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OJUSD Anti-discrimination, Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Policy

POLICY AGAINST DISCRIMINATION, HARRASSMENT, and INTIMIDATION:

The Board of Education desires to provide a safe school environment that allows all students equal access and opportunities in the district's academic and other educational support programs, services, and activities. The Board prohibits, at any district school or school activity, unlawful discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, intimidation, and bullying of any student based on the student's actual or perceived race, color, ancestry, national origin, nationality, ethnicity, ethnic group identification, immigration status, age, religion, marital or parental status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or gender expression or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. The Board also prohibits any form of retaliation against any individual who files or otherwise participates in the filing or investigation of a complaint or report regarding an incident of discrimination. Retaliation complaints shall be investigated and resolved in the same manner as a discrimination complaint. (BP 5145.3)

This shall apply to all acts related to school activity or to school attendance occurring within a district school. (Education Code 234.1)”

Students who engage in unlawful discrimination, including discriminatory harassment, intimidation, retaliation, or bullying in violation of the law, Board policy, or administrative regulation shall be subject to appropriate consequences or discipline, which may include suspension or expulsion for behavior that is severe or pervasive as defined in education Code 48900.4.

·         Complaints, Investigation, and Resolution: The Board encourages early and less formal resolution of complaints whenever possible. To resolve complaints which may require a more formal process, the Board adopts the uniform system of complaint processes specified in 5 CCR 4600-4670 which is contained the accompanying policy and administrative regulation. (LINK TO BP 1312.3-Uniform Complaint Procedures)

 

 

POLICY AGAINST BULLYING

No student or group of students shall, through physical, written, verbal, or other means, harass, sexually harass, threaten, intimidate, cyberbully, cause bodily injury to, or commit hate violence against any other student or school personnel under the jurisdiction of the school day or at school sponsored activities.

  • Bullying includes any severe or pervasive and ongoing act or conduct (physical or verbal), including communications made in writing or by means of an electronic act, as defined, including, but not limited to, sexual harassment, hate violence, or harassment, threats, or intimidation, that has the effect or can reasonably be predicted to have the effect of placing a reasonable pupil, as defined, in fear of harm to that pupil’s or those pupils’ person or property, causing a reasonable pupil to experience a substantially detrimental effect on his or her physical or mental health, causing a reasonable pupil to experience substantial interference with his or her academic performance, or causing a reasonable pupil to experience substantial interference with his or her ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or privileges provided by a school.
  • Cyberbullying includes the transmission of harassing communications, direct threats, or other harmful texts, sounds, or images on the Internet, social media, or other technologies using a telephone, computer, or any wireless communication device.  Cyberbullying also includes breaking into another person's electronic account and assuming that person's identity in order to damage that person's reputation. Students are required to accept and sign off assenting to the terms of the District’s Technology and Internet Use Agreement where students provide assurances that they will not engage in Cyberbullying.

Intervention

·         Students are encouraged to notify school staff when they are being bullied or suspect that another student is being victimized. 

·         School staff who witness bullying shall immediately intervene to stop the incident when it is safe to do so.  (Education Code 234.1)

·         Any student who engages in bullying on school premises, or off campus, within the school’s jurisdiction, in a manner that causes or is likely to cause a substantial disruption of a school activity or school attendance, shall be subject to discipline, which may include suspension or expulsion, in accordance with district policies and regulations.

Complaints and Investigation

  • Students may submit to a teacher or administrator a verbal or written complaint of conduct they consider to be bullying.  Complaints of bullying shall be investigated and resolved in accordance with site-level Due Process procedures or the Uniform Complaint procedures.
  • When a student is reported to be engaging in bullying off campus, the site administrator shall investigate and document the activity, then determine jurisdiction when identifying specific facts or circumstances that explain the impact or potential impact on school activity, school attendance, or the targeted student's educational performance.
  • When the circumstances involve cyberbullying, individuals with information about the activity shall be encouraged to save and print any electronic or digital messages sent to them that they feel constitute cyberbullying and to notify a teacher, the principal, or other employee so that the matter may be investigated.
  • If the student is using a social networking site or service that has terms of use that prohibit posting of harmful material, the site administration also may file a complaint with the Internet site or service to have the material removed.

·         To resolve complaints which may require a more formal process, the Board adopts the uniform system of complaint processes specified in 5 CCR 4600-4670 which is contained the accompanying policy and administrative regulation. (LINK TO BP 1312.3-Uniform Complaint Procedures)

 

 

POLICY AGAINST SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The OJUSD Board of Trustees will not tolerate sexual harassment and will make efforts to maintain schools free from sexual harassment. 

