Bullying (All Grade Levels)
The district strives to prevent bullying, in accordance with the district’s policies, by promoting a positive school culture; building healthy relationships between students and staff; encouraging reporting of bullying incidents, including anonymous reporting; and investigating and addressing reported bullying incidents.
Bullying is defined in state law as a single significant act or a pattern of acts by one or more students directed at another student that exploits an imbalance of power and involves engaging in written or verbal expression, expression through electronic means, or physical conduct that:
- Has the effect or will have the effect of physically harming a student, damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student’s person or of damage to the student’s property
- Is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive enough that the action or threat creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student
- Materially and substantially disrupts the educational process or the orderly operation of a classroom or school
- Infringes on the rights of the victim at school
Bullying includes cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is defined in state law as bullying that is done using any electronic communication device, including:
- A cellular or other type of telephone
- A computer
- A camera
- Electronic mail
- Instant messaging
- Text messaging
- A social media application
- An internet website
- Any other internet-based communication tool
Bullying is prohibited by the district and could include:
- Hazing
- Threats
- Taunting
- Teasing
- Confinement
- Assault
- Demands for money
- Destruction of property
- Theft of valued possessions
- Name-calling
- Rumor-spreading
- Ostracism
The district will integrate into instruction research-based content designed to reduce bullying that is appropriate for students’ age groups.
Students in secondary grades will participate in:
- Instruction on the brain’s ability to change and grow so the student recognizes bullying behavior can come from a developmental need to acquire more social skills, can change when the brain matures and learns better ways of coping, and is not an unchangeable trait
- Discussions that portray bullying as undesirable behavior and a means for attaining or maintaining social status at school, and that discourage students from using bullying as a tool for social status
- Instruction designed so that students recognize the role that reporting bullying behaviors plays in promoting a safe school community
The district will use an age-appropriate survey regarding school culture that includes relevant questions on bullying to identify and address student concerns.
Each campus has a committee that addresses bullying by focusing on prevention efforts and health and wellness initiatives. The committee will include parents and secondary students. For more information on this committee, including interest in serving on the committee, contact Skylar Stagner, White Oak High School Principal.
If a student believes that he or she has experienced bullying or witnesses the bullying of another student, the student or parent should notify a teacher, school counselor, principal, or another district employee as soon as possible. Any district employee aware of a report of a bullying incident will relay the report to an appropriate administrator. Procedures for reporting allegations of bullying may be found on the district’s website.
A student may anonymously report an alleged incident of bullying by notifying a teacher, school counselor, principal, or another district employee as soon as possible to obtain assistance and intervention.
The administration will investigate any allegations of bullying and related misconduct. The district will also provide notice to the parent of the alleged victim and the parent of the student alleged to have engaged in bullying.
If an investigation determines that bullying occurred, the administration will take appropriate disciplinary action and may, in certain circumstances, notify law enforcement. Disciplinary or other action may be taken even if the conduct did not rise to the level of bullying.
The district will provide research-based interventions, which may include counseling options, for students who engage in bullying behaviors, students who are targeted by bullying behaviors, and any student who witnessed bullying behaviors.
Any action taken in response to bullying will comply with state and federal law regarding students with disabilities.
Any retaliation against a student who reports an incident of bullying is prohibited.
Upon recommendation of the administration, the board may transfer a student found to have engaged in bullying to another classroom at the campus. In consultation with the student’s parent, the board may transfer the student to another campus in the district.
The parent of a student who has been determined to be a victim of bullying may request that the student be transferred to another classroom or campus within the district. [See Safety Transfers/Assignments]
A copy of the district’s bullying policy is available in the principal’s office, superintendent’s office, and on the district’s website, and is included at the end of this handbook as an appendix.
A student or parent who is dissatisfied with the outcome of an investigation may appeal through policy FNG(LOCAL).