community. You just know you're walking into a special place when you come through our doors. >> I like to tell people that when you're here, it's like learning at home. You're in your kitchen, but you still know what's going on in the family room. It builds like this, you know, camaraderie
amongst not only the students, but also the faculty that work here. We call ourselves a Dwire family. Mr. McGovern, he seldom calls us a school, and we really all live by that. We treat each other like family and we emulate that for the kids.
>> I think the wire school is awesome because you can make a lot of friends here and there's good teachers. Math is my favorite because like you can learn different things like times plus minus. No matter where you come from or no
matter what you like look like, people will be friends with you and welcome you into the school. One word to describe this school is probably heart. honesty, empathy, acceptance, and respect and trust.
>> I have been teaching art here in Rockaway Township for 16 years. I think social emotional learning is very important. It gives us a chance to discuss our emotions and give kids a chance to practice that emotional
dialogue and that helps the whole child. I get the privilege of going into every single class once a month where I do a guidance lesson. The best part of my job is when one of them is having a tough day and then they feel better and it's because of me. >> The people I work with makes me come
back every single day. I hire a very unique and special educator and that permeates throughout the building. I have the easiest job in the world because I have the hardest working teachers in the world. Every student who goes through Rockaway Township School District will graduate from Copeland before they go on to high
school. And we have an opportunity to instill core values into our students, helping students develop into future leaders into being positive role models and citizens in our community. >> I am the steam teacher at Copeland Middle School. I really love to see the
growth and the change through the students. And what I really focus on is teamwork. So the kids are always in teams. We want to make sure everybody's feeling comfortable communicating their ideas. I want kids to come to school and feel like this is their second home. I want them to come into my classroom and feel
comfortable, feel like they can be themselves. They may not come here and love math, but I want them to at least enjoy coming to math class. >> When I came into sixth grade in Copeland, where everything was new and different for me, Mrs. Heath, she was especially really kind to me. She still
talks to me even though we don't really see each other that much and she gives me so much good luck for all the things that I do. >> One teacher that made me feel special and cared for was my 7th grade LA teacher. I used to dislike like reading and writing and she really helped me
understand and make that subject more fun. Years ago, I had a sixth grade student who was absolutely petrified of mathematics. And I worked so carefully with her. I gave her extra help just to have her overcome this fear and it was
fabulous to see that aha moment when she finally got it and that is why I do what I do every day. >> We are making sure kids are prepared for the future and that means making sure that they have access to technology.
Every single classroom has interactive boards. Kids get a Chromebook in the fifth grade. >> They work as a team towards a common goal. They overcome challenges. We connect with the community through our concerts which are very well attended. Vanda Copeland is truly an all-inclusive
experience for all of the students here. >> I try to get everybody involved so that they can make a positive impact in the future. I teach US history and I come to work every day excited. I get the opportunity to mold the next generation.
>> The thing that makes Copeland Middle School so great is truly the people. It's the students. It's the staff. It's the community members. It's the parent involvement. It's the investment in making it a better place. >> Our core values are the same as Rockaway Township. Heart, honesty, empathy,
acceptance, respect, and trust. So we can focus on particularly on being kind >> by being kind to a friend, helping them out, helping teachers, be nice to them, be respectful and don't interrupt the teachers. >> And everything we do, we try and relate
back to our core values. One of the things we are working on right now is positive behavior system. I don't like to address anything negative in my office because I want kids to be able to trust me and to be able to come down as a leader of the building. So, we're really working on being kind. And yes, academics are important, but one of the
main things for us is that we raise good kids. The main message is to be kind because above all else, we want our kids just to be kind. >> My name is Carly and I am in fifth grade and I go to DVL. >> Yeah. My name is Rehea. I'm in first grade.
>> Being at DVL is awesome because all the teachers here are so great and so nice. >> I like the teachers here. They make it awesome here. She teaches well and then she teaches us stuff which we have never learned.
>> My favorite subject is probably math because I like all the challenges. >> My favorite special is art class with Miss Takis because drawing is my favorite thing. >> What makes DBL unique is that everyone is so kind to each other and everyone
cares about each other. If I had to describe our building in one word, I would say we're a little unconventional. We're always trying to have our teachers and our students look at other ways to achieve success. And for every student, that's different.
There are other ways that we can really show student growth, student success. >> I'm not trying to be cheesy or anything. It's it really the staff here, um, we have built a family. And I think that says something about the building and the and and the community that we foster here at ZBO. And I'm really grateful to
be part of that. >> Being outside in the morning at bus duty and having kids coming up and just happy to see me. Teachers who I now share personal connections with because I've been here for 11 years as the principal. >> After teaching for 25 years, I can't pinpoint one moment of time that is a
story of why I come back every day. Any good lesson makes me feel alive. Going to the soccer games, the football games, seeing my students outside the classroom. I want the kids to feel at home and I feel the more comfortable that they are, the relationship that we build together, the better they're going
to do in class, not not only enjoy their time in class, but also take risks. >> So, yeah, I I think for me it's just being a part of something, being a part of the team. Uh we're all very different, but um but we we get along and you know, we support each other.
What really resonates with me about this school is that we put more value in developing personal growth versus comparison to others. Whether it be a difficult learning task or a challenging learning experience, they learn to persevere. And we can bring out something in themselves that they might
not have seen before. >> It's a really great environment here at KDM. My co-workers are great. The students every day, they make me laugh. One thing that I really work on in my classroom is growth mindset. I did have a student that came in and really didn't like math. They were really negative
self-talking, saying that they can't do this. And so, basically throughout the whole year, we worked on just changing that mindset. Just because we can't do something right now doesn't mean that we're never going to be able to do it. And that's what I teach all of my students.
