The Board of Education is committed to providing a safe, positive, productive, and nurturing educational environment for all of its students and guides the district by its formally adopted
Bullying and Other Forms of Aggressive Behavior policy.
This policy was developed in consultation with parents, District employees, volunteers, students, and community members as prescribed in R.C. 3313.666 and the State Board of Education's Model Policy. The district is required to report
data to the state.
Bryden Elementary School: Character education programs focus on empathy and self-advocacy and serve as a foundation for student intervention on behalf of targets. Students develop a working definition of "bullying" during bi-monthly classrooms lessons, and they learn and practice proactive and reactive strategies for situations if they are "targets" or "bystanders."
Hilltop Elementary School: Character education programs focus on the Six Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship. Hilltop's monthly Character Counts assembly highlights a character trait and often discusses bullying. Bullying is also discussed during classroom guidance lessons that counsels targets of a bully, bullies and bystanders. Lessons include verbal, physical, emotional, and cyber bullying. Visual reminders about bullying prevention are seen throughout the school on posters, flags, and banners.
Beachwood Middle School: Staff present the Olweus bullying prevention program during advisory period each month. Students are directly involved in guiding their own bullying prevention programs through student-led classroom discussions and groups such as SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) and WEB (Where Everyone Belongs), a nationwide program that helps 6th graders feel more comfortable and achieve success during their first year of middle school. Guest speakers and special programs, such as Challenge Day, are also held annually.
Beachwood High School: Anti-bullying lessons are presented during advisory periods and special programs. Freshmen complete the Know Abuse program, formerly called Expect Respect, to promote bullying prevention. Guest speakers and special programs feature discussions on tolerance, healthy relationships, Internet safety, and bullying prevention. Bellefaire’s Social Advocates for Youth program, in cooperation with the PTO, promotes empathy and upstanding behaviors against bullying at BHS.
Filing Complaints
Students and/or their parents/guardians may file reports regarding suspected harassment, intimidation, or bullying. Such reports shall be reasonably specific including person(s) involved, number of times and places of the alleged conduct, the target of suspected harassment, intimidation, and/or bullying, and the names of any potential student or staff witnesses. Such reports may be filed with any school staff member or administrator, and they shall be promptly forwarded to the building principal for review, investigation, and action.
Reported incidents are investigated by the building’s principal following completion of a bullying incident form. The principal or guidance counselor may 1) interview the “targets,” bystanders and alleged perpetrators; 2) contact parents of those involved; and 3) follow-up with disciplinary action or remediation, as appropriate. All acts of bullying are documented in our electronic student records system and are reported to the Pupil Services office, which reports all incidents to the Ohio Department of Education at the conclusion of each school year.