Statement prohibiting bullying and harassment

It is the policy of the Liberty County School District that all its students and school employees have an educational setting that is safe, secure, and free from harassment and bullying of any kind. The district will not tolerate bullying and harassment of any type. Conduct that constitutes bullying and harassment is prohibited, and is defined below:

Definition of bullying

Systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees that is severe and pervasive enough to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment; or unreasonably interfere with the individual’s school performance or participation.

Behavior that does NOT constitute bullying

While unkind behavior is not tolerated, not all unkind behavior constitutes bullying.  Unkind behavior at school can call for disciplinary measures, but isolated unkind acts are treated differently than incidents of bullying.  The following (while unkind) in of itself does not equate to bullying:

• Simply disliking someone
• Exclusion
• Making a joke about someone
• An argument
• Isolated acts of harassment, aggressive behavior, intimidation, or meanness

If you are unsure if  you, or your child is being bullied, ask yourself the questions below.  All items must be answered “YES” for the behavior to be considered bullying or harassment.

• Was the behavior negative or malicious?
• Was the behavior repeated, happen more than once?
• Is there an imbalance in strength or power, or an attempt to create and imbalance?

If you answer “YES” to all items, please report the behavior immediately.

Reporting of Bullying

A complaint of bullying can be made verbally (face-to-face or by phone) to the school and/or district office or in writing to school and/or district office.  Each school site also has a locked drop box where complaints (anonymous as well) can be submitted.  Liberty County School District provides the below forms which can be used to report bullying:

Liberty County School District’s investigation process for bullying can be viewed here.

For more information regarding bullying information & prevention, you can visit the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Safe Schools or stopbullying.gov.

Liberty County School District’s Bullying Prevention Compliance Officer

Jeff Sewell, Assistant Superintendent; jeff.sewell@lcsb.org; (850) 643-2275 ext.11236

Liberty County School District’s School Safety Specialist

Ricky Sansom; ricky.sansom@lcsb.org; (850) 643-2275 ext.11229