Highly-publicized national abuse allegations have led South Whidbey School District directors to look at adopting a policy governing student and staff boundaries.
The school board will get its first in-depth look at the policy during the board meeting tonight.
“We don’t have a current policy that deals with this issue,” said School Board Member Jill Engstrom, also the policy representative. “And there’s just been a lot of this all over the country and in our state.”
“It just better defines what’s appropriate and what’s not,” she said.
South Whidbey will begin with the template from Washington State School Directors’ Association. The base policy on the school district’s website lists 14 examples of “inappropriate boundary invasions.” Some are the more direct forms such as inappropriate physical contact and socializing where students are consuming alcohol, drugs or tobacco.
Others are more particular, such as unnecessarily invading a student’s privacy “(e.g. walking in on the student in the bathroom).”
Though the policy may be new to the district, the expectation of professional relationships has existed.
“There’s always been the understanding that if boundaries such as those outlined in this policy are crossed it’s grounds for dismissal,” said School Board Chairman Steve Scoles.
“There are guidelines for coaching and teaching that cover some of this.”
“We want to fill in a blank here that may not be clear enough, especially with some of the stories we’re hearing about the coaches in college football and so on.”
This is the first student/staff policy to be officially reviewed by the district. Wednesday will be the directors’ first look at the policy, which will be a first reading.
“It’s a good opportunity for people to have input and ask those questions,” Scoles said.
There have been no allegations of inappropriate contact in the school district. Adopting this three-page policy was important to stay current with the state’s recommendations, officials said.
“I’m trying to keep us moving to update our policies as new information comes to us,” Engstrom said. “These policies help us govern our district.”
The boundaries procedure also states examples of “appearances of impropriety.”
Some of the activities were being alone with a student out of the view of others, visiting students at home and social networking with students for non-educational purposes.
“Without guidelines and procedures, how do you know if you’re acting within the realm of what’s appropriate or not?” Engstrom asked.
The board will not vote on the policy tonight. A second reading is possible if the board and school administrators want to further discuss the guidelines.
“If the administrators feel this is a pretty solid policy, there probably won’t be many adjustments made,” Engstrom said. “If there’s a lot of discussion, we’ll probably have another workshop at another meeting.”
The South Whidbey School Board meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14 at the board meeting room at South Whidbey Primary Campus located at 5476 Maxwelton Road in Langley.
