Orientation’s change comes in part due to a Student Government Association legislation requesting leaders receive training.

This year, students and orientation leaders will discuss it in the “College 360” session. In the future, it will have its own session.

Indiana Lifeline Law

Provides immunity for certain crimes if a bystander is seeking medical services for someone in an emergency.

Bystanders can be pardoned for public intoxication, minor possession, minor consumption and minor transport if they cooperate with law enforcement by remaining at the scene and providing information to authorities.

Immunity does not apply to crimes such as providing to a minor, drunken driving and possession of a controlled substance.

For more info, go to Indianalifeline.org.

As incoming freshmen begin their orientation this summer, they will be the first class to learn about a law that could help save their lives.

This is the first year that the university requires Summer Orientation leaders to inform the freshmen of the Lifeline Law. This law attempts to save people suffering from a medical emergency by providing immunity to certain crimes for bystanders who call for help and cooperate with law enforcement. The Indiana General Assembly passed the law in 2012.

“We decided that, with our partnership with Ball State [Student Government Association], this was something very important and critical for our leaders to pass onto students,” said Lindsey Speer, director of the Office of Orientation.

Speer said while training orientation leaders in the past, the law had been discussed, but this year will mark the first formal training on the Lifeline Law. This is in part due to SGA, which passed legislation requiring the training session for orientation leaders. Alyssa France, former SGA vice president, and Jack Hesser, former president pro tempore, co-authored the bill.

Both parents and students will learn about the Lifeline Law during their separate tours with orientation leaders. Bryan Kubel, a junior orientation leader, was a co-sponsor of the SGA legislation. He said teaching freshmen is a necessary component of their orientation at Ball State.

“We are trying to prevent and make sure people are safe and know this law exists,” he said.

He said this way, the students know if something happens, they should call for help.

“We don’t want you to be scared,” Kubel said. “Even though you were underage drinking, you can call and save a friend because in the end, saving a life is the most important thing.”

France said the SGA legislation originally aimed for the Office of Orientation to include the information as its own session in the freshman program. However, she said because the legislation was passed in March, only a few months prior to Summer Orientation, there wasn’t enough room in the schedule. So, orientation will discuss it during “College 360,” where students sit with orientation leaders and discuss life as a college student. Parents also will be briefed on the law during their tour.

Kubel said the Lifeline Law session will receive its own place on the orientation schedule next year.

The university and SGA will likely have students revisit the issue later in the year during Welcome Week and Alcohol Awareness Week, said Jennifer Jones-Hall, director of the Office of Student Life.

The motivation for passing the state legislation came from stories like Indiana University freshman Jarrod Polston, who died on Ball State’s campus in 2010. Polston partied with friends one night and returned to Studebaker West Complex early the next morning. When his friends attempted to wake him several hours later, he didn’t move.

When they called the police, it was too late. The coroner said Polston’s airway was blocked when he started vomiting after passing out.

“You hear stories all the time of students who died of alcohol poisoning and a lot of times, they weren’t alone,” France said. “If someone had just called, they could have saved their life.”

France said State Sen. Jim Merritt of Indianapolis requested the SGA legislation. In October 2013, Merritt and Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller gave a presentation on the law during Ball State’s Alcohol Awareness Week. She said the lawmakers were asking student leaders to inform campus about the law.

After tossing around a few ideas, France said the executive board of SGA decided that Summer Orientation would be the best possible way to reach a large and captive audience.

“The best way that we knew was to go to an audience that is already required to be somewhere — they are already attentive, they are excited about college,” France said. “There is no way for us to reach every single student. Even if we do a campus-wide email, the number of students who read those are slim. That’s why we went with orientation because four years from now, every student will have heard this information.”

Jones-Hall trained orientation leaders May 28.

“I talked to them from a [perspective of] ‘you’ve all been somewhere social on this campus where you have seen situations that feel a little uncomfortable and getting a little out of hand,’” she said. “We need other students to step in at this point and not be a bystander.”

Jones-Hall said the timing for the conversation with freshmen is optimal as students tend to abuse their freedom shortly after their first encounter with it.

“Helping those students understand, ‘Welcome to freedom, but with freedom comes responsibility and here is a law that will help you,’” she said.

Sen. Merritt said the first two weeks in college and away from home are maybe the most challenging time for students who are newly liberated.

“If they can get through understanding the challenge of that freedom and behaving responsibly, then the rest of their college career, they are going to be fine,” he said.

The Indiana Lifeline Law will offer immunity to those that dial 911 and remain at the scene as law enforcement attempts to save the victim. In order to receive immunity, the person must demonstrate what the law calls “acting in good faith,” which includes providing their full name and other relevant information to law enforcement.

Merritt said law enforcement officers will likely not bring charges against the bystander if they behave in a responsible and cooperative manner. The law says it will pardon the person for crimes of public intoxication, minor possession, minor consumption and minor transport. However, it also states that the law cannot interfere with procedures or limit the ability to prosecute other offenses like providing to a minor, operating while intoxicated or possession of a controlled substance.

“There are exceptions to the rule,” France said. “It’s all on a case-by-case basis.”

This year, the  Lifeline Law was expanded to include immunity for the crimes in situations pertaining to any medical emergency. Merritt said without alcohol-specific language, it takes out the guess work people have to do when someone is suffering.

“I wanted, and the Legislature agreed with me, to remove all hurdles from a minor ... calling 911, rather than trying to figure out what’s wrong with the person,” Merritt said.

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