MIT hazing policy

[Amy L Moore <amymoore MIT EDU>]

Here is the Massachusetts hazing policy that I am required to give everyone
prior to the start of term.
In summary:
1. Don't haze people, even if they say you can.
2. Report any hazing you see. Bystanders who do not are subject to a fine.
3. The their definition of hazing is forcing a person to do something that 
is
potentially harmful to their physical or mental health in order to join an
organization.
4. I don't know how the military gets away with it.

~Amy Moore
President, MIT Guild of Bellringers

General Laws of Massachusetts, 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, [sic] 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 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 
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.
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 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 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 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.