Effective Date: June 4, 2019
Last Reviewed: June 8, 2023
Stonehill College fully complies with Commonwealth of Massachusetts Laws (Chapter 269, Sections 17, 18, and 19.) regarding hazing. As such, the College has adopted the following policy against hazing for all students including student leaders and athletes. Stonehill defines hazing as any conduct or method of initiation into any student organization, team, group, etc., whether on or off-campus, which endangers the physical or emotional health of any student or other person no matter the intent.
An individual involved in an alleged violation of the Stonehill College Policy against Hazing may not use consent as an acceptable reason for participation.
Types of hazing include the following:
Hazing as a Public Display: Any and all forms of public appearance, which may result in adverse publicity to the organization or the College.
Hazing as a Physical Abuse: Any practice, whether internal or external, which could be detrimental to the health, wellbeing, or safety of any person.
Hazing as Moral Indignity: Any action which by ethical, moral, and/or socially accepted standard of right and wrong may create in any individual feelings of humiliation or disgrace.
Hazing as Scholastic Interference: Any and all practices, which place a person in the position of being unable to attend, or properly prepare for, academic practices.
Examples of hazing include, but are not limited to:
• Applying any substance to a person’s body or belongings such as whipped cream or paint;
• Forced listening to loud, repetitive music or recordings;
• Verbal or written abuse, yelling or screaming;
• Verbal or written abuse or harassment on the basis of race, gender, disability, age, marital status, religion, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or other legally protected status · Whipping, paddling, or other beating;
• Nudity;
• Participation in illegal acts;
• Kidnapping;
• Bondage;
• Personal servitude;
• Pranks such as streaking/panty raids, unauthorized scavenger hunts, etc.;
• Forced or coerced stunt or skit nights/events with demeaning and/or crude skits and/or poems;
• Preventing the use of limbs;
• Forced or coerced wearing of conspicuous clothing not normally in good taste such as togas;
• Extended deprivation of sleep, adequate study time, rest or extended isolation;
• Forced or coerced branding/tattoos/hair styles;
• Deprivation of food or water;
• Forced calisthenics or exercise beyond the physical limits;
• Exposure to settings or conditions that adversely affect the physical health or safety of any student or which subjects such student or other person to extreme emotional stress;
• Individual or group interrogations;
• Involuntary 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 student or other person; and
• Use of titles or forms of address that denote personal servitude or authority.
Hazing is banned in any form as a practice by any organization, group or team, etc. regardless of whether or not the organization, group, or team is recognized by Stonehill College.
Any individual or organization found responsible for practicing hazing, in any form, is subject to disciplinary action and sanctions including separation or dismissal from Stonehill College and, in the case of a recognized student organization, loss of recognition.
Anyone with knowledge that another person is the victim of hazing must immediately report such act to Campus Police at (508) 565-5555, Student Affairs at (508) 565-1363, and/or their Residence Director or Resident Assistant.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Laws (Chapter 269, Sections 17, 18, and 19) regarding hazing.
Section 17
Whoever is a principle organizer or participant in the crime of hazing as defined herein shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one hundred days, or by both fine and imprisonment.
The term hazing as used in this section and in sections 18 and 19, 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 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.
Section 18
Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in section 17 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 five hundred dollars.
Section 19
Each secondary school and each public and private school or college shall issue to every group or organization under its authority or operating on or in conjunction with its campus or school, and to every member, plebe, pledge or applicant for membership in such a group or organization, a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen. An officer of each such group or organization, and each individual receiving a copy of said sections 17 and 18 shall sign an acknowledgment stating that such group, organization or individual has received a copy of said sections 17 and 18.
Each secondary school and each public or private school or college shall file, at least annually, a report with the Regents of Higher Education and in the case of secondary schools, the Board of Education, certifying that such institution has complied with the provisions of this section and also certifying that said school has adopted a disciplinary policy with regards to the organizers and participants of hazing. The Board of Regents and in the case of secondary school, 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.