>> My favorite teachers are probably all of my teachers cuz I got really good teachers. They have fun activities to do and their stories. My first grade teacher got me into reading and she got me into chapter books in Juni B. Jones. My favorite subject is science. In
science, you do lots of experiments and I think experiments are very fun. Every day I'm like happy at school. >> We identify the interests of students. You know, what motivates them so students feel more comfortable and confident in their learning environment,
moving them forward from one learning experience to another. Every morning I'm inspired by these children. Their energy, their willingness to support and grow with one another is contagious. >> One of the things that I'm really hoping
to teach them more than anything else is about kindness and you know being good friends to each other. >> One of my most favorite success stories is a particular student when you know he would come into the classroom even right for >> Good evening everyone and welcome to
tonight's HIV listening session. I'm calling the meeting to order at 6:00 pm. Could I please have an attendance roll call? >> Mrs. Anderson here. Dr. Gorman. >> Mrs. Mezik >> here. >> Miss Richardson
>> here. >> Miss Tor here. Miss McGiri >> here. >> We have a quum. >> Thank you. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was passed to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their
interests is discussed and acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the Rockaway Township Board of Education has caused notice of the date, time, and place of said meetings to be published in the daily record, the Star Ledger, and be posted in all schools in the district in the municipal building
of the township and the township library. Does any board member wish to object to the conduct of this meeting for the purpose as stated in the public notice? All documentation and materials considered by the board of education as part of this agenda are available for
public review and comment. Members of the public are invited to come to the board of education building off Green Pond Road during the regular business hours of 8:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. Monday through Friday if they wish to inspect any of the referenced items. Can we please stand for the pledge?
I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Dr. Corbett.
>> Thank you, M. Mcrer. Um, I I want to welcome all of our uh the parents that are here in the audience. Thank you for being here. Thank you to the board of education for having this listening session. Um we we really appreciate it. This is a listening session. So we do
want to listen to your concerns, your questions, and your comments. Uh that's part of what we're going to do this evening. Um however, first I hope you'll listen attentively to the presentations provided by uh M. Jacqueline Morgazy who
is our board attorney who will provide HIV information from a legal point of view and perspective. All right. And then following that presentation, Miss Anita West will uh present from the perspective of the HIV
um coordinator in the district. So she's the one who's actually in charge of facilitating the HIV process and making sure that it is um provided appropriately uh and legally and well executed
legally. So during uh Miss Morazy's presentation, she has just informed me um prior that she's okay with questions during the presentation. So, if you'd like to ask her a question, if there's something that requires clarification, she said she'd be more than happy to um to answer
those questions. However, she will also have a disclaimer, which I'll let her handle at the beginning of her presentation. And certainly at the uh Miss West, I don't know if you're open to questions during the presentation. She's open to questions during the presentation, too. So, um since so, you might have to raise your hand, and
that's fine, too, and just ask the question. However, I will say this. It should not be about a particular your child's HIV, right? Because we're not here to discuss your child's HIV. We're here to discuss HIV in general. So, that
would be a very important distinction to make. Please keep that in mind. Um, we want to hear about your child's HIV, but not in this forum. So, questions about your child's HIV can be directed towards us. call the office, ask to speak to Miss West and or the building principal
or the HIV um uh council who did the investigation and we'll be more than happy to answer those questions. But again, for tonight, let's keep it about HIV in general. Um so those those are two things. It'll be Miss Miss uh Morgazy first and then Miss West and
questions throughout. Um and then at the end maybe we'll have more of a chance for dialogue. All right. And hopefully at the end of this, you'll walk away with a better understanding of this convoluted law. All right? It's if you're confused about bullying, you are
not alone. I'm still confused about bullying. I've been in this business for a long time. I'm still calling Miss Morazy, you know, time after time and she could tell you because we have to understand the nuances of the law and I need legal advice to be sure we're doing it correctly. So it's not bullying the
way you understand bullying from 20 or 30 years ago or like me 40 years ago or 50 years ago, right? So it's it's it's much more it's much more um gnarly in terms of getting your arms around it. Much more difficult. So
if you're confused, you have questions, you are not alone. This training is required for the board of education, I think, on an annual basis, right? and the board um uh the the board we need it. We all need it because we have to be refreshed on it.
So without further ado, I think I'm going to turn it over to Miss Moresy who will provide uh her presentation. Yes. >> What's the matter? >> There's coffee and cookies. >> Oh, coffee. Yes, I have my coffee. So, there is coffee and cookies. So, please
help yourself to the coffee and cookies. And there's water over there, too. All right, M. McGazy, without further ado. Thank you. >> I'm gonna sit over there so I can see what you're doing. >> No, absolutely. So, as long as everybody doesn't mind, I want to kind of keep this casual. I understand we're sort of behind a deis, but this is more of a me
informing you as to what the law requires, but also sort of a dialogue if there are any questions. What I will say is I know the board of education is recording this session, I believe. So, if anybody does have questions at any point in time, please come up to the microphone so that for purposes of the recording, your questions can be
recorded so that we have an ability to to keep record of it. Uh like Dr. Corbett mentioned, my name is Jaclyn Moore Jay-Z. I am an attorney with Jason Lamperillo, Malin, and Capuzo. I am the general counsel for the Rockaway Township Board of Education. What does that mean? General counsel means I
handle essentially all issues that the board of education faces from a legal perspective. So, HIV is one of those issues. And I like to always start my presentations off with a theme for the evening. And if I can leave you with any one statement that you can remember from
this presentation from a legal perspective is that just because something doesn't satisfy the legal definition of a harassment, intimidation, or bullying does not mean that the district is not responding to an incident to a situation where
there is an unacceptable behavior that has taken place. If it if it uh an item does not satisfy a HIB which is the terminology that I will be using harassment, intimidation, bullying is what Hib stands for. Uh it may be a code
