Greater Boston is home to some of America's finest universities including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University. Although all these institutions have stellar reputations, they are not immune to issues of hazing and the harm that comes with it. Hazing is against the law in Massachusetts, and every Greater Boston area university bans the practice. Students found to have committed hazing face stiff discipline, including expulsion.
Are you a student in Greater Boston involved in a hazing investigation? Universities and schools in Greater Boston are legally obligated to take active steps to prevent hazing. This includes investigating hazing allegations and disciplining students who violate their school or university's anti-hazing policy. This discipline could ruin your academic career and reputation. Take hazing investigations seriously. Call the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team at 888-535-3686 or contact us online today.
Massachusetts Anti-Hazing Law
It's not uncommon to see hazing depicted as a harmless rite of passage that many students endure as a condition of joining a school or university organization. Although fraternities and sororities have been most commonly associated with hazing in popular culture, other school groups like sports teams and extra-curricular clubs have also been known to haze prospective members.
Hazing may have originally been rooted in “good old fashioned fun” but there have been numerous highly publicized incidents where extreme hazing resulted in severe harm, or even death, for innocent victims. These incidents motivated Massachusetts lawmakers to pass a statewide anti-hazing law that applies to every school or university in Greater Boston.
Section 17 of Massachusetts General Law defines hazing 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.” It also eliminates the prior consent of the victim(s) of hazing as a potential legal defense against hazing charges.
Some examples of behavior that could be construed as hazing include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Corporal punishment
- Forced exposure to the elements
- Forced participation in exercise or physical activities of an extreme nature (e.g., running until you throw up)
- Forcing people to eat or drink to the extreme
- Forcing people to consume alcohol or drugs
- Sleep deprivation or denial of other basic life necessities
- Prolonged isolation
The criminal penalty for hazing is up to 12 months in jail and/or a fine of up to $3,000. Massachusetts' anti-hazing law also has a reporting requirement. It punishes anyone who fails to report hazing to their local authorities with a fine of up to $1,000.
How Massachusetts' Hazing Law Affects Schools and Universities in Greater Boston
The legal prohibition against hazing is only one part of Massachusetts' anti-hazing legislation. Section 19 of the Massachusetts hazing law creates several requirements for the state's universities and secondary schools. The law recognizes the historical reality that the popularity of university-affiliated groups and organizations can create environments where hazing becomes a common practice for prospective group members or participants.
That's why Massachusetts law requires every college, university, and secondary school in Greater Boston to distribute a copy of the state's anti-hazing law 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.”
Additionally, every college or university in Greater Boston must provide all of its full-time students with a copy of Massachusetts' anti-hazing law before they enroll or during the enrollment process. The schools must also furnish a copy of this information to all full-time students at least once annually.
Anti-Hazing Policy and Disciplinary Procedures Required
Massachusetts expects its colleges and universities to be active participants in preventing hazing on their campuses. Every institution must create a disciplinary policy that also makes hazing a violation of the school's code of conduct. This policy must be spelled out in the university student handbook. That means you as a student are prohibited from organizing or participating in any hazing as a condition of enrollment.
It also means your university must set up a method for students to report suspected hazing incidents and a procedure to investigate those allegations. If, after conducting an investigation, your university finds hazing has occurred, it can and will dispense discipline under the guidelines in the student handbook. Students who commit hazing violations can face a range of disciplinary sanctions.
Potential Disciplinary Sanctions for Hazing Violations
As a student, you will be expected to conform to Massachusetts law by not engaging in or organizing hazing activities. Engagement also includes watching, meaning you can face discipline for hazing even if your involvement did not actively participate in the hazing. So, for example, if you attend an event with your organization where prospective members are hazed, there could be consequences even if you had no idea it was going to occur.
Potential sanctions for hazing can include one, or any combination of the following:
- Being ruled ineligible to participate in campus organizations, clubs, or teams
- Being formally reprimanded by the university administration
- Being placed on probation
- Being suspended from the university for a period determined by the administration
- Being expelled from the university
All of these potential punishments have other consequences beyond just the punishment itself. For example, if you are attending school on a partial scholarship for playing a sport or being a member of the school band, losing your eligibility to participate in those activities could affect your financial aid and prevent you from attending the university.
A suspension can delay your academic progress, and your readmission to the university may not be guaranteed. Failure to maintain your full-time student status could result in the acceleration of your student loans. Suspensions also reflect on your character as a student, meaning that any organization that awarded you a private scholarship or grant may rescind it because you no longer conform to that organization's standards.
