HAZING POLICY
Revised April 08, 2002
Hazing is illegal in Massachusetts. State law requires that you, as a
designated officer for your organization, provide each of your
members with a copy of Sections 17, 18 AND 19 OF THE STATUTE
PROHIBITING HAZING, CHAPTER 269OF THE MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL LAWS.
Once you have done this, please sign and return the attached receipt to
Campus Activities, 416 Student Union.
Section 17
PENALTY
Whoever is a principle organizer
or participant in the crime of hazing, as defined herein, shall be
punished by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars or by
imprisonment on a house of correction for not more than one year, or
both such fine and imprisonment.
DEFINITION
The term of "hazing" as used in this section and in
sections eighteen and nineteen, shall mean any conduct or method of
initiation into any student organization, whether on public or
private property, which willfully or recklessly endangers the
physical or mental health of any student or other person. Such
conduct shall include whipping, beating, branding, forced
calisthenics, exposure to weather, forced consumption of any food,
liquor, beverage, drug or other substance, or any other brutal
treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely
affect the physical health or safety of any such student or other
person, or which subjects such student or other person to extreme
mental stress, including extended deprivation or sleep or rest or
extended isolation.
Notwithstanding any other
provisions of this section to the contrary, consent shall not be
available as a defense to any prosecution under this action
Section 18
DUTY TO REPORT
Whoever
fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more
than one
thousand dollars.
Section 19
NOTICE
Each institution of secondary education and each public and private
institution of post secondary education shall issue to every student
group, student team or student organization which is part of such
institution to use its name or facilities or is known by the
institution to exist as an unaffiliated student group, student team
or student organization, a copy of this section and the sections
seventeen and eighteen; provided, however, that an institution's
compliance with this section's requirement that an institution issue
copies of this section and section seventeen and eighteen to
unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations shall not
constitute evidence of the institution's recognition or endorsement
of said unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations.
Each student group, team or organization shall distribute a copy of this
section and sections seventeen and eighteen to each of its members,
plebes, pledges or applicants for membership. It shall be the duty
of each such group, team or organization, acting through its
designated officer, to deliver annually, to the institution an
attested acknowledgement stating that such group, team or
organization has received a copy of this section and said sections
seventeen and eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges
and applicants has received a copy of sections seventeen and
eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges and applicants
has received a copy of sections seventeen and eighteen, and that
such group, team or organization understands and agrees to comply
with the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and
eighteen. Each institution of secondary education shall, at least
annually, before or at the start of enrollment, deliver to each
person who enrolls as a full time student in such institution a copy
of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.
Each institution of secondary education and each public or private
institution of post secondary education shall file, at least
annually, a report with the regents of higher education and in the
case of secondary institutions, the board of education, certifying
that each such institution has complied with its responsibility to
inform student groups, teams or organizations and to notify each
full time student enrolled by it of the provisions of this section
and sections seventeen and eighteen and also certifying that each
said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with regard to
the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy has
been set forth with appropriate emphasis in the student handbook or
similar means of communicating the institution's policies to its
students. The board of regents and, in the case of secondary
institutions, the board of education, shall promulgate relations
governing the content and frequency of such reports, and shall
forthwith report to the attorney genera any such institution which
fails to make such report.
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