Anti-Hazing Laws

Worcester State prohibits hazing by individuals or groups and defines it as the follows: defined as: Any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a person (whether individually or in concert with the other persons) against another person or persons regardless of the willingness of such other person or persons to participate, that – 

1. is committed in the course of an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in , a student organization; and 
2. causes or creates a risk, above the reasonable risk encountered in the course of participation in the institution of higher education or the organization (such as the physical preparation necessary for participation in an athletic team), of physical or psychological injury including –
   1. whipping, beating striking, electronic shocking, placing harmful substance on someone’s body, or similar activity;
   2. causing coercing, or otherwise inducing sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, extreme calisthenics, or other similarly activity, 
   3. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another to consume food, liquid, alcohol, drug or other substances
   4. causing, coercing, or otherwise inducing another person to perform sexual acts; 
   5. any activity that places another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words or conduct;
   6. any activity against another person that includes a criminal violation of local, State, tribal, or Federal law; and
   7. any activity that induces, causes, or requires another person to perform a duty or task that involves a criminal violation of local, State, Tribal or Federal law. 

Section 17. Whoever is a principal 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 in a house of correction for not more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment.

The term “hazing” as used in this section and in Sections 18 and 19, 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 the 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 of 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. (Amended by 1987, 665.)

Section 18. Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in Section 17 and is at the scene of such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to themselves or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars. (Amended by 1987, 665.)

Section 19. Each institution of secondary education and each public and private institution of postsecondary education shall issue to every student group, student team, or student organization which is part of such institution or permitted by the 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 Sections 17 and 18; provided, however, that an institution’s compliance with this section’s requirements that an institution issue copies of this section and Sections 17 and 18 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 such group, team, or organization shall distribute a copy of this section and Sections 17 and 18 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 17 and 18, that each of its members, plebes, pledges, or applicants has received a copy of Sections 17 and 18, and that such group, team, or organization understands and agrees to comply with the provisions of this section and Sections 17 and 18.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of postsecondary 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 17 and 18.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of postsecondary 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 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 17 and 18 and also certifying that 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 regulations governing the content and frequency of such reports, and shall forthwith report to the attorney general any such institution which fails to make such report. (Amended by 1987, 665.)