1. Harassment/Bullying-The harassment and/or bullying of other students or members of staff, or any other individuals is not permitted.  This includes any speech or action that creates a hostile, intimidating, or offensive learning environment.  Individuals engaging in such conduct will be subject to disciplinary action.  All individuals involved in an investigation as a witness, victim or alleged harasser/bully will be instructed not to discuss the subject outside of the investigation.  If an investigation reveals that a harassment/bulling complaint is valid, appropriate remedial and/or disciplinary action will be taken promptly to prevent the continuance of the harassment/bullying or its recurrence.  Given the nature of harassing/bullying behavior, the School recognizes that false accusations can have serious effects on innocent individuals. Therefore, all students are expected to act responsibly, honestly, and with the utmost candor whenever they present harassment/bullying allegations or charges.

Bullying is a conscious, repeated, hostile, aggressive behavior of an individual or a group abusing their position with the intention to harm others or gain real or perceived power.

There are many definitions of bullying, but they all consist of the key words "power", "aggressive" and "repeated".

Most kids do not know what bullying is. Due to recent focus on bullying, kids refer to acts done by mistake only once as "bullying". For example, playing soccer and being hit in the face by the ball might be considered an act of violence by some kids, when in fact, but in most cases, hitting someone's face with the ball while playing soccer is done by accident more often than not.

When talking about bullying, it is very important for parents, teachers and kids to understand what bullying is not. Many times, a single act or behavior is out of proportion, but it is not considered bullying.

Some people think that bullying is any aggressive behavior and although such behaviors are a source of concern and need attention, it is important to separate them from bullying. Bullying is recurring and deliberate abuse of power.

It is not easy for kids to understand the difference between a deliberate act and an accidental one, it is also surprising how many grownups talk about things people do to them as if they were done intentionally to hurt them. Such perception is very dangerous, because every minor act of conflict, done without any intention to harm, can escalate and become a big conflict.