of conduct and it may be addressed outside of the the legal opices of Hib which is what the anti-bullying bill of rights addresses. So if we think of it something that is not a HI might be a code of conduct and might be addressed through that sense. that doesn't mean just because it's not a HIB doesn't mean
that it's not being responded to by the district or being responded to by the board. So, if I can leave you with anything, please take that away from from my presentation. And I know Miss West will give you some more specifics as it relates to that. Um, as you can see, I have a disclaimer up
above my my headsh shot here. The reason that I have to provide that disclaimer is because my role is I am the general counsel to the board of education. I represent the board of education. My presentation is for your own edification, but is not to be considered as legal uh advice. We do not establish
an attorney client uh relationship. And uh to echo sort of what Dr. Corbett mentioned before, if you have a question in relation to to your student, I would ask that we refrain from any names, any sort of identifying information because this is all public record. This is a
public forum. Um, and so anything that's uh sensitive or should be treated with confidentiality can be addressed with the administration at at a different time. Um, so a if I can get the next slide, the slide thereafter. Thank you. Um, so the anti-bullying bill of rights
is the statute that was passed by the New Jersey legislature uh in about 2011. And essentially what the legislature was attempting to do was to codify and establish a procedure for a school district to respond to what we have come
to colloquially know as the term bullying where the disconnect occurs and Dr. Corbett mentioned a little bit before is in order for an item to be a piece of conduct to be considered a hip it has to meet certain criteria that are
established by the law. So what the anti-building bill of rights does is it's uh creating standards of prevention. It's creating recordkeeping. It's creating procedure, but also it governs what the school has to do and how it has to respond. That's the goal of the anti-bully
anti-bullying bill of rights. I'm going to say that like 70 times and I'm going to tongue tie myself every time. Um so that's the goal of the law. I will admit, and this is a personal note, it's not a well-written law in my opinion. It's not comprehensive enough for one
and it is confusing for another. Um, most people who don't deal with the law on a daily basis like myself don't understand the sort of nuances that are in effect. So that's my goal here is to at least leave you with a little more information than you had maybe when you walked in the door. So that's ultimately
the goal for today. Uh, next slide Abe. So really what is HIB boiled down to? Hib itself which is a legal term of art. When I say legal term of art means that there are certain criteria that have to be met to meet that definition. The law
establishes eight different prongs. Now, you're going to see a difference between my presentation and Miss West's presentation as to the number of prongs, but that's not to say that what the district is doing is not in cohesion with the law. It's just to say I break it out a little bit in more in depth
because I like to go through each piece because like I stated earlier, if you don't have one piece, you don't satisfy the laws. Some of them are givens, right? Prong one deals with an act or a gesture. Anytime we have a a an incident between two students, you're going to
satisfy that prong. Whether it's a statement that's made uh a physical act or something to the effect of a a post, a social media post or writing or whatever, there's always going to be an act, a gesture, or communication. So, prong one is sort of a a foregone
conclusion in most cases. Um the other prongs deal with the the type of behavior, the um the reason that the the act or gesture was conducted as well as the impact. So those are what we're going to see as far as the prongs go. So
you have the first four prongs up top. The act adjuster like I spoke about is uh sort of a foregone conclusion. Uh but we're going to go a little bit more in depth of each. We're dealing with conduct that is reasonably perceived. Okay, so we'll talk about what that
means as being motivated by a distinguishing characteristic or a perceived characteristic. So there's a lot of pieces of part of that. When we get into that specific problem, I I'll unpack that whole thing. But when we're dealing with the situation, we're dealing whether it's reasonably
perceived. We're dealing with a distinguishing characteristic and we're dealing with motivation. Distinguishing characteristics are your typical what the law has sort of identified as protected classes, race, gender, uh, national origin, things that are I have
them listed up there. The reason that someone is being targeted, and you're going to hear me use that term, is because there of some perceived characteristic that makes them different than someone else. Now, there is also within the law sort of a catch-all provision, other distinguishing
characteristic. What does that mean? Well, that's the issue with the law. The law doesn't define what is an other distinguishing characteristic. They use it to be open-ended so that if there is a situation that arises and the reason is because of conduct that targets a
person based on a characteristic in general, whatever that characteristic might be, that could potentially create a situation where we're looking from a HIP perspective into whether the law is satisfied. Um to give you an example,
there is a reported decision that veganism can be considered an other distinguishing characteristic. Um the case deals with the child who had uh purported in the lunchroom that she was a vegan and um received some comments from other classmates stating to the
effect of you're not going to get enough protein, you're not going to get big and strong. This was an elementary trial that we were speaking about in that case. So as a result of that, a hib was filed and ultimately substantiated based on a distinguishing characteristic in her eating habits and her veganism. So that's just an example of another
distinguishing characteristic. There's no exhaustive list that I can pick tell you is we have a list of items that you have to check off to to satisfy that. It's does it fit the criteria of other distinguishing characteristic? Is that child being otherred for some reason? And if the answer to that question is
yes, then we may have another distinguishing characteristic and be able to satisfy that prong. Um the prong three is where it takes place. Typically we're dealing with situations that occur in the school building, occur um on a school bus, but in some
situations we have the advent of social media. With the advent of social media, we're dealing with conduct that occurs on Instagram, on Tik Tok, or other communications outside of the school building. There's a separate test as it relates to conduct which occurs out of school that could potentially result in
it being considered a hip in school. Um, so I'll go into a little bit about that. Uh, prong number four is probably the most difficult prong to sort of unpack because there's a lot there is it requires a sub that the the conduct
substantially disrupts or interferes with the orderly operations of school. Now there that's a lot of big lawyerly words, right? I I deal with these words on a day-to-day basis. It doesn't normally make sense to regular normal people who are dealing with these tests
in their everyday life. What does it mean to substantially disrupt or cause an interference with the orderly operation of the school? We'll unpack what that means, but recognize that all of these pieces have to be met. Abe, could I have the next slide, please?
