Statement of Purpose:
Port Guichon’s Code of Conduct is created to provide guiding principles of conduct for all students enrolled in the school district and is in accordance with Section 6 (1) (a) and (b) of the School Act, which states:
(1) A student must comply
(a) with the school rules authorized by the principal of the school or Provincial school attended by the student, and
(b) with the code of conduct and other rules and policies of the board or the Provincial school.
The Purpose of the Code of Conduct as referenced in Delta School District Policy #1131, Student Conduct and Discipline, is to:
- Provide and maintain a safe, caring, and orderly environment for students to develop to their full potential
- Ensure that the rights and responsibilities of individuals are appropriately balanced to uphold the collective well-being of all
- Communicate the expectations of student behaviour to all members of the school community.
Conduct Expectations
Acceptable Conduct supports a positive learning environment. It is expected that students will:
- Conduct themselves in an appropriate manner when going to and from school, within school, on school grounds, during extended school activities and on school buses
- Apply themselves to the best of their ability in all aspects of their education
- Attend school and classes regularly and punctually
- Be respectful of the thoughts, feelings and heritage of others
- Respect the rights and property of others
- Dress in a manner which reflects purpose and propriety
- Contribute positively to a safe, caring and orderly school
- Behave in an ethical and lawful manner
- Report to a responsible adult, incidents of threats, bullying, harassment, violence or intimidation
Unacceptable Conduct interferes with a positive learning environment. Some examples of unacceptable behaviours include:
- Interference with the learning of others
- Use of inappropriate or abusive language
- Threatening, harassing, intimidating, assaulting or bullying, in any way, any person within the school community including aggressive behaviours such as “cyber” hate messaging and websites created in the student’s home, in cyber cafes or other settings
- Possessing weapons or dangerous articles
- Possession, use, or distribution of illegal or restricted substances
- Theft of or damage to property
- Any efforts to cause harm or discriminate against* another person based on, but not limited to race, religion, gender, physical or intellectual disability, marital or family status, sexual orientation or age.
- Gang related behaviours
- Acts of retribution toward a person who has reported incidents
- At Port Guichon, we believe that before children can be expected to manage their choices, they, need to be taught the skills and then trained on how to behave. This includes:
- setting clear expectations for the behaviour of students
- communicating those expectations clearly
- training them and teaching them to make appropriate choices providing them with alternatives for the future
- holding each student accountable for his/her behaviour; applying consistent, fair and firm corrective action
- recognizing positive behaviour choices.Effective techniques and procedures for responding to a child’s behaviour depend on the child’s age and individual needs, and are adjusted where appropriate.We believe that discipline should be restorative and educative, rather than merely punitive. We also believe that discipline is not what you do when children misbehave, but what you do so that they don’t.
- PROCESS FOR HANDLING PROBLEMS
- For misdemeanor
- A supervising adult /teacher speaks with the child, and may record the infraction
- If the behaviour continues, infractions are documented, a behavior plan may be discussed to assist the child with alternative behaviours, and a reasonable consequence will be issued.
- If the behaviour continues, the infraction is documented, parents will be informed, and an Individual Behaviour Plan (IBP) will be developed with the student to analyze the problem behaviour, plan a goal and strategies to improve, including corrective action and positive feedback. This is signed by the student, parent, teacher and administrator.
Behaviour that is extremely unsafe or unsuitable will result in a more immediate disciplinary action, which will include a call to the parent. These behaviours include:
Disobedience, defiance or disrespect for a supervising adult
Aggressive/fighting behaviours; unkind actions
Willfully damaging school property
Depending on the severity of the infractions, corrective actions may include detentions, community service, letters of apology, impact think sheets, mindfulness exercises about school rules and the code of conduct, in-school suspensions, or 3-5 day suspensions. Parents will be notified. If the behaviour is criminal in nature, the police liaison officer will also be notified.
Again, we believe that consequences must be meaningful and age appropriate and relationships need to be restored, preserving the dignity of the children. We focus on the child’s learning. We do not support a zero tolerance policy (only in rare and necessary cases – i.e. weapons, drugs, threats). Rather, every incident will be assessed to determine what the student(s) may learn from his/her/their mistakes.
Response to Threatening behaviours
The school will be vigilant in dealing with threatening behaviours and will follow a district developed protocol to assess risk. Any threats to harm or injure students or staff, whether written, spoken or on the internet, and any high risk behaviours such as possession of weapons will be investigated by the school staff trained in evaluating risk. This may include interviewing students involved in the incidents in order to assess the levels of risk. Parents will be notified, as may school district personnel.
Students and parents are encouraged to report any information they have of threatening or bully behaviours. We can only help when we are aware of situations.
Consequences:
When determining consequences, and in compliance with Delta School District Procedure #1131.1, consideration is given to the maturity as well as the intellectual, social and emotional capacity of the student along with the severity and frequency of the misbehavior. Consequences should where appropriate, follow district procedures and will:
- Be thoughtful, consistent and fair
- Seek to prevent a recurrence of the offense
- Teach acceptable social behaviour rather than be merely punitive
And, where appropriate
- Provide means for restitution and restorative actions
- Involve the offender in determining a corrective plan of actionNotification
- Therefore, for breaches of the Code of Conduct, notification may occur as follows:
- It is understood that communication is essential to the home and school partnership. Notification will be given to the school’s community of the school’s Code of Conduct. As well, notice will be given to the parents and students within each school of the range of responses that schools may apply to breaches of the Code of Conduct including threat making behaviours.
- Parents of student in breach of the Code of Conduct
- Parents of student victim(s)
- School and District personnel – where appropriate
- Police and/or other agencies – where deemed appropriate or where required by law
- All parents of the school community – when deemed important to reassure members of the school community that school and district officials are aware of a serious situation or incident and are taking appropriate action to address it
- When the breach of the Code of Conduct is criminal in nature, police will be consulted prior to public notifications
Student Threats to Safety –Fair Notice
- The safety of our students is a top priority for all of us in the Delta School District. When a threat or violent incident occurs it is taken very seriously and a student threat assessment is started.
- As partners in educating our youth, everyone in the community has a duty to report all threat-related behaviours. These threats include expressing an intent of harm to themselves, another person or property, or acting out violently against them. Whether the threat is spoken, drawn, made with gestures or on social media, they must all be taken seriously. We will investigate and respond to all harmful threats to our students.