A student must feel safe in an environment in order to maximize learning and parents/guardians expect the school and district to provide a safe environment for their children. We believe it is important to develop a process that supports the student, parent, teacher, and principal and considers the rights of all individuals in matters involving incidences of unacceptable behavior. Solving problems or conflict is a life-long skill and those which involve people should be solved without hurting another individual. We believe in respect and that every person has this right to be heard. In addition, we believe a healthy environment can only occur when individuals, students, parents/guardians, teachers, and the principal place a high priority on being responsible for their behavior.
There are two components to a quality discipline plan, prevention and intervention. Prevention includes understanding behaviors that are unacceptable, teaching students how to solve problems constructively, providing appropriate supervision, and communicating/working with parents/guardians as a team. Intervention occurs when inappropriate behavior has occurred and includes the following steps:
- Identifying the behavior, its intent, and severity.
- Identifying the victim and perpetrator and listening to what has occurred. If the stories conflict, other witnesses will be brought in to determine what has occurred.
- If the behavior is deemed to be non-violent, the student will be disciplined within the school structure, time-out, prinicpal’s office, or in-house suspension and behavior notice.
- If the behavior is deemed to be potentially violent, the student will be sent to the office for further review.
- If a behavior is determined to be violent, the student may receive a in-school or out-of-school suspension from the principal for the next agreed upon regular school day and parent/guardian receives a phone call and behavior form.
- A behavior form will be completed by the adult who was supervising at the time of the incident and reviewed by the principal for final discipline action.
- The behavior notice will be sent to the parent/guardian of the perpetrator and if involving another student, their parent/guardian as well (with the perpetrator’s name removed) describing the incident, conclusion, and discipline.