BOARD POLICY 5145.7, STUDENT SEXUAL HARASSMENT

1)      Prohibits sexual harassment of any student by any employee, student, or other person in, or from, the District.

2)      Expects students or staff to immediately report incidents of sexual harassment to a site administrator or to another District administrator.

3)      Each site administrator has the responsibility of maintaining an educational and work environment free of sexual harassment.

4)      Each sexual harassment complaint may be submitted under the district’s “Uniform Complaint Procedures” (LINK TO BP 1312.3-Uniform Complaint Procedures) and shall be promptly investigated in a way designed to respect the privacy of all parties concerned.  This responsibility includes discussing this policy with his/her students and employees and assuring them that they NEED NOT endure sexually insulting, degrading, or exploitative treatment or any other form of sexual harassment, including harassment because of sexual orientation.

What is Sexual Harassment:

“Sexual harassment” means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, visual or physical conduct of a sexual nature, made by someone from, or in, the work or educational setting under any of the following conditions:

1)      When submission to the conduct is explicitly or implicitly made a term or condition of an individual’s employment, academic status, or progress.

2)      When submission to, or rejection of, the conduct by the individual is used as the basis of academic decisions affecting the individual.

3)      When the conduct has the purpose or effect of having a negative impact upon the individual’s work or academic performance, or of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment.

4)      When submission to, or rejection of, the conduct by the individual is used as the basis for any decision affecting the individual regarding benefits and services, honors, programs or activities available at, or through, the educational institution.

Examples of Sexual Harassment:

Sexual harassment may occur as a pattern of degrading sexual speech or action ranging from verbal or physical annoyances or distractions to deliberate intimidations and frank threats or sexual demands.  Such conduct may constitute sexual harassment, regardless of an individual’s actual or perceived sexual orientation.

Forms of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to the following:

1)      Verbal Harassment – Derogatory comments, jokes, or slurs; graphic verbal abuse of a sexual nature; comments about an individual’s body/dress, sexual preferences or sexual conduct; sexually degrading words used to demean, label, or describe an individual; or, spreading sexual rumors.

2)      Physical Harassment – Unnecessary or offensive touching, or impeding or blocking movement.

3)      Visual Harassment – Derogatory or offensive posters, cards, cartoons, graffiti, drawings, or gestures; suggestive or obscene letters, notes, or invitations; the display in the educational environment of sexually suggestive objects or pictures. Observing unnecessary or offensive touching in the educational environment.

4)      Sexual Favors – Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, unwelcome sexual flirtations or propositions.

5)      Retaliation - The District prohibits retaliatory behavior against any complainant as a result of a negative response to sexual advances or the making of an informal or formal complaint alleging sexual harassment.

Consequences for Sexual Harassment:

Any student who engages in sexual harassment is subject to disciplinary action according to Board Policy 5145.7, the Student Conduct Code, and in accordance with the Education Code. Employees are subject to disciplinary action according to BP4119.11 and AR 4119.11, AR 4031 and in accordance with the Education Code.

GRIEVANCE (COMPLAINT) PROCEDURES (AR 5145.7)

1)      Any student who feels that he/she is being sexually harassed should immediately contact a school site or district administrator.

2)      Staff members who receive complaints of sexual harassment from students should refer such complaints to the site or other district administrator.

3)      If the site or district administrator is notified that an allegation of sexual harassment was not addressed to the complainant’s satisfaction, that administrator should provide the student and/or the student’s parent/guardian with a copy of the District’s sexual harassment policy and Uniform Complaint Procedures (LINK TO BP 1312.3-Uniform Complaint Procedures).

4)      Nothing in the District’s Uniform Complaint Procedures shall affect the right of the complainant to pursue the matter with any state or federal enforcement agency.

5)      The District prohibits retaliatory behavior against any complainant or any participant in the complaint process.

 

TITLE IX of the EDUCATION AMMENDMENTS OF 1972, as amended, (20 USC § 1681) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex (gender) in Federally-Assisted Education Programs: 45 CFR 86.

 

OJUSD Title IX Policy

 

TITLE IX Coordinator for student-To-Student Sexual Harassment:

·         The Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Services is the Title IX Coordinator for student-to-student sexual harassment and is designated by the District to receive and process complaints under this procedure.

TITLE IX Coordinator for Student Sexual Harassment Complaints Involving Employees of the District:

·         The Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources is the Title IX Coordinator for any student sexual harassment complaints involving employees of the District.

 

Uniform Complaint Procedures