Walk It Through: The Initiation
Hazing graded by injury, immunity for the first to call, and care by any individual.
A fraternal organization tells pledges that initiation means drinking a harmful amount, and the chapter's officers approve.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One fraternal initiation. The fines on organizations and institutions, school policies, and the grades for bodily injury and death in detail are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Emergency careCare any individual, including a licensed health professional or a volunteer first aid or rescue squad member, renders in good faith at the scene of an accident or emergency, or while transporting the victim to a place of treatment. The individual is not liable for any civil damages from acts or omissions in rendering it.
- Degree of crimeHow the code grades a crime, from first degree down to fourth. A crime of the third degree carries between three years and five years and a fine up to $15,000.00.
- Disorderly persons offenseThe grade below the crimes, punishable by not more than 6 months and a fine up to $1,000.00.
- First callerA person, and anyone acting with them, who was the first to call for medical help for someone hurt by hazing, gave their name, and stayed with the person until help arrived, cooperating on the scene. That person is immune from prosecution for hazing.
- HazingKnowingly or recklessly, in connection with initiation into a student or fraternal organization, causing another to break the law or consume a harmful substance, or subjecting them to physical, mental, emotional or sexual abuse, or to any other activity reasonably likely to cause bodily injury.