Policy 7:20

Students

Harassment of Students

No person, including a District employee, volunteer or agent, or student, shall harass, intimidate, or bully a student on the basis of actual or perceived: race; color; nationality; sex; sexual orientation; gender identity; gender-related identity or expression; ancestry; age; religion; physical or mental disability; order of protection status; status of being homeless; actual or potential marital or parental status, including pregnancy; association with a person or group with one or more of the aforementioned actual or perceived characteristics; or any other distinguishing characteristic. The District will not tolerate harassing, intimidating conduct, or bullying whether verbal, physical, or visual, that affects the tangible benefits of education, that unreasonably interferes with a student’s educational performance, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment. Examples of prohibited conduct include name-calling, using derogatory slurs, stalking, causing psychological harm, threatening or causing physical harm, threatened or actual destruction of property, or wearing or possessing items depicting or implying hatred or prejudice of one of the characteristics stated above.

Sexual Harassment Prohibited

Sexual harassment of students is prohibited. Any person including a District employee or agent, or student engages in sexual harassment whenever he or she makes sexual advances, requests sexual favors, and engages in other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual or sex-based nature, imposed on the basis of sex, that:

1. Denies or limits the provision of educational aid, benefits, services, or treatment; or that makes such conduct a condition of a student academic status; or
2. Has the purpose or effect of:
   1. substantially interfering with a student’s educational environment;
   2. creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment,
   3. depriving a student of educational aid, benefits, services, or treatment;
      or
   4. making submission to or rejection of such unwelcome conduct the basis for academic decisions affecting a student.

The terms “intimidating,” “hostile,” and “offensive” include conduct which has the effect of humiliation, embarrassment, or discomfort. Examples of sexual harassment include touching, crude jokes or pictures, discussions of sexual experiences, teasing related to sexual characteristics, and spreading rumors related to a person’s alleged sexual activities.

Making a Complaint; Enforcement

Students are encouraged to report claims or incidences of bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, or any other prohibited conduct to the Nondiscrimination Coordinator, Building Principal, Assistant Building Principal, or a Complaint Manager. A student may choose to report to a person of the student’s same sex. Complaints will be kept confidential to the extent possible given the need to investigate. Students who make good faith complaints will not be disciplined.

An allegation that a student was a victim of any prohibited conduct perpetrated by another student shall be referred to Building Administration for appropriate action.

The District’s Nondiscrimination Coordinator and Complaint Manager is:

Nondiscrimination Coordinator/Complaint Manager:

Name: Administrator for Human Resources
Address: 615 Locust Road; Wilmette, IL 60091
Telephone No.: 847 / 256-2450

The Superintendent shall also use reasonable measures to inform staff members and students that the District will not tolerate sexual harassment, such as by including this policy in the appropriate handbooks.

Any District employee who is determined, after an investigation, to have engaged in bullying, intimidation, and harassment including sexual harassment will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including discharge. Any student of the District who is determined, after an investigation, to have engaged in any type of harassment will be subject to disciplinary action, including but not limited to, suspension and expulsion consistent with the discipline policy. Any person making a knowingly false accusation regarding any type of harassment will likewise be subject to disciplinary action up to and including discharge, with regard to employees, or suspension and expulsion, with regard to students.

Adopted: April 6, 1998
Revised: January 19, 1999
Revised: January 23, 2012