So, for prongs one through four, each of those items had to exist. for prongs five, six, or seven. The statute specifically differentiates these three situations from the rest of the prongs in that only one of these three items
needs to be met in order for a HIP to occur or to be deemed a HI. So, if you've satisfied items 1, 2, 3, and four on the previous slide, and you have uh that a reasonable person would know that the the conduct would have the effect of physically or emotionally harming a
student, you've satisfied the HIP requirement. You don't also then need the actual impact of affecting the child or creating a hostile educational environment. If you have one of those three things, you've satisfy the
requirements. Okay. Um a next slide please. So what does it mean to have a hip? What does that terminology mean? Essentially the conduct that we're looking for is that the behavior has to be reasonably perceived to being targeting a student
and it can be proven either by the statement itself. There's an investigation that's conducted when a suspected HIV is reported and as part of that investigation, the statement itself can be taken at its word or there can be intrinsic evidence that's taken through uh statements of witnesses of the victim
or the aggressor. That's terminology that we use to refer to the person who is the victim of the HIB or the person who is allegedly having perpetrated the HIB. Um, and those procedures and those questions and those interview statements become relevant for determining what
actually occurred because you're not only investigating whether all the prongs are met, but you're also, let's not forget, there has to be an act. If we're unable to conclude that an act actually happened, we fail prong one and we don't actually have a hit. Um, so then we're going to talk about
some other examples of distinguishing characteristics. I gave you an example, veganism. There's also reported case law on economic status of a student and then substantial disruption and the the true test for substantial disruption is that children are quote unavailable for learning there that takes many different
forms. It's dependent on the child and if I can say hib specifically and whether or not a hip exists is unique to every situation. what the individual child is feeling as well as what the individual
circumstances are are unique to every investigation. So what might be considered a HI for one child or considered to be a substantiated HI in one situation may not with a different set of players or a different set of circumstances or a different set of
criteria satisfy the HI definition in another situation. It's a very casebycase basis. There's no bright line rule. And I think that's what makes it such a tricky law is because it's not one-sizefits-all. And when we do this sort of
individualized analysis, we get to a point where we're dealing with situations for one student that might create a hip, but for another wouldn't. Yes, please come up to the microphone. Thank you so much. >> So, I have a So, I have a question. Can
you clarify what you just previously stated when you said it's not it's a case by case basis which I understand but you're saying that it can and I'm just going to throw out fake fake fictitious things. I'm sorry. >> Sure. >> Um let's say one kid places another kid
in the headlock. Uh is that considered a hip? But in another situation, let's just say another kid and um another kid gets on um get goes in front of the cafeteria
and and he's humiliating another child. >> And one with the headlock, that's a hip, but the humiliating wasn't a hip. Can you kind of explain that and break that down for me? >> Yeah. Let's say, and I'll give a hypothetical using the situations that you just said. Let's say that the the
headlock was put in because I'm stronger and I'm bigger than you and I can take over and you're too small and you can't break free. >> That has a distinguishing characteristic. I put you in that headlock. I targeted you because of your size, because of your strength >> and you had all the other criteria. It
substantially disrupted your educational that would fit all the criteria of HIP and be sufficient. However, let's say that I'm giving a presentation in the classroom and you decided to yell out and and say something. >> This presentation stinks, right? And that humiliates me. Well, you didn't
necessarily say that because of some distinguishing characteristic that I have. Maybe it's just your own factual observation that the presentation was boring. Had nothing to do with me and had nothing to do with my characteristics. It's just you didn't like the topic presentation. Right >> now, I still had an impact. I was still
impacted by your statement to me. However, because it there's no distinguishing characteristic that motivated that behavior, it might not satisfy the HIP definition, but it could result in a code of conduct investigation and a code of conduct situation where >> you chose to make that statement in the
middle of the class and that disrupted the classroom. >> But it's not a HIP because it's not a distinguishing characteristic. It could be considered a code of conduct violation in that circumstance. Does that make sense? >> That does. Thank you. >> No problem. Any other follow-up questions on that just before I move through that point? Because I think
that's that's the key determination here. That's really the situation is we could have the same situation where one kid gets put in a headlock in one circumstance and another kid gets put in a headlock in one circumstance and it's a HI because it was because that kid was small and it was a HIV because not a HIV in this situation because it was just a
mutual fight between two students. And I'm going to get into why conflict is not a HIV. But the exact same conduct could be a HIV in one situation and not a HIV in another situation based on the other prongs at play. Uh so let's go to the next slide. So
prong one, the act itself. I know I kind of stated before that's sort of a bit of a throwaway, but I wanted to give you some examples of what we're talking about. Gestures, writing, verbals, physical acts. You have the definitions up there. don't subscribe to the theory of death by PowerPoint, so I'm not going to read it to you, but we're dealing
with the situation where there is an act. There was something that occurred. Okay? And so, you have the case citations there in case you feel like doing any sort of late reading and you have trouble sleeping at night, the statutory citations are up there for you. Um, but
18A37-14 is going to be the anti-bullying bill of rights, and I didn't stammer over it that time. Um so let's go to the the next slide. So this case deals with the Toms River case deals with a definition of the act itself. Uh it and it even
goes as far as to say that a single incident is sufficient potentially to establish a HIP. You don't need a series of incidents. You don't need back and forth uh repetitive actions. a single event is sufficient enough to potentially give rise to a harassment,
intimidation, or bullying incident. Um, the what's interesting about this Tom's River case is that it actually came down from the Supreme Court of New Jersey before the Hib law was written. So, it's not the best case to use in as an
example as a demonstration of HIB because it predates the law, but the courts have routinely uh cited to it in support of decisions that have arisen after the HIP law was drafting. The reason that I point that out to you is
because this case is, I think, a 2010 case, maybe even a little bit earlier than that. And you might say to me, well, she said that it was a 2011 law. How does a 2009 case have anything to do with a 2011 law? And I just want to I'll be upfront with you with my inconsistencies as much as I possibly
can because the only way that we continue to move forward as a community is to acknowledge the fact that there are inconsistencies in this law. There are inconsistencies in these cases. But when they're continuously adopted by the Supreme Court or any sort of court within New Jersey, it's really important to take note of what the language
states. So next slide. I'm going to spend a lot of time on the distinguishing characteristic because that along with the substantial disruption prong are the two most often where my clients determine that a hip does not exist. Either there's no
distinguishing characteristic or the act was not motivated by that distinguishing characteristic or there was no substantial disruption. So I want to peel back the distinguishing characteristic piece. 18A37-14
subsection B requires that the gesture or act be reasonably perceived as being motivated by an actual or perceived characteristic. So let's break that apart. reasonably perceived. That means a reasonable person standing in the face
of the offender or the victim would believe based on the circumstances that are being presented to them that the act only took place because of that distinguishing characteristic. So, put aside what the offender actually intended for a minute and put aside what
the victim actually felt for a minute. Did a would a reasonable person say under the circumstances that but for that distinguishing characteristic that act would have occurred? And if the answer to that question is yes, then
it's reasonably perceived as being motivated by that characteristic. So the law really sort of adds in the fact basically, and I'm saying this editorially, it's not what the actual statute says. The law doesn't really
care for this prong specifically what the actual intentions of the offender or the actual feelings of the victim were at this point in time for this particular prong. And the reason I say that is because there will be a time where that is relevant.
