Hazing Policy

Hazing is a crime under Massachusetts law and will not be tolerated by Lesley University. Hazing means 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. Consent to participation in such initiations does not justify hazing and is not a legal defense.

Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing and is at the scene of such hazing shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to herself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable.

If any organization or individual is found to have engaged in hazing, the relationship between the University and the organization or individual may be severed. A copy of the text of the Massachusetts law follows.

Massachusetts Hazing Statute

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.

1) The term "hazing" as used in this section and in other sections of this statute, shall mean any conduct or method of initiation into any student organization, whether 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.

2) Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in the above section 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. A fine of not more than one thousand dollars shall punish whoever fails to report such a crime.