The Amherst Public Schools, Pelham Elementary School, and the Amherst-Pelham Regional Schools will not tolerate hazing nor allow any hazing activities to take place in any school building or on school grounds or at any school-sponsored event regardless of location. No school organization shall engage in the activity of hazing a student while on or off school property. No organization that uses the facilities or grounds of the School Districts shall condone or engage in the activity of hazing any person while on school property.
Hazing is defined in Massachusetts General Law Chapter 269, Section 17 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. 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. Not withstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary, consent shall not be available as a defense to any prosecution under this action.”
Participating in or the organizing of hazing will be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including suspension and expulsion for students.
The School Districts shall be in full compliance with Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 269, Sections 17-19, and the regulations pertaining to the act prohibiting the Practice of Hazing issued by the State Board of Education.
LEGAL REF:
MGL 269:17 , 269:18 , 269:19 Board of Education 603 CMR 33.00