The Gorham-Middlesex Central School District is committed to preventing harassment,bullying, and discrimination in all its forms, including hazing. Where appropriate, the District will make use of some or all of the following strategies and training classes to prevent the harassment, bullying, and discrimination of its students:

1)     Publicize  rules against  harassment,  bullying,  and  discrimination,  and  post them school­ wide, accompanied by a range of possible sanctions.(Note: Sanctions for such acts are also to be addressed in the District Code of Conduct.)

2)     Use student and adult mentors to assist victims and individuals who engage in harassment, bullying, and/or discrimination, thereby building self-esteem and fostering mutual understanding of and appreciation for differences in others.

3)     Develop a buddy system that pairs students  with a particular friend or older buddy with whom they share class schedule information and plans for the school day and on whom they can depend for help.

4)      Provide an on-campus parents' center that recruits,coordinates and encourages parents to take part in  the educational  process,  to volunteer  and  to assist in school  activities  and projects.

5)     Add   adult   classes   in  parenting   skills   and   student   classes   in   anger   management, assertiveness training and behavior modification training.

6)     Disseminate the District Code of Conduct to teachers, students and parents as mandated by law and regulation.

7)      Emphasize  remedial  actions  that stress  appropriate  behavior  instead  of  reprimands  that focus on punishing wrong behavior.

8)    Build friendship groups that support children who are regularly harassed, bullied, or discriminated against by peers.

9)     Create  peer  mediation  programs  and teen  courts  to train  students  to mediate  problems among themselves.

10)   Make available conflict and dispute resolution curricula, in an age-appropriate manner, at designated grade levels.

11)   Increase staff supervision  in areas such as hallways, cafeterias,  playgrounds  and athletic playing fields, locker rooms, buses, as well as at school sponsored events - whether on or off campus in order to reduce the opportunity for bullying behavior by students.

12)   Involve school counselors or mental-health professionals where appropriate.

13)   Involve  community   members   in  the  District's   anti-bullying   activities  (e.g.,  convene meetings  with  leaders  of  the  community  to  discuss  the  School  District's  anti-bullying program, involve media to help publicize the District's anti-bullying prevention and intervention activities, and engage community members as appropriate in the development of school-community activities to promote anti-bullying behavior).