Two locker rooms, two victims, and a criminal statute that had proved no obstacle to either. That is the record Rhode Island lawmakers set out to answer this year, and on June 18 Governor Dan McKee signed the answer into law.
H7003, sponsored by Rep. Joseph M. McNamara, the Warwick Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Education, and co-sponsored by Sen. Matthew L. LaMountain, directs the Rhode Island Department of Education to establish a statewide anti-hazing policy for student athletics, in collaboration with the Rhode Island Interscholastic League. The policy must set a zero-tolerance standard. Every student who participates in interscholastic sports will be required to sign a statement acknowledging the rules and the consequences for breaking them.
Those consequences are not confined to the individual. Under the law, a student found to have hazed can be suspended from a team — and the team's entire season can be canceled. The bill also specifies that a victim's consent to an act of hazing is not a valid defense, a clause aimed squarely at the group dynamics that let such conduct pass as ritual.
Local sponsorWorld-class website design at a small business priceCompany 50Rhode Island was not without a hazing law before this one. General Law § 11-21-1 has long made organizing or participating in hazing a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500, imprisonment of not less than 30 days nor more than one year, or both. What the state lacked, McNamara has maintained, was any coordinated policy for the schools themselves — a framework for defining hazing, investigating complaints, and imposing consistent discipline. The Safe School Act covers bullying; nothing covered athletics.
The gap became a matter of public record last fall. On September 29, 2025, according to the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, five Smithfield High School seniors, all football players, held a freshman teammate in a locker room bathroom and sprayed him with Lysol while shouting racial slurs. The students' attorney denied any racist intent, describing the episode as locker-room antics; the victim's family has stood by its account. The seniors were suspended, then reinstated on appeal.
Weeks later, on October 17, an assault at Rogers High School in Newport — recorded on cellphones in the boys' locker room — led to the arrest of four students, all members of the football team. School officials ended the season. An independent review completed in February documented what it called a "large cultural gap" and "serious systemic failures" in student safety, staff awareness, and administrative oversight; the principal was placed on administrative leave.
Attorney General Peter F. Neronha concluded an investigation into Smithfield Public Schools on April 16, finding multiple failures in how the district handled the incident and the months that followed. Under an agreement with his office, the district committed to a five-part resolution, including revising its policies against harassment and bullying and training staff to enforce them.
Against that backdrop, McNamara pre-filed his bill on December 2, 2025. "There are some traditions and rituals that may have been acceptable in the past that are no longer acceptable under any circumstances," he said. At the March 3 committee hearing, no one testified in opposition. The Rhode Island School Superintendents Association registered strong support. The House passed the measure 63-1 on April 9; the Senate followed on June 9.
What remains unwritten is the policy itself. The law hands the definition of hazing and the details of enforcement to RIDE and the Interscholastic League, and the statute carries no published deadline for that work. RIDE spokesperson Victor Morente said the department "take[s] the safety and well-being of every school community member very seriously." The Interscholastic League said it "looks forward to continuing to work collaboratively" to make clear that hazing is unacceptable.
The fall sports season begins in weeks. Whether the guidance schools are meant to enforce will exist by then is, for now, the open question the law leaves behind.