[399] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Massachusetts Hazing Law and This Student Activity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Jacknis)
Sun Mar 12 00:10:13 1995
To: libertarians-announce@MIT.EDU, libertarians@MIT.EDU
To: vsg-announce@MIT.EDU, vsg@MIT.EDU, vsg-dine@MIT.EDU, vsg-recipe@MIT.EDU
To: seta@MIT.EDU, save@MIT.EDU
Cc: libertarians-officers@MIT.EDU, vsg-officers@MIT.EDU, save-request@MIT.EDU,
seta-request@MIT.EDU
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 1995 23:59:51 EST
From: Mike Jacknis <mjacknis@MIT.EDU>
Dear Members:
In compliance with MIT ASA regulations and Massachusetts State Law, you
are required to know that MIT VSG, MIT LP, SETA and SAVE do not
participate in hazing. Furthermore, WE ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO ADVISE
YOU OF THE APPROPRIATE SECTIONS OF THE LAW. This message shall serve to
comply with our obligation to advise you of the law and your "rights" et
cetera.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, unfortunately.
Be it so hereby executed by the authority of nobody and delivered by the
Goddess Athena,
Mike Jacknis
Friendly Neighborhood Administration
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
HAZING LAWS 269:17, 18, 19
269:17. Hazing; organizing or participating; hazing defined.
=============================================================
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 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.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary,
consent shall not be availableas a defense to any prosecution under
this action.
269:18. Failure to report hazing.
=================================
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.
269:19. Copy of secs. 17-19; issuance to students and student groups,
teams and organizations; report.
======================================================================
Section 19. 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 or is recognized by the 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
seventeen and eighteen; provided, however that an institution's
compliance with this section's requirements that an institution issue
copies of this section and sections 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 such 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 member, plebes, pledges, or 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 and each public or private
institution of post 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 and 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 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 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
communication of the institutions'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.
