2021 Georgia Code
Title 16 - Crimes and Offenses
Chapter 5 - Crimes Against the Person
Article 4 - Reckless Conduct
§ 16-5-61. Hazing

1. As used in this Code section, the term:
   1. "Haze" or "hazing" means to subject a student to an activity which endangers or is likely to endanger the physical health of a student or coerces the student through the use of social or physical pressure to consume any food, liquid, alcohol, drug, or other substance which subjects the student to a likely risk of vomiting, intoxication, or unconsciousness regardless of a student's willingness to participate in such activity.
   2. "School" means any unit of the University System of Georgia, any unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, or any private postsecondary school, college, or university in this state.
   3. "School organization" means any association, corporation, order, club, society, fraternity, sorority, athletic team, or a group living together which has students or alumni as its principal members, including local affiliate organizations.
   4. "Student" means any person enrolled or prospectively enrolled in a school in this state.
2. It shall be unlawful for any person to haze any student in connection with or as a condition or precondition of gaining acceptance, membership, office, or other status in a school organization.
3. Any person who violates this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature.

(Code 1981, §16-5-61, enacted by Ga. L. 1988, p. 694, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1690, § 1; Ga. L. 2021, p. 206, § 2/SB 85.)

The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, rewrote subsection (a).

- Establishment of school policies and mandatory reporting of hazing, § 20-1-30.

- Ga. L. 2021, p. 206, § 1/SB 85, not codified by the General Assembly, provided: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'Max Gruver Act.'"

- For comment, " 'Am I My Brother's Keeper?,': Reforming Criminal Hazing Laws Based on Assumption of Care," see 63 Emory L. J. 925 (2014).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Ministerial duty of school officials.

- O.C.G.A. § 16-5-61 did not transform the discretionary policing functions of school officials into a ministerial duty to enforce the hazing prohibition. Caldwell v. Griffin Spalding County Bd. of Educ., 232 Ga. App. 892, 503 S.E.2d 43 (1998).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

ALR.

- Tort liability of college, university, fraternity, or sorority for injury or death of member or prospective member by hazing or initiation activity, 68 A.L.R.4th 228.

Validity, construction, and application of "hazing" statutes, 30 A.L.R.5th 683.

Tort liability for hazing or initiation rituals associated with schools, colleges, or universities, 100 A.L.R.6th 365.