In compliance with the hazing laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Wheaton does not permit hazing of any sort whether by organizations or individual students. Hazing has been defined as “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.” In accordance with this law, any student found guilty of hazing will be subject to a hearing by the College Hearing Board and disciplinary action taken if found guilty.
From the General Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
An Act Prohibiting the Practice of Hazing
The Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, amended Chapter 269 of the General Laws by adding the following three sections:
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.