So if a reasonable person the and reasonleness means the same age and the same education level e socioam e economic status um whatever characteristic you want to say of the children who are involved would a
reasonable child in their circumstance determine that it was reasonably perceived as being motivated by that characteristic. So then it goes we go into being motivated by that has to be the reason why the conduct took place. If it wasn't
the reason that the conduct took place, we don't have it being motivated by. Okay. And then an actual or perceived characteristic. So an actual characteristic meaning that I actually am a female or I actually am make it up.
I don't know. >> There you go. Thank you for that. petite was the was the statement. Uh, a perceived characteristic might be my gender expression, might be my sexuality, might be my um
ability to process uh my mental disability, whatever it might be, you might perceive something about me. It's not it might not be true, but it's perceived to be as such. Uh so there are a number of pieces within the distinguishing characteristic
prong that I wanted to unpack for you. Um Abe next slide please. So here are some examples for you like I stated of actual or perceived characteristics. You might presume things that's perceived characteristics
or they might actually exist. It's still the same. It's still a characteristic whether it's true or not. Abe, next slide, please. So, the Tennifi case deals with um a situation regarding statements made on
Instagram. Um I really hope this was the right one. Yeah, this is the wrong slide. That's fine. This is for this is for Nexus, but we'll talk um I'll just summarize this. This case dealt with a situation where was posts on Instagram
and they were back and forth and it started as a situation where um one child was calling another child poor at soccer and that in rebutting that comment it escalated to a situation involving uh comments regarding one
student's religious background and heritage. The reason that this um escalated to a hip is that because of the the messages in the comparison. No reasonable person could conclude that these messages were basically trash talk.
What had started as a conflict escalated and as a result of that escalation ah existed. The reason that I brought this case to your attention, I'm realizing now that it's in the right spot. It's not the wrong slide, but it's in the right spot is because the commissioner of education has defined
that conflict is not inherently a hit. What is conflict? Right? Two students get into a fight in the hallway or there's a back and forth. I throw a pencil at someone and they throw something else back at me. Well, I threw that pencil at this person for whatever
reason and then they threw it back at me and now I complain about a h. Well, you didn't throw it because of a distinguishing characteristic. I had you threw it because I threw the pencil at you first. That's not a distinguishing characteristic. Um, conflict itself is not a hip. When conflict escalates to conduct which
targets someone, that could potentially be a HIP. So, this is kids going back and forth about their soccer skills. Now, all of a sudden, another child brings an actual or perceived characteristic into it. It could escalate to a hip and as a result of it getting into that distinguishing characteristic. We're now dealing with a
situation where we have to conduct a HIV investigation. Okay, so that's what the Tennifly case comes out and says. Next slide, please. The Esham case um deals with sorry I my slides are a little bit cut off uh being
motivated by a distinguishing characteristic and um the absence of a distinguishing characteristic even though it's a violent inter encounter does not necessarily give rise to a hip. Again, a situation like I stated before, just because something's a hib and it's a violent interaction,
just because something is not a HIB, when it's a violent interaction, it can still be addressed through the code of conduct. So, HIB being what we is not necessarily what we have colloquially come to known as bullying, which is a dispute amongst two students for one
reason or another. If it's not based on a characteristic, it may not be a HIV, but it could still be a code of conduct violation. Next slide, please. Prong three deals with the location of the incident. We're dealing with conduct that occurs either on school grounds on
a at a school sponsored event on the school bus or in some cases it may occur off school property if it satisfies the nexus requirement. Now, you may say to me, what does what's a nexus? What does that mean? And what when you establish a nexus, you
fall within the school's umbrella where the school has the capacity to assess discipline. There are a series of cases that are outside of the HIP context that state that conduct which occurs off school property could still potentially be
subject to school disciplinary action if it disrupts the orderly operation of schools. So the classic example is this CA. This is actually a Supreme Court case that came down recently. It's called Mahanoi. And the Mahanoi case is essentially a case out of Pennsylvania where a girl was unhappy with her
playing time on the volleyball team. And she sent a whole bunch of Snapchats out with a bunch of expletives and middle fingers saying, "F the volleyball team, f this," whatever it was. And as a result of it, somebody took a screenshot, brought it to the school district administration, and reported
her behavior. She was suspended from the volleyball team and disciplined as a result of her use of poor language and whatever it was. And the Supreme Court actually came down and said that the school district had overstepped its bounds in assessing discipline to that student because there was no disruption
to the operation of schools. The girl was expressing her first amendment right to be upset with the volleyball team. Nobody was harmed by her conduct. She sent the Snapchat to a handful of friends. None of them were offended by it. No one brought it into school to talk about it. It there wasn't a
firestorm of activity about her Snapchats or whatever she was stating. It was just one person decided that they were going to take a screenshot of it and bring it to the administration. And had that person not done it, nobody would have ever known that that behavior had even taken place. And the Supreme Court essentially said that because
there was no or disruption to the orderly operation of schools, there was not a nexus to connect the offschool conduct with inschool discipline. The same concept was adopted by the New Jersey legislature when they wrote this
HIP law. So if there is not if there is conduct that occurs off school property and it doesn't result in there being an orderly disruption to the operation of schools or disruption to the orderly operation of schools, you don't have a
nexus connecting the offschool conduct with the inschool discipline and it creates a situation where the school district's hands are tied as far as assessing discipline. Now you might say to me,"Well, what happens if as a result of out of school conduct, my
kid is now afraid to come to school?" And then I might say to you, well, what are we talking about afraid to come to school? Are we talking school refusal? Are we talking grades dropping? Because now we have a substantial disruption. And once we have a substantial disruption, we have a nexus. Substantial
disruption meaning the hip-rong four, which we'll talk about in a second. So they're a little closely linked, which is why it gets so confusing because when you talk about disruption to the orderly operation of school and you talk about substantial disruption, we're using the
same words, but we're talking about two different things. We're talking about how we bring out of school conduct into the school when we're talking about the orderly disruption of the orderly operations of school. But then we're talking about impact on the victim when we're talking about substantial
disruption to the operation of schools. It's the same words, which is why it's confusing and why I think this law really sucks when it's drafted the way that it is because it uses the same words to say two different things. And that's why it becomes a whole you know
what the statute that I also cited for you which is just sort of an editorial note if a school isn't school employees aren't aware of conduct that occurs outside of school they can't do anything about it
