BULLYING and HARASSMENT

Woodland Park School does not tolerate bullying and harassment, sexual or otherwise. The school’s overriding goal is for all students to look forward to coming here each day and for them to feel safe while they are at school.

Bullying is characterized by the following three (3) criteria:

 A) It is aggressive behavior or intentional harm doing.

B) It is carried out repeatedly and over time.

 C) It occurs within an interpersonal relationship characterized by an imbalance of power. (For example, one person is physically larger or stronger, or mentally quicker, or socially more powerful.)

Bullying and harassment have the purpose and effect of interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive atmosphere.

Parents and students are urged to bring concerns with bulling or harassment to the principal. If a student(s), parent(s), teacher(s), or playground supervisor(s) report(s) an incident to the principal, the principal immediately investigates it. If the complaint is substantiated, the principal does the following:

1. confronts the offending student or students with the charge.

2. explains what bullying and harassment are, what they look like, why they are

unacceptable, and what the consequences of continued bullying or harassment are.                      

3. calls the parents or has the offending student call his or her parents and explains

what they did and what the consequences if any will be.

4. oversees an apology from the offending student to the student who was bullied or

harassed.

The incident and follow-through are documented using a Conduct Report and are entered into our SASI database as Threat/Harass (THE) for future reference.

It has been our experience that 95% of the time, there is no repeated incident, and we get no further complaints. Upon occasion however, there will be repeated incidents. If this occurs, the same procedure is followed with the imposition of one or more of the following consequences depending on the severity of the complaint:

·        the student is removed from the setting in which the offense occurred (usually the playground or lunchroom)

·        a parent/student/principal/social worker conference is held

·        the student is placed in ISS for ½-2 days

·        the student is required to participate in a series of target social skills lessons administered by the social worker

·                 the student is suspended from school for 1-5 days

·        the student is given a “no interaction” order with the consequence of immediate suspension for violation