Communication Standards
All members of the Beachwood Schools community (students, staff, families) have the right to expect respectful and professional communication with others. This means that all communications and interactions with school community members, including through digital communication such as email, should be free from demeaning, threatening, harassing, abusive, prejudicial/biased, hateful, profane, and defamatory comments.
Communication Standards
- Listen actively to understand. Fully concentrate on, try to understand, and thoughtfully respond to what is being said, both verbally and nonverbally, in hopes of achieving mutual understanding across different points of view.
- Question kindly. Each unknown is an opportunity to gain understanding or grow. If you disagree, try to learn. Be kind. Do not be afraid to respectfully challenge one another by asking questions, but refrain from personal attacks -- focus on ideas.
- Be conscious of body language and nonverbal responses. They can be as disrespectful as words.
- Speak from experience. (Use "I" instead of "they," "we," and "you.") We build understanding by replacing generalizations with personal observations about ourselves and our own lives. Instead of invalidating somebody else's story with your own spin on her or his experience, share your own story and experience.
- Respect everyone. We all want what’s best for our community, and even if we disagree, we aren’t disagreeable. Respect can take many shapes and forms; listen closely to understand the needs of the participants.
- Look forward. Focus on possibility, on how to start, and who can help.
- No demeaning, threatening, harassing, abusive, prejudicial/biased, hateful, profane, and defamatory comments or statements. These forms of speech are unacceptable in the Beachwood Schools and are not protected by the First Amendment.
Practices and Procedures
Responsibility to Uphold Standards: All participants hold an equal responsibility to uphold the standards and to hold each other responsible for upholding the standards during interactions.
Interactions (ex., parent-teacher conferences, sporting events, meetings, club meetings, etc.): Whenever possible, the standards, along with the goals and roles for the interaction, should be sent to all participants in advance. For meetings, the lead person will review the goals and
participants’ roles at the start.
Responsibilities of those in leadership positions:
- Administrators are responsible for modeling, monitoring, and applying the standards.
- Staff are responsible for modeling the standards, monitoring them, and applying them when an administrator is not present.
- Students are responsible for modeling the standards, and monitoring and applying them when an administrator or staff member is not present.
- Parents are responsible for modeling the standards, and monitoring and applying them when an administrator or staff member is not present, and the parent is leading a school-based or school-support organization (ex. booster organization or affinity group).
How to Address Missteps:
Should any school community member feel the “Standards of Communication” are not being upheld, they should take one or more of the following steps:
- Name the standard of communication that is not being upheld and ask that a more appropriate means of communication be used and/or
- Ask for support based on the roles stated above (Administrator, Staff, Parent Leader, Student Leader) and/or
- Leave the setting and/or
- If missteps continue after they have been addressed, the communication, interaction, meeting, or event will be discontinued. It may be rescheduled only after the appropriate administrator has discussed the issue with the person responsible for the repeated missteps and obtains their agreement to uphold the standards in the future.
Reporting:
School community members who feel the standards were not upheld and wish to discuss a situation further should use this form. Reports can be made anonymously. Responses to this form will be sent to the Human Resources Department and routed to the appropriate party. Generally, this is the administrator/supervisor or building principal most directly connected to the persons involved.