so I say this I know I'm speaking to a bunch of parents if you become aware of conduct that is occurring even outside of school but between two school age kids. Please still bring it to the administration's attention. Let us determine whether or not it's something that we can address and if
there's a nexus to it. We want to be able to communicate with you and keep your kids safe. And in doing so, I know Miss West will talk about what these situations are specifically as it relates to board policy, but I tell people when I give trainings to boards, to administrators, to whomever, teachers
all the time, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. If you think it's a hip and it could be a hip, report it as a hip and let us do our investigation so that we can determine whether or not it is in fact a hip. It might not be a hip, but
like I said earlier, just because it's not a hip, as far as the law is concerned, it still may be something that's worth addressing because our goal is to make sure that every kid that walks into these doors ha feels safe coming to school and has the tools that are necessary for them to be successful
in this environment. And if there's something going on that's preventing them from being successful in this school environment, we want to be able to address that. Okay. Uh, next slide, please. So these are just a a summary of the Ram Po Indian Hills case that talks about a
nexus. I talked a little bit about the Mahanoi case which is a little bit more of an easier way to see it but essentially it's a very similar situation in the Ramapo Indian Hills case where kids were at a party, one kid pulled down another kid's pants, took pictures of it, sent pictures of the the
child's naked body to another student. It ended up all over the school. That was enough to create a nexus. There's also a criminal component to that, but that's not my jurisdiction for this evening. Um, so that's sort of what we're talking about. It creates such a firestorm that
everybody knows about it. It's all that anybody can talk about it. If you're a second grade teacher and all that anybody can talk about is that Joey pushed Sally off the monkey bars this weekend at the park and it's all that anybody can talk about, we might have a nexus there. I need to know what the
distinguishing characteristic as to why Joey pushed Sally off monkey bars. But that might be what something that we're looking at. And that's the purpose of reporting potential hibs is so that we can do the investigation, determine what the actual facts and circumstances are, make conduct the interviews, ask the
questions, get to the bottom of what the real purpose was, and make a determination as it results to a hit. I gave you the the uh regulation language as well so that discipline can be imposed when it's reasonably necessary for the students
physical or emotional security and well-being and or for reasons relating to the safety, security, well-being of other students, staff or school grounds. So if by nature of the off-campus conduct it's discipline can be imposed
when it's reasonably necessary to address all of the things that this the regulation addresses safe security safety security and welfare of kids. That's what we're talking about here. Next slide please. Substantial disruption.
What substantial disruption means as far as how the law has defined it is what is that a child must be unavailable for learning. Okay, this is a high threshold. A kid a child who is resilient and it impacts them excuse me
for maybe a day may not satisfy the substantial disruption prong. So the law as far as the law is concerned, sorry parents, your kid is too well adjusted to be considered a victim of a hit. You did such a great job in raising them to be resilient people and bounce back from
adversity. The law is not going to identify it as a hit. But we know the code of conduct is available. We need to advocate for our kids in that circumstance. I'm just making that editorial note. So you'll all leave here knowing how I feel about this law. Uh so again, this is a high threshold.
The child who as a result of the potential hib is unavailable for learning. So that's what the law defines substantial disruption as. Again, nobody knows what that means. Still taking substantial disruption, which is a big word, and putting it into other big
words, which is unavailable for learning. Um, next slide, please. So, the MC case deals with a situation where off-campus conduct, one child, a student with disabilities, was following another child home for school and she felt threatened as a result of that
following. There was a number of a series of interactions between the victim and the aggressor and the child who was the victim felt uh uncomfortable enough that she was reporting the behavior that occurred outside of school. However,
the child admitted as part of the investigation that while she was concerned in the moment, once that moment ended, she no longer had any reason to be concerned. Her grades weren't impacted. She didn't have any trouble sleeping. She was still attending class. She didn't have any issues as a result of that. So the
commissioner of education determined that there was no HI because there w the the record was quote devoid of any evidence that the victim was so upset as to not be fully available for learning. So that's where that language comes from.
What type of behaviors are going to be considered as unavailable for learning and then subsequently as a substantial disruption? That's listed in the next slide. These are just examples of questions that I always tell my investigators, these are the questions that you should be attempting to answer.
And typically, when you get these types of answers, you're going to be seeing more of a substantial disruption. Things that are kids missing class, not just because of a like an illness, but because they're unafraid, unable to come to school because they're paralyzed in
fear. Repeated uh visits to the guidance office. um a straight A student going from being a straight A student to now all of a sudden C's and D's and seems to be no recovery coming. Uh those kinds of things are what we're saying. The kids can't focus in school. They're off
dillydallying or or walking away from the the desk, whatever it might be. So these are some examples, some questions that I suggest that my investigators ask when interviewing victims to determine whether substantial disruption has been reached. Um
the one question that I like the most is question number five. Did the students circle of friends change because education and being available for learning is not always just in the classroom context, right? We are educating kids not only on what's
contained in school books, but we're educating kids on becoming welladjusted adults. Social interactions are part of that whole educational experience. So if as a result of an interaction, a child's not
sitting at the same lunch table that they were sitting at previously or they're not hanging around the same group of friends that they were, that might be sufficient to establish subst substantial disruption. If there's the reason for that occurrence is not just the child saying, "I just decided
they're just not good people. It's not that they bother me." it it we're looking at it from more of the lens I don't feel comfortable hanging out with this group of people anymore because of the way that they made me feel as a result of X Y or Z actor or gesture.
It's not so much they're just not my type of people anymore, right? Relationships, especially for kids, come and go all the time. We need to be assessing the root of the problem. Is the root of the problem you're just growing apart? Or is it the root of the problem you're uncomfortable hanging out
with the group of people that you were previously hanging out with because of some circumstance that gave rise to an altercation that really should be treated as a HI if there is a distinguishing characteristic. Next slide.
Just some more questions that we look at uh for purposes of substantial disruption. We're looking at routines. We're looking at behaviors. We're looking at emotions. We're looking at changes to who the student is as a person. Right?
Give you a personal story. I'm a crier. That is how I process my emotions. My substantial disruption, my change in behavior was that I'm so disconnected from whatever the situation is that I'm not crying. That's a change in behavior. It can be positive as well
as negative. positive in the sense of it's not something that we would normally respond to as an alarm, right? A child who is normally an emotional child who is all of a sudden stoic and distant, that might be a positive to some people.
