Dear Parents:
Page 24 of the Traverse City Area Public Schools
Secondary Handbook this year has a section entitled “Student
Policies & Procedures, Safe Schools & Code of Conduct.”
The first policy under this section is entitled “Bullying,
Taunting, Stalking, Hazing and Other Forms of Harassment including
Sexual Harassment” (Policy 5517). It states: “bullying,
taunting, stalking, hazing and other forms of harassment including
sexual harassment of students by other students or by any member
of the staff are contrary to the Board of Education’s commitment
to provide a physically and psychologically secure environment in
which to learn and may in circumstances be a violation of Federal
or State law. Bullying, taunting, stalking, hazing and other forms
of harassment including sexual harassment of students by other students
or by any member of the staff are strictly forbidden. Any student
found to have bullied, taunted, stalked, hazed, or harassed a student
in any form would be subject to discipline in accordance with the
District’s Policies and applicable law.
Bullying, taunting, hazing and other forms of harassment, are the
physical or verbal communication (written or oral) directed toward
a student or a student’s property or possessions in a single
incident or on repeated occasions.
‘Hazing’ is defined as an intentional, knowing, or
reckless act by a person acting alone or acting with others that
is directed against an individual and that the person knew or should
have known endangers the physical health or safety of the individual,
and that is done for the purpose of pledging, being initiated into,
affiliating with, participating in, holding office in, or maintaining
membership in any organization and includes:
Physical brutality, such as whipping, beating, striking, branding,
electronic shocking, place a harmful substance on the body, or similar
activity.
Physical activity, such as sleep deprivation, exposure to the elements,
confinement in a small space, or calisthenics, that subjects the
other person to an unreasonable risk of harm or that adversely affects
the physical health or safety of the individual.
Activity involving the consumption of a food, liquid, alcoholic
beverage, liquor, drug, or other substances that subjects the individual
to an unreasonable risk or that adversely affects the physical health
or safety of the individual.
Activity that induces, causes, or requires an individual to perform
a duty or task that involves the commission of a crime or an act
of hazing.
Activity that is normal and customary in an athletic, physical
education, military training, or similar program sanctioned by the
educational institution is excluded. A student who engages in or
participates in the hazing of an individual in violation of “Garret’s
Law” shall be subject to discipline from the school district
in addition to any criminal punishment.”
Each fall, certain activities that have been traditions for long
periods of time take place that could subject students to the threat
of being in an uncomfortable position physically, emotionally or
socially. Many of these activities have their roots in initiation
ceremonies of extra curricular activities including sports. Some
of these are outgrowths of long standing school traditions that
have never been sanctioned by the schools, such as the powder puff
football game. Activities such as the powder puff football game
where upperclassmen invite sophomores and juniors to an unsupervised
game of tackle football have in the past led to physical injuries.
Activities such as the assassin’s game, which takes place surreptitiously
in the community, also places students in the position where the
health and safety of participates and non-participates are at stake.
Even sponsored activities, such as Activity Night, need to be examined
in light of the mission and goals of the school and in relation
to this policy.
It has been my observation that over the past several years the
climate at Central High School has improved greatly in feeling of
acceptance and a lack of harassment and hazing as part of the school
culture. From time to time there is a resurgent in the feeling that
such activities are a rite of passage and part of the high school
experience. The National Institute of Health reports that 30% of
U.S. students in grades 6-10 are involved in moderate or frequently
bullying, both as bullies, as victims or both. The American Justice
Department says that other students will abuse one out of every
four kids in the nation in someway, mentally, verbally or physically.
I don’t believe for a second this is the way that things need
to be. We can rise above this. I ask for your support in helping
us channel student energies into those activities which are positive
and unifying, rather than those that promote either the dominance
of one group over another or those that promote the idea of stalking
and shooting at other human beings even if it is only with Nerf™
guns. The teen years are formative years. I’d like the foundation
to be as solid as possible, but most of all, I want to ensure that
our students are safe emotionally and physically.
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