JG

STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Introduction

The School Board recognizes that students do not surrender their rights of citizenship as they pass through the schoolhouse door. The Board further recognizes that students within the school setting are not entitled to any special rights, privileges, or immunities not enjoyed by citizens in the larger community. The School Board insists that the educational welfare of the individual pupil and of the larger school community be determinate. Therefore, all disciplinary actions and procedures must be directed toward serving educational ends.

The Board also endorses the basic tenet of liberty and justice set forth so eloquently by John Stuart Mill:

The liberty of the individual must be this far limited--he must not make himself a nuisance to other people.

In accepting its responsibility to provide a quality educational program, the Board intends to adhere to Mill's dictum. We expect no less from the students. The school is a community with rules and regulations, and those who would enjoy the rights and privileges it provides must also accept the responsibilities that membership demands, including respect for and obedience to school rules.

Specific Expectations

Given this broad framework, the School Board expects specifically that students will:

• conform to reasonable standards of speech and conduct;

• refrain from violating or impairing the rights of others;

• not engage in any conduct that deprives other students of an orderly atmosphere for study;

• be appreciative of the opportunity for education offered to them and regard as a privilege their attendance in the public schools;

• abide by the rules and regulations necessary for the orderly conduct of school activities by the administration and faculty.

In recognition of the students' individual rights, the Board expects school authorities to provide and maintain a suitable environment for learning. It expects that the school administration will do everything in its power to maintain and facilitate the education program so that the individual needs of each student are met to the greatest possible degree.

We affirm that the administration, in order to implement these expectations, has the inherent and statutory responsibility and power to maintain order and discipline in the schools and to remove the privilege of school attendance to the best interest of the whole school community.

The administration has the further responsibility to recommend to the School Board the expulsion (dismissal) from school of students for gross misconduct or for neglect or refusal to conform to the reasonable rules and regulations of the school. (See RSA 193:13). The Board expects that, when the privilege of school attendance is to be removed or curtailed for a specific period of time, the rights of the student and his/her parents will be recognized, and that provision will be made for proper procedural due process.

In all disciplinary action teachers should be mindful of the fact they are dealing with individual personalities. A child's personality, disposition, and personal characteristics should be given consideration in prescribing disciplinary action. Each child is deserving of each teacher's very best thinking and most deliberate judgment.

Teachers shall not make remarks to other pupils concerning a student's shortcomings.

All information concerning the pupil or his/her family background should be held in strictest confidence.

Finally, the responsibility for attendance and proper conduct in the public schools rests with the parent. The School Board recognizes its responsibility to provide whatever services and opportunities are needed to assist the parent in meeting his/her obligations, but rejects the notion that the schools can or should attempt to do this alone.

Adoption Date: April 8, 1993