Anti-Hazing Law

QMS Drama strives to create a safe and fun atmosphere through our rehearsals and productions.

In accordance with Massachusetts State law, please review the following message (also found on page 37 of the Student Handbook) regarding HAZING within any student group, team or organization:

"HAZING #JICFA-E In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, Ch. 269, Sec. 17, hazing is not permitted. It is a crime to participate in or to organize hazing, or for a person at the scene of such a crime to fail to report the incident. Any student involvement in an act of hazing may face a suspension of up to ten days, including possible expulsion from school, and may be subject to legal prosecution.

In accordance with Massachusetts General Laws, Ch. 269, Sec.17, whoever is a principal organizer or participant in the crime of hazing, as defined herein, will be punished by a fine of Return to Table of Contents QMS Student-Parent Handbook 2018-2019 Page 38 not more than three thousand dollars or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

The term "hazing" as used in this section and in sections eighteen and nineteen, will 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 will 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 will not be available as a defense to any prosecution under this action.

In accordance with Section Eighteen (18), whoever knows that another person is a victim of hazing as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime will, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to oneself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime will be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

In accordance with Section Nineteen (19), each institution of secondary education and each public and private institution of post-secondary education will 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 will not constitute evidence of the institution's recognition or endorsement of said unaffiliated student groups, teams and organizations.

Each such group, team or organization will distribute a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to each of its members, plebes, pledges or applicants for membership. It will be the duty of each such group, team or organization, acting through its designated officer to deliver annually, to the institution an attested acknowledgment 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, 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 will 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 Return to Table of Contents QMS Student-Parent Handbook 2018-2019 Page 39 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 communicating the institution's policies to its students. The board of regents and, in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education will promulgate regulations governing the content and frequency of such reports, and will forthwith report to the attorney general any such institution that fails to make such report."