Maintaining Safety in Your School
Key rights and responsibilities all educators have for school safety are outlined below.
Caution Advised
You are not required to place yourself in "any clear or imminent danger" to your safety.
You need to be alert to the possibility of weapons and use sound judgement to protect yourself and your students. If you learn that someone in or near your school may be in possession of a gun or other dangerous weapon, you should notify your principal or other administrator immediately so that the police can be called.
You should not investigate the presence of a gun or other weapon. Because of the risk to yourself and students, you should never attempt to take a weapon away from a student or outsider!
Expulsion Recommendation for Serious Safety Offenses
School board policy mandates an automatic expulsion recommendation for an assault, battery, and possession of a gun or other weapon.
These and other offenses are defined by the "MPS Code of School/Classroom Conduct and Discipline" in the Parent/Student Handbook on Rights, Responsibilities and Discipline. The district's definitions are:
Assault - "aggressive behavior exhibited in an attempt to do immediate bodily harm or to threaten to do immediate bodily harm to others, or to put others in fear of immediate bodily injury."
Battery - "unprovoked/unanswered intentional physical contact without consent causing bodily harm."
Gun - "Possessing, having under one's control, using, or threatening with a gun (pistol, BB, pellet, rifle, starter, replica, or toy gun).
Weapon Other Than a Gun - "Possessing, having under one's control, using, or threatening with a knife, razor, karate stick, metal knuckle, box cutter, laser pointer used to do bodily harm, pepper spray, or any other object that by the way it is used or intended to be used is capable of inflicting bodily harm."
Teacher Action Needed to Initiate Discipline Steps
If you are involved in an assault, battery, or weapon incident, your prompt action will start the expulsion recommendation process. You need to complete an "Incident Referral" or "72" form and recommend expulsion, per board policy.
Requirement to File an Assault Report
You must report an assault on the official MPS form. "Report of Assault Suffered by School Personnel" forms are available in every school. This report is for three "assault" situations:
- battery - actual physical contact,
- assault with intent to commit battery - a battery attempt that was prevented, and
- personal threat with the ability to carry it out.
In addition, you should review the ten steps to follow if you're assaulted . Do not hesitate to ask for your BR's help to make certain all appropriate steps are taken.
Immediate Removal for Assault or Battery
A student who threatens a teacher with bodily harm, attempts physical contact, or commits battery (intentional physical contact causing bodily harm) must be immediately removed from the teacher's classroom (or area). After removal, the student should be suspended and excluded from the school during the expulsion process.
Suspended Students Excluded From School
Suspended students are prohibited from attending class and other school activities, and are excluded from the school building.
They are to be under immediate administrative supervision until a parent arrives or until the end of the school day. The contract specifically states: "In all suspension cases, the suspended students shall be escorted out of the building."
If a suspended student refuses to leave school, the administration is to use assistance - other than teachers and educational assistants - to remove the student.
Student Remains Suspended During Expulsion Steps
After an expulsion recommendation is made, the decision to expel a student or take other disciplinary action is determined through a series of steps outside the school building. Until a resolution is reached, the student is suspended from school.
The statutory due process rights of the student must be upheld throughout the proceedings. Keep in mind that an offense for which an expulsion recommendation is mandated by board policy, may not result in expulsion. For example, MPS may decide to administratively transfer the student to another school.