School District 84
Vancouver Island West

Policy

STUDENT CONDUCT, DISCIPLINE & SUSPENSIONS
(Compiled From the SD 84 Policy Manual)

No. E.33

STUDENT CONDUCT

Adopted: 97-03-10
Reviewed: 02-09-09

Policy
The Board of School Trustees is committed to operating all schools in such a manner as to give confidence to all parents and guardians that the best and highest expectations of. our society will be pursued. It is also essential that such expectations are seen to be pursued. It is the moral and ethical obligation of the Board of School Trustees to provide the educational conditions that respect and advance the best interests of all students. That goal requires an unrelenting determination to the maintaining of a school climate that encourages learning and socially responsible behaviour.

Regulation
Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner, which respects and improves, that which is best for the learning and social needs of all students. To that end students will be expected to support, by word and deed, the student conduct code in the school. At each school, such a student conduct code will be developed and reviewed by means of a well-defined consultative panel. The consultative panel will include representatives of identifiable groups. The identifiable groups will be students, parents, community members, and educators, with power to add representatives from other community domains, such as the legal, health, recreational or business. The student conduct codes developed by the student conduct panel at a school will be the standard for student conduct at the school. The Board of School Trustees will receive and review the student conduct codes developed at each school. The Board of School Trustees can request such student conduct codes to be revised by a resolution of the Board.

The code of conduct will be published and displayed in the school.

The student conduct panel will set guidelines for student conduct codes in any area which affect the learning and social well-being of students, including:

student behaviour, in classrooms and other school facilities;
social expectations at school sponsored activities;
student discipline;
exclusions of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes
prohibition of violence and sexual harassment;
standards for the use of school facilities
encouragement of conduct which improves the social conditions in each local
community; and,
ways and means for improving the learning opportunities of students.

Students who purposefully obstruct the expectations of the established student conduct code can be disciplined. Such discipline may include:

professional and peer counseling;
parental or guardian involvement;
community service; or,
suspension or expulsion.

No. E.24

STUDENT DISCIPLINE AND SUSPENSIONS

Adopted: 90-09-10
Amended: 97-04-14
Reviewed: 02-04-15

Policy
The school system has a responsibility to provide a safe environment and to encourage the development of self-discipline1 which assists young people to achieve fulfillment as individuals and as contributing, responsible members of society. The Board, therefore, expects students to conduct themselves in a manner that will demonstrate good citizenship and encourage good citizenship in others and allow an environment consistent with learning.

Regulation
The principal of a school is responsible for administering and supervising the school, including the general conduct of students, both on school premises and during activities that are off school premises, and that are organized or sponsored by the school, and shall, in accordance with the policies of the Board, exercise paramount authority within the school in mailers concerning the discipline of students." [School Act Regulations 5(7)].

All schools shall provide parents/guardians and students with clearly stated expectations of student behaviour and possible consequences of misbehaviour, including suspension, if applicable.

Where student suspensions are warranted, they will be employed not as isolated events, but rather as an integral part of the larger disciplinary process, the component parts of which will include:

previous intervention strategies;
ongoing and supportive communications with parents or guardians; appropriate
counseling/assistance to students;
effective follow-up and action plans upon students' return to school.

1) Breaches of School Discipline
Where student conduct is such as to warrant suspension, such suspensions shall be employed pursuant to Board Policy and the School Act, and shall be dealt with as follows:
Principals may suspend students for a period of up to and including 10 school days pending an interview with the parents or guardians in an effort to resolve the problem(s).

b) Contact will be made with parents or guardians prior to any students being sent home during the school day. Secondary students can be released from the school facility if parental or guardian contact cannot be made and the student is not likely to cause damage to self, others or property.

c) Students who are suspended from school as per Section (a) will be expected to carry on with their studies while they are under suspension. Toward that end, such students will be afforded opportunities to complete work / assignments at home. Such privileges, however, will not extend to students being permitted to rewrite /make up in class tests that might have been administered during their absence. Schools will have local policies as to how students can maintain a learning situation during suspensions.

d) Written notice/letter of suspension will be provided to parents or guardians at the earliest possible opportunity, such notice/letter to include the following:

term of suspension, including commencement date and number of
days;

specific reason(s) for suspension, with. reference to breach of school
rule(s) and/or Board policy if applicable;

reference to relevant section(s) of the School Act and/or regulation
and Board policy;

identification of previous suspensions and number of suspensions;

request for a parental or guardian interview or alterative means of
communication; and,

proposed date and conditions of student re-entry.

A copy of such a notice / letter shall be filed with the Superintendent of Schools or designate.

e) uSuspensions in excess of ten school days may only be sanctioned by a resolution of the Board. A request from a school principal for such a suspension must be made immediately in writing to the Superintendent who shall bring a recommendation to the Board. The Board shall, as soon as practical, convene a meeting of the Board, of which notice of time and place has been served on the parents or guardian and student, to provide the parent or guardian and student with an opportunity to discuss with the Board the suspension or expulsion, as the case may be. Such a suspension hearing can be conducted with less than a quorum of the Board, with the approval of the Chairperson1 should not doing so would cause unreasonable delay in expediting the suspension.

f) AAny appeal of a suspension must be conducted according to the usual provisions of Board of School Trustees' meetings. An appeal will be granted only in the following conditions:

a quorum of the Board was not in attendance for the original suspension hearing; or,
the Board of School Trustees deems by resolution to reconsider the suspension.

2) Serious Offences

Students committing such actions as the use or possession of drugs or alcohol, setting off

false fire alarms, seriously physically or verbally assaulting or threatening other students or other persons, while under the jurisdiction of the school, shall be suspended by the school principal for a period of ten school days, and the parents or guardians immediately notified in writing of the circumstances.. No student so suspended shall be re-admitted until an interview S~5 held with the Superintendent of Schools or his designate. It is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to seek such an interview. In extenuating circumstances, the principal may recommend to the Superintendent a suspension of less than ten days.