An expulsion is the most severe punishment possible, but that still won't be the end of the potential consequences. When you try to apply to another university, their admissions office will request a copy of your transcripts and academic records. Having been expelled or suspended for hazing will likely lower your chances of admission.
That's also true about your chances of being accepted into graduate school or pursuing future employment opportunities. Openings at the best companies and graduate schools are limited and attract highly qualified candidates from all over the world. Being accepted or hired often comes down to fine margins and a history of hazing-related discipline will not help your chances.
All these potential outcomes illustrate why it's so important for you to take any hazing investigation seriously and protect yourself by contacting the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team. Your college or university's investigation and disciplinary process will go forward regardless of whether you think the allegations have no merit, or you truly believe you did nothing wrong. The potential consequences are too severe not to protect yourself with quality legal representation.
Potential Pitfalls with Hazing Investigations
Almost every hazing incident arises out of a student seeking to join a university-sanctioned organization, group, or team. In many cases, hazing incidents take place in the presence of multiple members of these groups, organizations, or teams. They may also involve alcohol consumption, which could negatively affect the memory of both the victim and the witnesses. If that weren't enough, you also have the possibility of a victim who suffered severe harm.
Add them all together and you end up with a highly charged emotional atmosphere and a university administration that must comply with Massachusetts' anti-hazing laws. You also have to consider that the standard for guilt in a university hazing investigation is often lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that applies in criminal cases. This is a recipe for a disciplinary process that is anything but fair and impartial.
The simple fact that you are a member of a group or organization can lead to you being targeted as a participant or even worse, an organizer of a hazing event. In extreme cases, the university may move to suspend the charter of the group or organization, meaning all of its members could be punished for the transgressions of just a few.
This is why it's not advisable to rely on anyone except your legal representative to protect your best interest in a hazing investigation. The Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team will prioritize your well-being and mount a strong defense of your academic reputation. We have decades of experience successfully defending students from hazing allegations in the Greater Boston Area and nationwide.
How Can the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team Help?
The Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team brings several significant benefits to the table for you in a hazing investigation. Most importantly, we offer skilled advocates with a deep understanding of university investigations and disciplinary processes. We know that university administration has a lower standard of guilt than what exists in criminal cases we handle your case accordingly.
Our priority will be to build the strongest possible defense for you. That starts with taking a fine-toothed comb to the evidence and allegations against you and looking at the totality of the case. We will assess the credibility of the witnesses against you and conduct our own investigation to determine whether their memories of the events are accurate.
Your mere presence at an event where an alleged hazing incident occurred doesn't mean you participated in it or even knew it was happening. We will do everything we can to ensure that you are not held responsible for the behavior of other members of your group or organization. That includes interviewing the witnesses to the event or searching for witnesses the university investigator didn't interview.
There may also be forensic evidence, such as cellphone or computer records, that conclusively establish you were not present. Our team can reach out to the relevant cellular and internet service providers to uncover these records. We can subpoena university records of previous hazing incidents and what kind of discipline has previously been meted out in cases like yours.
The university may have a lower standard for guilt or innocence than in a criminal trial, but that doesn't mean you have no due process rights in a hazing investigation. Our team will thoroughly review your university's disciplinary procedures and prevent a rush to judgment in your case. We will hold them to their standards and not allow outside considerations like media attention to become factors in deciding your case.
Exploring Alternatives and Handling Adverse Rulings
University administrators may not apprise you of all the potential options for settling your case. The attorneys on our Student Defense Team have experience fighting cases, but we also have experience working with university administrators to find a middle course that avoids harsh discipline. There may be other forms of corrective action that don't involve public sanctions or suspension.
We can also continue the fight for you even if the university decides to punish you for hazing. Regardless of what their student handbook says, you still have the right to pursue your case in the public courts if the university is unduly harsh or arbitrary in its verdict. We have experience in this arena, we can continue the fight for you in another forum if necessary. Our commitment to you never ends.
When to Contact the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team
We recommend contacting the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team immediately after discovering you are under investigation for hazing. The sooner we can begin working on your case, the better our chances of achieving a positive outcome in your case. It's also probably not in your best interest to respond directly to the investigation before consulting with us.
You don't want to run the risk of trying to explain your way out of one hazing incident and exposing yourself to other student discipline. Let us do the heavy lifting while you focus on your studies. Call the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team at 888-535-3686 or contact us online immediately if you are a college or university student in the Greater Boston area being investigated for hazing. We'll fight for you like family.
