Preventing Intimidation & Bullying

Across all of our schools in Phoenix #1, we aim to build a community where each person feels welcome. Many of our goals for each school include prioritizing student leadership, encouraging positive behavior, hosting inclusive activities, and building healthy social and emotional learning environments. Students are encouraged to identify and appreciate their own strengths, as well as those of their peers. This emphasis on respect for one another works to reduce instances of student harassment, intimidation, and bullying in our schools.

We do not allow bullying on school grounds, school buses, bus stops, or any school-sponsored events.

Bullying

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both students who are bullied and who bully others may have serious lasting challenges.

In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be intentional and include:

• An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
• Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.

There are several types of bullying including physical, verbal, social/ emotional bullying and cyberbullying.  Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

Harassment

Harassment is intentional behavior by a student or group of students that is disturbing or threatening to another student or group of students. Harassment may be related to race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, national origin, language, socio-economic status, cognitive and physical abilities, cultural background size, or personal appearance. Intentional behaviors could include:

• Stalking;
• Hazing;
• Social exclusion;
• Name calling;
• Unwanted physical contact;
• Unwelcome verbal or written comments, photographs, or graphics.

Intimidation

Intimidation is intentional behavior by a student or group of students that places another student or group of students in fear of harm of person or property.

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is any act of bullying committed by use of electronic technology or electronic communication devices.

Steps to Address Bullying

At Phoenix #1, we are committed to adhering to state law regarding bullying and therefore have processes in place to address such situations where a member of a school’s community feels harassed, intimidated, or bullied.

• We provide a confidential process that allows anyone to report an incident.
• We require all Phoenix #1 employees report suspected harassment, intimidation, or bullying.
• We require a formal and timely process for documentation and investigation of reported and suspected incidents.
• We implement disciplinary procedures for students admitting to, or who are found guilty of, committing harassment, intimidation, or bullying.
• We implement a procedure that provides consequences for submitting false reports of harassment, intimidation, or bullying.
• We offer prevention lessons to our school community annually regarding bullying, harassment and intimidation that include how to report bullying, harassment and intimidation.
• We offer intervention with parental consent to both the student experiencing bullying and the student who has exhibited bullying behavior.

Report Bullying

We take every report of bullying, harassment and intimidation seriously.  If you believe there is bullying, harrassment or intimidation at your child's school site please report it.  The forms are available at the school sites as well as below.