Rhode Island Anti-Hazing Law

§ 11-21-1  Penalty for hazing.

(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.

(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.

§ 11-21-2  Penalty for school official permitting hazing.

Every person, being a teacher, superintendent, commandant, or other person in charge of any public, private, parochial, or military school, college or other educational institution, who shall knowingly permit any activity constituting hazing, as defined in § 11-21-1, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be fined not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than one hundred dollars ($100).

§ 11-21-3. Tattooing or permanent disfigurement.

Every person being a student, or being a person in attendance at any public, private, parochial, or military school, college, or other educational institution, who shall tattoo or knowingly and willfully permanently disfigure the body, limbs, or features of any fellow student or person attending the institution by the use of nitrate of silver or any like substance, or by any other means, shall be held guilty of a crime of the degree of mayhem, and shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned not exceeding ten (10) years nor less than one year.