(a)  Any organizer of, or participant in, an activity constituting hazing, as defined in subsection (b) of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars ($500), or punished by imprisonment for not less than thirty (30) days nor more than one year, or both.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 11-21-1

  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Hazing: as used in this chapter , 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. See Rhode Island General Laws 11-21-1
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6

(b)  “Hazing” as used in this chapter, 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. This conduct shall include, but not be limited to, whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug, or other substance, or any brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to adversely affect the physical health or safety of the student or any other person, or which subjects the student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation.

History of Section.
G.L. 1909, ch. 277, § 29; P.L. 1909, ch. 431, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 395, § 31; G.L. 1938, ch. 606, § 31; G.L. 1956, § 11-21-1; P.L. 1986, ch. 194, § 1; P.L. 1990, ch. 494, § 1.