Anti-Bullying Policy

ANTI BULLYING Policy
Lakewood Elementary
Friends 2
policy statement

At Lakewood Elementary School, we believe that all students have a right to a safe and healthy school environment. Lakewood Elementary School recognizes that bullying is an inappropriate behavior that has destructive and negative effects on individual students and on the overall climate of a school. LES has an obligation to promote mutual respect, tolerance, and acceptance. LES will not tolerate behavior that infringes on the safety of any student.
At LES, students will be educated by staff in all grade levels to help them identify and respond to the dangers of bullying. Bullying is defined as a deliberately hurtful behavior that is repeated over a period of time and results in those being bullied not being able to defend themselves. Bullying may take the form of unwelcome verbal, written or physical conduct directed at a student by another student(s) that has the intent and effect of harm either directly or indirectly. There are five types of bullying recognized in this policy.

  • Relational bullying, sometimes referred to as “social” or “psychological bullying. This takes the form of disrupting another student’s peer relationships through gossiping, whispering and spreading rumors. It also includes turning your back on them, giving them the silent treatment, and/or leaving them out.
  • Cyber-bullying, sometimes referred to as social bullying, is often indirect; students communicate negative representations of the target to third parties, often through social network sites, instant messaging, texting, chat rooms, posting on web pages, or blogs.
  • Verbal bullying such as threatening, taunting, intimidating, insulting, sarcasm, teasing, ridiculing, making faces, rolling eyes, and other gestures.
  • Physical bullying includes both the person (such as hitting, pushing, shoving, kicking, pinching, holding a person down) and their possessions (through extorting money, stealing or causing damage to possessions).
  • Sexual bullying, sometimes referred to as sexual harassment, which includes unwanted sexual attention and comments, gender-demeaning remarks and jokes, using sexually offensive names, circulating pornography, touching the private parts of another student’s body, molestation, assault, and rape.


PROCEDURES
Step 1:  Reporting:
  • Report bullying incidents to staff verbally if less severe
  • In cases of serious bullying, school administrators will document the bullying incident using the Lakewood Bullying Form.
  • In serious cases parents should be informed and will be asked to come in to a meeting to discuss  the problem
  • If necessary and appropriate, police will be consulted in extreme cases


Step 2:  Investigation(s):
  • Interview the alleged bully victim
  • Interview witnesses
  • Interview alleged bully
  • Any additional research determined necessary
Step 3:  Results of Investigation(s):
  • Report may be classified as bullying based on definition. In this case, the bully and bullied will be taken through our Bully Intervention Program.
  • Report may not be classified as bullying based on definition. In this case, the issue will be dealt with as determined by appropriate school policies.

Step 4:  Response:
  • Student accused of bullying will be notified
  • Student being bullied will be notified
  • Parents of both the accused bully and the bully victim will be contacted  to have the policy and procedure reviewed with them
  • Person reporting will follow confidentiality guidelines while working through the process
Step 5:  Resolution:
  • Staff must be notified again if bullying continues or escalates
  • If there are no NEW notifications it will be understood that the interventions worked

INTERVENTIONS FOR THE BULLY

Due to the severity of bullying incidents some tiers may be skipped to further tier interventions
Tier 1: (Depending on the situation one or all interventions may be included)
  • Restitution/Restoration
  • Temporary removal from the classroom
  • Loss of privileges
  • Student conference
  • Verbal/written warning
  • Ensuring that the student who is bullying and the student being bullied are physically separated, particularly during unstructured times such as lifetime and lunch
  • Review and sign bullying policy
  • Teacher (Team/Related Arts) notification
  • Parent contact (if warranted)



Tier 2: (Depending on the situation one or all interventions may be included)
  • Mandatory parent conference
  • Behavior goal setting and daily check in with a school administrator
  • Counseling sessions with school counselor
  • Peer mediation session
  • Behavior Contract
  • After school detention
  • In-school suspension
  • Out-of-school suspension
Tier 3: (Depending on the situation one or all interventions may be included)
  • Additional in-school counseling and/or  other school district interventions will be implemented as appropriate
   
INTERVENTIONS FOR THE BULLYING VICTIM

Due to the severity of bullying incidents some tiers may be skipped to further tier interventions
Tier 1: (Depending on the situation one or all interventions may be included)
  • Student conference with administrator and/or school counselor
  • Teacher (Team/Related Arts) notification
  • Parent contact (if warranted)

Tier 2: (Depending on the situation one or all interventions may be included)
  • Counseling sessions with school counselor
  • Peer mediation session
  • Parent conference
Tier 3: (Depending on the situation one or all interventions may be included)
  • Additional in-school counseling and/or  other school district interventions will be implemented as appropriate

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