Bullying Defined
“Bullying” is defined as any intentional gesture or any intentional written, verbal, electronic, or physical act or threat that is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment for a student or staff member that a reasonable person, under the circumstances, knows or should know will have the effect of:
- harming a student or staff member, whether physically or mentally;
- damaging a student’s or staff member’s property;
- placing a student or staff member in reasonable fear of harm;
- placing a student or staff member in reasonable fear that the student’s or staff member’s property could be damaged.
“Cyberbullying” means bullying by use of any electronic communication device through means including, but not limited to, e-mail, instant messaging, text messages, blogs, mobile phones, pagers, online games, social media sites and other websites. The school district will educate all students about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response.
“School property” consists of buildings (i.e. classrooms, hallways, lunch rooms, restrooms, etc.) and the surrounding campus for which USD 207 is responsible.
“School vehicle” means any school bus, school van, other school vehicle,e or private vehicle used by school employees in the course of their duties to transport students or staff members to and from school and/or any school-sponsored activity or event.
“School-sponsored activity or event” means any activity, event, field trip, meeting, club, extracurricular activity, etc., which USD 207 employees supervise in the course of their employment duties.