[802] in libertarians
Re: Massachusetts Hazing Law and This Student Activity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin THEOBALD)
Sun Mar 12 12:03:54 1995
From: theobald@duke.cs.mcgill.ca (Kevin THEOBALD)
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 1995 12:02:23 -0500
In-Reply-To: damartin@volta.mit.edu's message [Massachusetts Hazing Law and This Student Activity] as of Mar 12, 4:55
To: damartin@volta.mit.edu, objectivism@MIT.EDU
Cc: libertarians@MIT.EDU
| The term "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 healthof any
| student or other person. Such conduct shall include whipping,
| beating, branding, forced calisthetics, 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 deprivation of sleep
| or rest or extended isolation.
And how is the second sentence (72 words!) supposed to be parsed? Does
the modifying phrase beginning in the 9th line apply to "any other brutal
treatment" or to everything in the sentence? When I went through First
Communion (a Catholic initiation rite), they forced me to eat a wafer.
Would the Catholic Church have been guilty of hazing under this definition
if this had occurred in Mass.?
| Section 18. Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing
| as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime
| shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or
| peril to himself 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.
How many of the authors of this law thought it was awful that little kids
were being encouraged to turn in their dope-smoking parents to the State?
(Perhaps they would have felt better if the kids were *required* by law
to fink.)
Kevin
