AC -Appendix to Policy
Responsibilities of School Personnel and Students
In Relation to Witnessed or Reported Bias Incidents
1) All Personnel and Students
- Report bias incidents and civil rights violations to school civil rights administrators.
- Be familiar with basic facts about hate and hate crimes, so as to be able to identify bias incidents and have an understanding of the dynamics.
- Challenge biased attitudes and behavior whenever encountered in school and outside.
- Report hate crimes to police, and summon help in an emergency.
- Uphold school civil rights and safety policies and remain vigilant and alert for violations.
- Take responsibility so as to make a difference in stopping hate conduct, finding and creating individual and group opportunities for action and involvement.
2) Teachers Only
- Set guidelines for classroom behavior to avoid hurt feelings and promote respect.
- Respond to and challenge insensitive behaviors like name calling and exclusion of children who are different.
- Instruct against hate and prejudice, where this message is apropos to classroom subjects and lessons.
- Look for and help implement proactive programs and strategies to promote tolerance and stop hate conduct.
3) School Staff Specifically
- Challenge and try to stop bias incidents when witnessed or encountered in progress, if a safe opportunity is presented.
4) Civil Rights Designees Specifically
- Be available to receive reports of civil rights violations from students, faculty, and other administrators.
- Respond promptly to a report of a civil rights violating by intervening if possible, ensuring that students are safe and free from harassment, and by starting an investigation and quickly ascertaining the facts.
- Put a stop to ongoing harassment immediately and effectively, and refer victims to support services and resources available in the area.
- Take remedial, corrective, and disciplinary action as the circumstances established by the investigation, school policies, and the Code of Conduct, warrant.
- Take steps to avert retaliation against students who report civil rights violations, and act immediately to ensure student safety and freedom from harassment.
- Communicate and coordinate efforts with police on a regular, ongoing basis, and develop a working partnership with police officers assigned to schools and civil rights issues.
- Undergo specialized training to maintain knowledge of hate crimes and civil rights issues as they affect schools.
- Coordinate school prevention programming and activities, drawing on available resources and tools.
Federal and Massachusetts Laws bearing on harassment and bias crimes in school settings
- Title VI.42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000 et seq. (prohibition of discrimination based on race, color, or national origin)
- Title IX, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 168 et seq. (prohibition of discrimination based on sex or blindness)
- Title II of the American with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 12134 (prohibition of discrimination based on disability)
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 29 U.S.C. Sec. 794
- G.L.c.71, Sec. 27H (student handbooks required to state disciplinary measures applicable to “violations of other students’ civil rights”)
- G.L.c.76, Sec. 5 (prohibition of discrimination “on account of race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national original or sexual orientation”, in access to “advantages, privileges and course of study of ([local] public schools”).
- G.L.c.151C (Fair Education Practices Act, includes prohibition of sexual harassment)
- G.L.c.214, Sec. 1B (right of privacy)
- G.L.c.214, Sec. 1C (right of freedom from sexual harassment)
- G.L.c.12, Sec. 11H and 11I (prohibition of threats, intimidation, or coercion interfering with someone’s legal rights)
- G.L.c.265, Sec. 37 (criminal penalties for the use of force or threats to interfere with someone’s legal rights)
- G.L.c.265, Sec. 39 (increasing penalties for assaults, batteries, and property damage motivated by bias on grounds of race, color, religion, national original, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability)
- G.L.c.266, Sec. 127A (criminal penalties for vandalism of a school)
School Committee Policies
- A - Foundations and Basic Commitments
- B - School Board Governance and Operations
- C - General School Administration
- D - Fiscal Management
- E - Support Services
- F - Facilities Development
- G - Personnel
- H - Negotiations
- I - Instructional Program
- J - Students
- K - School-Community Relations
- L - Education Agency Relations