Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 36A (2026)

Sporting events; penalty for abuse of participants and officials

✓ current as of July 2026

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Section 36A. Whoever, having arrived at the age of sixteen years, directs any profane, obscene or impure language or slanderous statement at a participant or an official in a sporting event, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 2 cases, 2005–2009 · leading case: Goddard v. Kelley, 629 F. Supp. 2d 115 (D. Mass. 2009).

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Goddard v. Kelley, 629 F. Supp. 2d 115 (D. Mass. 2009). · cites it 2× “Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 272, § 36A provides: Whoever, having arrived at the age of sixteen years, directs any profane, obscene or impure language or slanderous statement at a participant or an official in a sporting event, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars.”

Commonwealth v. Kneram, 826 N.E.2d 733 (Mass. App. Ct. 2005). “Even within c. 138, the Legislature specifically narrowed the class of offenders identified as “whoever” or “any person” by inserting modifiers after those terms.”

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