School Policies

Student Dress Policy

NEPN/NSBA: Code: JICA
revised 12-8-03

Student Dress: A student will maintain personal attire and grooming standards that promote safety, health, and acceptable standards of social conduct, which may include but not limited to clothing advertising any prohibited substances and/or sexually offensive materials. Student dress that disrupts the school environment will not be tolerated. Clothing should not be so immodest or so inappropriate to the school setting as to disrupt the educational process. Therefore, the district will not permit clothing deemed distracting, revealing, overly suggestive or otherwise disruptive.

Enforcement of the student dress code by all staff is to be consistent and as objective as possible. Any violation of these rules will result in a student being asked to address the administrative concern or leave the school environment until the attire is acceptable. For health and safety reasons, the specific rules regarding student dress and attire include:

1. No clothes with alcohol, tobacco, or other drug related pictures or slogans.
2. No clothing with vulgar, obscene, sexually or culturally offensive pictures or slogans.
   
3. Both shoulders must be covered with at least 2 inch of material.
   
4. Tops or blouses should not be see-through, provocative or excessively tight .
   
5. No bare midriffs, halter tops, spaghetti straps tops or blouses - shirts should not allow stomachs to show.
   
6. Length of skirts, dresses, or shorts should not be shorter than mid-thigh or finger tip length.
   
7. No undergarments showing - pants should be worn at natural waistline.
   
8. Footwear must be worn at all times.
   

Bullying Policy

Islesboro Central School recognizes that bullying constitutes inappropriate conduct that is detrimental to the learning process and the establishment of a safe school environment. ICS opposes bullying and adopts this policy to encourage all members of the school community (teachers, other school employees, volunteers, students, parents) to take appropriate steps to prevent and respond to bullying behaviors.

Conduct

A student is being bullied or victimized when she or he is exposed, repeatedly and over time to negative actions by one or more students or an adult. Bullying is a form of aggression or a negative action when a person(s) perceives an imbalance of power and intentionally inflicts, or attempts to inflict, injury or discomfort upon another. Bullying may include, but is not limited to the following types of conduct:

Verbal: hurtful name-calling; teasing; threatening; taunting; gossiping; sexual comments

Social/Emotional: shunning; isolating; rejecting; terrorizing; extorting; defaming; humiliating; blackmailing; ostracizing or defaming on the basis of personal characteristics such as race, disability, ethnicity, or perceived sexual orientation; manipulating friendships; initiating rumors; and exerting coercive peer pressure

Psychological: making faces, making demeaning or dirty gestures

Physical: any sort of aggressive physical contact, including punching; shoving; poking; choking; pulling hair; beating; biting; restraining; and excessive tickling, throwing objects, spitting

Cyber: text messages, chat rooms, blogs, e-mail

Note: bullying of a sexual nature will be addressed through ICS's policy and procedures for sexual harassment.

Procedure

Prevention

1. Written information about the identification, prevention, and correction of bullying shall be provided to school employees, students, and parents.
   
2. ICS shall provide to all school employees training about the nature and seriousness of bullying, as well as prevention and intervention strategies.
   
3. Learning activities shall be provided to students regarding the nature and seriousness of bullying; knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to discourage bullying; standards of acceptable behavior; and ways in which students can be actively involved in creating a safe school environment.
   
4. Communication between teachers/administrators and parents shall be encouraged to promote the strong partnerships necessary to most effectively prevent and intervene with bully/target problems.
   
5. In order to gauge program effectiveness and needs, regular assessments regarding the types and prevalence of bullying shall be made.
   

Intervention

1. Allegations of bullying shall be promptly investigated. Consideration shall be given to the due process rights of the accused as well as the need for confidentiality and safety of the target and/or reporting person.
   
2. Individualized interventions to equip students with pro-social and coping skills shall be provided to students who exhibit bullying behaviors and those who are targets of such behaviors.
3. Any person who reports an incident of bullying shall not be subject to retaliation. Appropriate measures shall be taken to discourage and promptly address any retaliation or attempts to "get even" with the target and /or the person who reports the bullying conduct.

"Speak when you're angry

- and you'll make the best speech that you'll ever regret."

 ~ Laurence Peter