However, for that child, it's a change in behavior. It may be the result of a substantial disruption. May I have the next slide, please? So the first four prongs like I stated all have to be satisfied for HIP to con
to be substantiated. In addition to those four prongs all being yes and all being in existence, one of the following three also have to exist. Okay? So it's an and for the first four and it's an or for the next three.
So you have the statutory text and I just wanted to stress the ors here for you. So that's why they're in a different color. Uh but we're dealing with what a reasonable person should know. What we talked about earlier, who a reasonable person is, right? We're taking that as a third party coming in completely neutral to the set of
circumstances that that that they would know that the behavior would have the effect of physically or emotionally harming a student or damaging the student's property or placing the student in reasonable fear of harm. So I know that if I
say to Rich your suit is ugly. Oh, don't make it up. And I know that that's going to have the a reasonable a reasonable person would know that that's going to have the ability or the the impact of emotionally
or physically harming him. That might be satisfied as part of that prong. Now, you might say to me, well, what's the distinguishing characteristic there? Could you say that other distinguishing characteristic is his sense of style? Maybe. I don't know. don't have case law on that but that's a possibility can have that qu
conversation the investigation is going to come to that so if I have a reasonable person would believe that the statement and the conduct would have the impact of impacting the victim we have a situation where there's potentially a
satisfaction of these this prong prong it really should be instead of prong five six and seven it should really be five a b and c but that's my fault Um, if you don't have a reasonable person would think that that was the impact, we'll go to item B. It has the effect of
insulting or demeaning any student or group of students. Okay, so I'm actually impacted. I, as the victim, am actually impacted by the conduct. A reasonable person would think that. Why would that bother me? But I'm actually impacted. This is what we call the eggshell plaintiff rule. So, it's a a concept
that you learn when we go to law school, and you may just know it just colloquially in your lives, but when a plaintiff files a lawsuit, we take them as they are in that moment. The eggshell plaintiff theory is if your bones were made of eggshells and I threw you off a
roof and every single one of your bones breaks, I have to take you as you are. But if your bones were made of steel and I threw you off a roof and nothing was broken, I take you as you are. So, you had no damage. Somebody who's brittle or made of eggshells would break a lot more
than somebody who's made of steel. That's when we're dealing with the resiliency of the child. If you have a child, like I said before, who is incredibly resilient, brushes things off, you might not have an impact to them here. So, you might not satisfy
this prompt. But if the behavior would cause a reasonable person to believe that that person would be impacted, go back to item A. you'd still satisfy the situation. So just because the student themselves is not impacted doesn't mean
that you don't have a hip. If a reasonable person thinks that someone would be impacted, then yes, you would have a hip. And then the last situation is sort of a broad catchall, which is that it creates a hostile educational environment.
Hostile educational environment is sort of a term of art that comes out of the New Jersey law against discrimination. We've all dealt in workplaces with hostile workplace environment, right? You make con uh comments, situations,
uh circumstances result in the workplace being such that it is hostile and I feel unsafe coming to work. It's the same sort of concept here in the context of education, but it's not a workplace, it's an educational environment. So if as a result of the conduct
it becomes so severe and pervasive such that anyone in that circumstance would be unable to learn, we have a hostile educational environment. Uh next slide please. I I always keep the the Montgomery
Township case in here because I find it really interesting. Even if a child's statement is from a good place, it can still be considered a hip. In this circumstance, we're dealing with u a ser a number of high school girls and one of the high school girls is losing weight
at a rapid frequency and her friends are concerned with that behavior. So, they bring it to her attention and they ask if she has an eating disorder and she blows it off and she says, "No, I don't." So they go to her boyfriend and try to get him involved and see if there's anything that they can do to
help her, if there's anything going on. And she tells her parents and her parents say, "These girls and the boyfriend are bullying my child and calling her anorexic or whatever it might be." School district opens a hip investigation. A hib is substantiated.
the agg uh sub substantiated aggressors appeal that determination because they weren't doing it for to target her or for purposes of being negative to her. They were doing it for purposes of helping her or attempting to help her
and she rejected that help. The law doesn't care what the actual intent behind the statement is. If you meant it from a good place or a bad place, the law for as far as this case is concerned, the commissioner of education determined that the intent behind the statement, whether it's for good or for
bad, doesn't matter. If it meets the prongs of HIP, it can still be determined to be a HIP. And I always like to throw this one in there because it's seems nonsensical, right? Like if a kid wants to help another kid, particularly as it relates to their health, they should be able to do that. Well, that's why this law is an
imperfect science. And I bring that to your attention just to say how badly I hate this law. I'll do it. I'll abide by it. We have to follow it. But it's imperfect. It's not practical the way that it's written. And that's why we're here so that we can all learn how
impractical it is. Um so then I have the Readington case in here, which is the resilient students. The situation involved uh school spirit day. The school colors were all yellow. um somebody made a comment to an Asian student that he didn't have to wear yellow because he was already yellow.
They um made an invest conducted an investigation and when they met with the child who was the victim of the statement, the child said, "Well, I am Asian." And so it didn't really bother him. So they determined that there was no impact because the student himself was not actually impacted as a result of
it. Um they also called him a know-it-all. I clearly didn't proofread my own slides. Um, and that he as a result of it, he said, "Yeah, well, I am smart. I am a know-it-all because I do know it all." He's not impacted. He's a resilient
student. The law determined because he's a resilient student, there's not an actual impact. There's no substantial disruption. Um, nor is there a satisfaction of either prongs five, six, or seven. And then the last next slide I bring back to the the Tom's River case because
of the fact that it deals with the hostile educational environment. If any of you are familiar like I said with the law against discrimination to determine whether there is a hostile work environment requires that the behavior be severe and pervasive such that there's deliberate indifference by
the employer. Same terminology is adapted by the Tom's River case for an educational environment. The behavior to create a hostile educational environment, the behavior has to be severe and pervasive enough that a reasonable person would be impacted as a
result of the educational environment. And there has to be instead of the employer, we're dealing with the school here, deliberate indifference to reacting to the behavior. Then we're dealing with a law against discrimination issue in addition to a HIP issue, but that opens a whole
another can of worms that is not within the scope of today's discussion. So those are the prongs of HIP. I want to talk to you a little bit about now what the investigation timelines are required under the statute. I know that Miss West is going to go into probably a
little bit more detail about that. Um, but I really kind of wanted to give you an overview. Abe, you can skip two slides, please. Um this is an outline of the HIB investigation when the event from when the event occurs to when it is wholly
resolved through the state the uh the process. These are all spec specifically listed within the statute on the day in which the HIBA is occurs. It is supposed to be verbally reported to the principal of the school. Now you might say to me,
well my kid didn't tell me this happened for two weeks. Does that change anything? No, it doesn't. But when it's reported to you, please fill out the form 338, which is on the district's website, so that we can commence the the the investigation. Uh so within the the
in this is the law presumes that someone else is witnessing the act that is an alleged HIP. So the HIP act is witnessed or reported to a staff member. staff member is obligated to on the same day make a verbal report to the principal.
