Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB)

Franklin Pierce Schools strives to provide students with optimal conditions for learning by maintaining a school environment where everyone is treated with respect and no one is physically or emotionally harmed. We encourage students, families, or staff to use Incident Reporting Forms to report all incidents of harassment, intimidation, or bullying. You'll find information on reporting below.

HIB Reporting

Our school staff is both required to and committed to investigating all reports made of alleged harassment, intimidation, and bullying. You can make a report in many ways whether that be in-person, online, or verbally over the phone.

Please know that a school staff member may ask you to complete a reporting form to be sure we are able to gather as much information as possible. Documentation is important when staff must intervene to address student behavior.

Electronic Incident Reporting Form

Print Incident Reporting Form

OSPI Education Concerns

HIB Important Information

HIB Overview

Harassment, intimidation, or bullying (HIB) means any intentional electronic, written, verbal, auditory or physical act that:

Physically harms a student; or
Has the effect of substantially interfering with a student’s education; or
Is so severe, persistent or pervasive, that it creates an intimidating or threatening educational environment; or
Has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school.

HIB Policy and Procedure

HIB Compliance Officer

In Washington state, a school district superintendent must appoint a compliance officer as the primary district contact to receive copies of all formal and informal complaints and ensure policy implementation. In addition, the HIB Compliance Officer is required to participate in an annual Compliance Officer training session. In Franklin Pierce Schools, the HIB Compliance Officer is our Deputy Superintendent, James Hester.

More information can be found in the above policy and procedure but to summarize, the HIB Compliance Officer will:

Serve as the district's primary contact for harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
Provide support and assistance to the principal or designee in resolving complaints.
Receive copies of all Incident Reporting Forms, discipline Referral Forms, and letters to parents providing the outcomes of investigations.
Be familiar with the use of the student information system. The compliance officer may use this information to identify patterns of behavior and areas of concern.
Ensure implementation of the policy and procedure by overseeing the investigative processes, including ensuring that investigations are prompt, impartial, and thorough.
Assess the training needs of staff and students to ensure successful implementation throughout the district, and ensure staff receive annual fall training.
Provide the OSPI School Safety Center with notification of policy or procedure updates or changes on an annual basis.
In cases where, despite school efforts, a targeted student experiences harassment, intimidation, or bullying that threatens the student's health and safety, the compliance officer will facilitate a meeting between district staff and the child's parents/guardians to develop a safety plan to protect the student.

HIB Definitions

Harassment

Harassment is defined as any malicious act, which causes harm to any person's physical or mental well-being

Discriminatory harassment does not have to include intent to harm, be directed at a specific target, or involve repeated incidents. Equity Book: p.32
Malicious harassment - threat to harm (often based on protected category)
Sexual harassment - unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct directed at person because of his/her sex where:
(a) Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's academic standing or employment; or
(b) Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic decisions or employment affecting such individual; or
(c) Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or learning environment.

Intimidation

Bullying

Bullying is defined as negative actions which are intentional, repeated, negative, show a lack of empathy, and a power imbalance.

Center for Disease Control(link is external) defines bullying as: any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths who are not siblings or current dating partners that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated. Bullying may inflict harm or distress on the targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm. A young person can be a perpetrator, a victim, or both (also known as "bully/victim"). Bullying can occur in person and through technology. Electronic aggression or cyber-bullying is bullying that happens through email, chat rooms, instant messages, a website, text messages, or social media.

Stopbullying.gov(link is external) defines bullying as: unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:

An Imbalance of Power—Kids who bully use their power-such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people
Repetition—Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.

Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

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