Policy 542 - Student Supervision by Staff
Adopted on June 18, 2019
Effective July 1, 2019
Staff shall maintain a standard of care for the supervision, control, and protection of students commensurate with their certification, classification, assigned duties and/or responsibilities and are expected to establish and maintain professional staff/student boundaries that are consistent with their legal, professional and ethical duties of care for students.
The Superintendent shall maintain and enforce the following standards:
A. A staff member who transports students in a private vehicle shall do so in accordance with Policy 360.
B. A staff member shall report to a building administrator any accident, safety hazard, or other potentially harmful condition or situation s/he detects in a reasonably prompt manner.
C. A staff member shall provide proper instruction in safety matters as presented in assigned course guides.
D. Each staff member shall immediately report to a building administrator knowledge of threats of violence by students in a reasonably prompt manner.
E. A staff member shall not send students on any personal errands for the benefit of the staff member or other school employees.
F. A staff member shall not associate or fraternize with students at any time in any manner that may give the appearance of impropriety, including, but not limited to, the creation of, instigation, encouragement of, or participation in any situation or activity that could reasonably be considered abusive or sexually suggestive or involve harmful substances such as illegal drugs, alcohol or tobacco. Any romantic, sexual or other inappropriate conduct, including mere communication of such nature, with a student by any staff member will subject the offender to disciplinary action by the Board, up to and including termination of employment.
G. If a student approaches a staff member to seek advice or to ask questions regarding a personal problem related to sexual behavior, substance abuse, mental or physical health, and/or family relationships, etc., the staff member may attempt to assist the student by facilitating contact with certified or licensed individuals in the County or community who specialize in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of the student's stated problem. However, under no circumstances should a staff member attempt, unless properly licensed and authorized to do so, to assess, diagnose, or treat the student's problem or behavior, nor should such staff member inappropriately disclose personally identifiable information concerning the student to third persons unless specifically authorized to do so by law. A report of the staff member's actions with regard to the student shall be made to the school principal or other appropriate supervisory person no later than the end of the following school day.
H. A student shall not be required to perform work or services that may be detrimental to his/her health.
I. Staff members are strongly discouraged from engaging students on interactive and/or social media sites, apps, and services, except those that are explicitly sanctioned by the Board for use in the conduct of regular school business.
J. Staff members are prohibited from electronically transmitting any personally identifiable image of a student(s), including video, photographs, streaming video, etc. via email, text message, or through the use of social media and/or online networking media, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Skype, blogs, etc., unless such transmission has been made in connection with a pre-approved curricular matter or co-curricular/extracurricular event or activity such as a school-sponsored publication.
K. A service personnel staff member who witnesses a potential violation of the Student Code of Conduct shall report such conduct to a professional staff member and shall not intervene him / herself unless such conduct poses an imminent threat of physical or emotional injury, damage to property, or compromises the safety of students, staff, or others.
A staff member who has reasonable cause to suspect that a student is neglected or abused or observes the student being subjected to conditions that are likely to result in abuse or neglect, shall immediately, and not more than forty-eight (48) hours after suspecting this abuse, report the circumstances or cause a report to be made to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
This page accessed on May 6, 2024 @ 6:43 am.