720 ILCS 5/12C-50 – Hazing
This law makes it illegal to force someone to do something harmful in order to join a school group or organization.
This statute says that it is a crime to make a student or anyone else at a school do something that causes physical harm to join a club or group, even if that person agreed to do it. Serious harm or death from hazing leads to harsher punishment.
(a) A person commits hazing when they knowingly make a student or another person at a school, college, university, or other educational institution do something to join or be accepted into a group or organization connected to that school, if:
- The act is not approved or allowed by the school, and
- The act causes someone to be physically hurt.
(a-1) It is not a valid excuse that the person who was hazed agreed to or went along with the hazing.
(b) Sentence: Hazing is usually a Class A misdemeanor. But if the hazing causes death or serious physical injury, it becomes a Class 4 felony, which means a much more serious crime.
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