Superintendent explains district boundaries policy

Big Horn County School District No. 1 superintendent Matt Davidson this week explained the reasons and intent of the new professional boundaries policy adopted at the July 17 school board meeting.

The policy appeared to catch some parents and members of the public by surprise after its adoption on second reading, so Davidson explained in an email to parents and a follow-up interview with the Lovell Chronicle the background of the process and the protections he said the policy will provide students and staff members.

“Our leadership team had a couple of training opportunities this summer,” Davidson explained in a July 31 email to parents. “One dealt with legal issues including our charge to protect students and staff members. The trainer was a legal expert who represents victims where professional boundaries have been crossed, resulting in some kind of physical, emotional and/or psychological injury. She shared examples that invited reflection on our current practices. She also said that as a district, we were duty bound to have a professional boundaries policy to guide staff in maintaining appropriate interactions and relationships with students.”

The policy is much more than a “hugging policy,” Davidson wrote, saying that there appeared to be confusion about the policy.

“An elementary student will still be able to hug their teacher,” he wrote. “Teachers will be able to reciprocate in an appropriate fashion. More importantly, direction is offered about not texting individual students, spending time alone with students in isolated settings and appropriate ways to maintain relationships with students. The intent of the policy is to protect children and adults by clearly establishing appropriate boundaries for their interactions in every educational setting.”

In an interview Tuesday, Davidson elaborated on the genesis of the policy, stating, “She (the trainer from California) represents victims in court cases where professional boundaries have been crossed for a variety of reasons. She told us that every district should have a professional boundaries policy, because that protects the district, that protects the staff and that protects the students, so she recommended that we get on that.”

Davidson said the trainer provided some model policies to look at, and the district leadership team looked at a variety of policies and “put together what we thought was a good starting place.”

Typically, a policy would first go before the district policy team for review before being put into place, but the policy team is not active in the summer. So wanting to get something in place and in the handbook before school started, Davidson recommended that the school board proceed. The board passed the policy on a 3-2 vote at the July 17 meeting, realizing the policy would be reviewed by the policy committee in September and possibly revised.

The policy

Davidson said the professional boundaries policy is a commonsense approach to directing staff-student interactions. It lists 29 unacceptable behaviors and 26 acceptable behaviors, plus language on reporting and investigating behavior, as well as disciplinary action and training.

The policy defines boundaries as “professional behavior by staff members while interacting with a student” and goes on to say that trespassing beyond the boundaries of a student-teacher relationship “is deemed an abuse of power and a betrayal of public trust.”

Continuing, the policy explains that “some activities may seem innocent from a staff member’s perspective but may be perceived as flirtation or sexual insinuation from a student or parental point of view. The purpose of the following lists of unacceptable and acceptable behaviors is not to restrain innocent, positive relationships between staff and students, but to prevent relationships that could lead to or may be perceived as inappropriate, or sexual misconduct or ‘grooming.’

“Staff members must understand their own responsibilities to ensure that they do not cross the boundaries as written in this policy. If a student specifically requests that they not be touched, then that request must be honored. Violations could subject the teacher or staff member to discipline up to and including termination.”

Most of the cases, the trainer emphasized, in which professional boundaries have been crossed with students, Davidson said, involve “private messaging of some kind, an adult texting or social media messaging a student privately,” adding, “She said that should just never happen.

“And the second thing she said was that, after private messaging, they find opportunities where they’re isolated, with an adult one on one situation, so just to be careful and smart about that. Those are some of the things that, for sure, we’re going be highlighting with staff.”

Some of the unacceptable behaviors listed on the policy are giving gifts to a student of a personal and intimate nature, including photographs, kissing of any kind, massage, sitting students on a staff member’s lap (grade 2 and above), wrestling except in the context of an athletic program, tickling, piggyback rides, any form of sexual contact, intentionally being alone with a student away from school, dating or going out with a student and touching the buttocks, thighs, chest or genital area. (A complete list is available on the district website.)

As for hugging, which appeared to concern and/or surprise some members of the public, the policy lists as unacceptable “full frontal, rear hugs or lengthy embraces.”

Davidson said the leadership team will instruct staff members to “just hug with one arm, so it’s not a full wrap,” adding, “it’s something the policy team will look at.”

The age of the student will play a role in the policy, Davidson said, noting, “One of the considerations, I think, for the policy team, when they do review it, will be age. So we could, on some of these, base it on the grade like number five, sitting students on the one’s lap, grades two and above. That might be a consideration that we look at for hugs, as well.”

The important thing isn’t simply the actions, Davidson said.

“The other thing that we try to emphasize in the district all the time is positive relationships with kids,” he said. “We want every student at every age to feel like they have adults who are their advocates and who they can turn to.”

Asked about youngest students who seek out a hug from a staff member, Davidson said using the one-arm hug will be emphasized, but the idea is not to ban all hugging, noting, “For some children, that might be the only hug they get that day. We want them to have that, but we also want to be respectful if they’re students who don’t want the physical contact.”

The policy can be found on the school district website – www.bighorn1.com. Click on menu at the top, then under School Board click on Board Policies & Meetings. The BoardDocs page will appear, and there is a drop-down menu for Policies. Find the menu item “Personnel” and click on policy “GBEBA, Professional Boundaries: Staff-Student Interactions.”