Policy Information | |
Series Regulations - Regulations | |
STRATEGIES TO PREVENT HARASSMENT, BULLYING AND DISCRIMINATION Policy # 7550R.1 |
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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).
Policy Cross References: » 7550R - DIGNITY FOR ALL STUDENTS Adoption Date: 9/1/2012 Regulations - Regulations |