Upon the occasion of a second such incident, the. student shall be immediately suspended and a recommendation made to the Board that the student be suspended for up to ten months or expelled.

Where the first offence is deemed by the principal to be particularly serious, such as the sale of drugs or alcohol by a student to other students, the student shall be immediately suspended and the request may be made to the Superintendent to recommend to the Board that the student be suspended for up to 180 calendar days or expelled.

3) Appeals of Suspensions of Ten Days or Less

Parents or guardians wishing to appeal a student suspension of up to and including ten days will be afforded the opportunity to make such an appeal to the principal of the school. If the matter cannot be resolved at the school level1 it may be referred to the Superintendent of Schools. If the matter cannot be resolved at the District level1 it may be referred to the Board of School Trustees, whose decision in all matters of appeal will be final and binding.

4) Distance Education Programs for Suspended Students

A suspension may specify as a condition for return to school that a student continue studies by enrollment in a Distance Education Program. The costs of such a program will be borne by the parents or guardian of the suspended student and reimbursed costs will only occur when proof of completion of the required program is provided. The Board will only assume the initial costs of the Distance Education Program on the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools.

No. E.41

STUDENT BULLYING and VIOLENCE

Adopted: 01-03-12

Policy
The Board of School Trustees has a responsibility to protect students tram all forms of bullying. Schools cannot fulfill the primary responsibility of education as defined by the School Act and Regulations if one or more students are susceptible to bullying. Bullying of students in any form is untenable in the public schools of Vancouver Island West School District 84.

Bullying is most easily recognizable as the unwelcome application of physical force to another person. Bullying also includes verbal threats, verbal demeaning of another individual with reference to race, sex, personal beliefs, or personal appearance. No form of bullying will be tolerated in the classroom, in school buildings or on school grounds.

The Board of School Trustees believes that bullying has always been inherently contrary to all the expectations of the curriculum and community standards as practical within school programs. Bullying is and will continue to be prohibited by all personnel in the service of the Board. Bullying will not be sanctioned to any degree or in any form by school personnel. It is the responsibility of school personnel to protect students from bullying and to take action to make effective such protection. It is the responsibility of parents or guardians of each student to take action to extinguish bullying behaviour in the child.

School personnel are responsible for the education of students and to provide a climate in the school that is compatible to such an educational experience. School personnel are not trained to correct all the psychological parameters and social factors that create bullying behaviour. School personnel will stop and identify bullying behaviour. School personnel will assist in any reasonable professional manner in eliminating bullying behaviour but the solution will be expected at the level of the parent and child. A student can be prohibited from attending the school after the parent has not managed to extinguish the bullying behavior. Reasonable professional cooperation and support of school personnel can be expected in that process. In the end1 the Board of School Trustees has a greater responsibility to the general student population than the individual student responsible for bullying behaviour.

Regulation

1) When bullying occurs, the following procedures will be practiced by the personnel at the school:

a) School personnel will do their best to immediately stop the bullying behaviour.

b) School personnel will describe to the individual committing the bullying behaviour the nature and characteristics of the unacceptable action.

c) The bullying incident will be described to the Principal, an investigation will be conducted and a suspension may be initiated.

d) The Principal will report the bullying incident to the parent, or guardian, and a suspension letter will always specify the conditions that will allow the return of .the student to the school. The Principal will also inform the parents of the victim of bullying.

e) The suspension will only be ended after the parent, or guardian,. has developed a plan in partnership with the Principal that will protect the student population from the individual who has been responsible for the bullying incident.

f) Repeated bullying by one individual will result i6 that individual being requested by the Superintendent to pursue his or her education at home or at another school.

2) A parent, or guardian, who does not agree with the application of the process described in this policy and regulation to a specific situation, can proceed to the appeal process as described in Appeals By-Law Number 2.

No. C.2

CONDUCT ON SCHOOL BUSES (STUDENT)

Adopted: 82-01-13

Amended: 87-06-09

Amended: 99-04-12

Amended: 01-05-14

Policy

The Board of School Trustees requires students to abide by the District Code of Conduct for Bus Pupils. Failure to abide by the District Code of Conduct for BusPupils will be dealt with by the school Principal, as would any other transgression of the School's Code of Conduct.

Regulation

District Code of Conduct for Bus Pupil

1) The bus driver shall have full authority over the bus and the pupils.

2) Pupils are required to remain properly seated during their entire journey on the bus.

3) Pupils are required to keep their personal possessions on the floor near their feet throughout their
journey.

4) Ice skates or similar sharp objects must be sheathed or boxed to eliminate the possibility of injury.

5) There shall be no eating or drinking on the bus without the expressed permission of the driver.

6) Pupils must not throw paper or other items out the bus windows. The bus must be left in a clean
and tidy condition.

7) Noise or activity that might distract the bus driver is prohibited.

8) Pupils must not open the bus windows without the permission of the driver.

9) Pupils must not1 at any Um6, lean out of the bus windows.

10) Any damage to the bus must be reported at once to the driver.

11) Pupils will not leave the bus until they have arriv6d at school, or their home or stopping place.

12) During winter weather, when roads are icy, students must keep off the roadway until the bus
comes to a complete stop.

13) It is a privilege for students to have use of the school bus. Students who have disrupted the
   normal or safe operation of the bus can be deprived of the use of the bus. The Principal will
   notify a parent or guardian of the loss of bus privileges after reasonable efforts have been
   made to have the student correct inappropriate behaviour on the bus, or when boarding or
   disembarking the bus.