FNCC(LEGAL) - STUDENT CONDUCT: PROHIBITED ORGANIZATIONS AND HAZING

Membership and Solicitation

Misdemeanor Offense

A person commits a Class C misdemeanor if the person:

  1. Is a member of, pledges to become a member of, joins, or solicits another person to join or pledge to become a member of a public school fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang; or
  2. Is not enrolled in a public school and solicits another person to attend a meeting of a public school fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang or a meeting at which membership in one of those groups is encouraged.

Education Code 37.121(a), (c)

Public School Fraternity, Sorority, Secret Society, or Gang

A "public school fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang" means an organization composed wholly or in part of students of public primary or secondary schools that seeks to perpetuate itself by taking in additional members from the students enrolled in school on the basis of the decision of its membership rather than on the free choice of a student in the school who is qualified by the rules of the school to fill the special aims of the organization. The term does not include an agency for public welfare, including Boy Scouts, Hi‑Y, Girl Reserves, DeMolay, Rainbow Girls, Pan-American Clubs, scholarship societies, or other similar educational organizations sponsored by state or national education authorities. Education Code 37.121(d)

DAEP Placement

A board or an educator shall recommend placing in a disciplinary alternative education program any student who commits the offenses described above. Education Code 37.121(b)

Felony Offense

A person commits a felony if the person, with intent to coerce, induce, or solicit a child to actively participate in the activities of a criminal street gang, threatens the child or a member of the child's family with imminent bodily injury or causes the child or a member of the child's family bodily injury. Penal Code 71.022

Personal Hazing Offense

A person commits an offense if the person:

  1. Engages in hazing.
  2. Solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid another in engaging in hazing.
  3. Has firsthand knowledge of the planning of a specific hazing incident involving a student in an educational institution, or firsthand knowledge that a specific hazing incident has occurred, and knowingly fails to report that knowledge in writing to a principal, superintendent, or designee.

Education Code 37.152(a)

Definitions

Hazing

"Hazing" means any intentional, knowing, or reckless act occurring on or off the campus of an educational institution, by one person alone or acting with others, directed against a student for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into, affiliating with, holding office in, or maintaining membership in any organization if the act:

  1. Is any type of physical brutality, such as whipping, beating, striking, branding, electronic shocking, placing of a harmful substance on the body, or similar activity;
  2. Involves sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements, confinement in a small space, calisthenics, or other similar activity that subjects the student to an unreasonable risk of harm or that adversely affects the mental or physical health or safety of the student;
  3. Involves consumption of a food, liquid, alcoholic beverage, liquor, drug, or other substance, other than as described by item 5, below, that subjects the student to an unreasonable risk of harm or that adversely affects the mental or physical health or safety of the student;
  4. Is any activity that induces, causes, or requires the student to perform a duty or task that involves a violation of the Penal Code; or
  5. Involves coercing, as defined by Penal Code 1.07, the student to consume:
    1. A drug; or
    2. An alcoholic beverage or liquor in an amount that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the student is intoxicated, as defined by Penal Code 49.01.

Education Code 37.151(6)

Educational Institution

"Educational institution" for purposes of this policy includes a public high school.

Student

"Student" means any person who:

  1. Is registered in or in attendance at an educational institution;
  2. Has been accepted for admission at the educational institution where the hazing incident occurs; or
  3. Intends to attend an educational institution during any of its regular sessions after a period of scheduled vacation.

Organization

"Organization" means a fraternity, sorority, association, corporation, order, society, corps, club, or student government, a band or musical group or an academic, athletic, cheerleading, or dance team, including any group or team that participates in National Collegiate Athletic Association competition, or a service, social, or similar group, whose members are primarily students.

Education Code 37.151

Information Regarding Gang-Free Zones

A superintendent shall ensure that the student handbook for each campus includes information on gang-free zones and the consequences of engaging in organized criminal activity within those zones. Education Code 37.110

Melissa ISD

FNCC(LEGAL)-P

UPDATE 114

DATE ISSUED: 10/28/2019