Um within two school days they have to follow up with a written report and that commences the investigation. Typically the investig the investigation takes 10 days for completion. However, I say typically because of the fact that if the school district is closed for any
reason or um I had a situation a couple of months ago where every kid who was a potential witness had the flu and they were out repeatedly for two weeks and they couldn't get anybody to interview. That's going to delay the investigation. However, my my recommendation whenever I
talk to um my principles or my anti-bullying specialists who are conducting this investigation is do your best within the time that you're given in the circumstances that you're provided, document everything. If so, if you wanted to interview so- and so on Wednesday and Wednesday was day 10 and
so and so was absent on Wednesday, document that within the HI report. Uh once an investigation is completed, the investigation is presented to the superintendent who makes a determination as to whether to substantiate a HIB or not. That determination is then reported
to the board of education at the first board meeting following the conclusion of the investigation. That's when the board just gets a report that here's all the hibs that have occurred since the last board meeting and here's all the information as it relates to that. The board does not take action at the first
meeting. They simply review the information that's presented to them. And under the statute, once it's presented to the board of education, a parent has the right to review and receive any information within five school days of the initial report to the board of education. Now, you might say
to me, well, I don't get to know anything about my kid being investigated for a hip before 5 days after the first board meeting following the conclusion of the investigation. The law states you don't get information till 5 days.
However, I always say best practice is keep parents informed as the process is ongoing. Notify them when the investigation is conducted. Have make a phone call document when that phone call is made so that we're able to say, "Okay, we're doing this investigation.
If you have any information that you'd like us to consider as part of it, we'll consider it, but we have to this timeline to complete it." Um, after the first board meeting is completed, there's a statutory requirement that a
written notification come from the board of education notifying parents that their child was involved with the HI. There's a standard letter that goes out uh provides information on what the next steps are and advises parents of their right to a hearing.
Uh, Abe, can you go to the next slide, please? So this is the two meeting rule. Sort of a colloquial phrase. The first meeting is when the board of education after the investigation's completion, the board of education receives a report. And then the second meeting is when the board
votes to either adopt, modify, or reject the superintendent's recommendation. Typically, if things work the way that there should they should work, a parent who receives a letter following the first report to the board of education
at the first meeting will be notified that a superintendent has made a recommendation regarding your child's HIV and the HI is being substantiated. Here are your appeal rights. That's what's contained in the letter. Typically, most parents will respond, okay, well, I want to exercise my right
to a hearing. I want to request that hearing. In most cases, that hearing can take place between um either sometime between the first and second meeting or in all likelihood at the second meeting before the board has taken a vote. However, the statute allows parents um
six uh 60 days following receipt of information regard uh to to request a hearing. So let's say that the first board meeting is use your board meetings as an example. You have a meeting on May 6th and you
have your next meeting I think the May 27th. Make it up if that's the day. Am I right? Okay. >> So let's say that the a HIB is completed investigation is completed today. The next board meeting on May 6, the board of education is going to receive a report about that HIV investigation and
the the superintendent's recommendation as to whether or not to substantiate that HIP. The next day following the board meeting, a letter is going to go out to the parents notifying of that containing all the information regarding your HIPPA appeal rights to the board of education. You contact the board of education and
say, "Okay, I want to have a hearing before the board. I disagree with the determination. I want to present any information that I have." The board is going to say to you, "Okay, great. We have to hold your HIP hearing within 10 days of your request. It's May 7th. May 17th is when we're supposed to have this
HIP hearing. We have a board meeting scheduled for May 27th. Would you be willing to We have no action taken between the 17th and the 27th. Would you be willing to appear on the 27th for purposes of a hip hearing? Great. Thank you for You come to the board meeting. We in executive session you
present your case to the board of education for its consideration to either affirm, modify or adopt the superintendent's recommendation and the board of education takes action at that point. If for some reason the letter gets lost in the mail and there is no you don't have you're not in between the
two board meetings and the board already has taken action, you still as long as we're within the 60 days have the ability to appeal the board's determination. We have to hold the HIPP hearing within the timeline that you've requested it. If we determine that we're not going to
keep our same prior action, like let's say the board of education determines that it's going uh affirm the superintendent's recommendation and then a a a hibaring request comes in. You have the hearing, we want to change the superintendent's the previous recommendation that we gave. We want
instead of affirming the recommendation, we're going to reject it. Now, we have the ability as the board of education to modify our prior resolution, resend our prior resolution, and adopt a new resolution. If we want to keep the same action, we still want to affirm it despite the evidence that's been presented at the hearing. The board of
education, my recommendation is always to be reaffirm your prior affirmation. Still take action. Once the board takes action at that meeting, whether you there was a hip hearing or not, that triggers a 120 day I'm sorry, 180 days
for the division on civil rights and 90 days to the commissioner of education. Um, Abe, can you skip two slides? Yeah. So, this this is is as it relates to the parents rights. So, 18A37-15 deals with parents rights.
I just gave you a huge overview. These bullet points say a lot more succinctly than I am. So, once the board takes action, that starts the 90-day clock for purposes of an appeal to the commissioner of education. Let's say the superintendent
recommends that the HIB be affirmed. The board of education, despite having a HIP hearing and receiving the EV the evidence presented by a parent as to why it should not be a HIB, the board determines that it's insufficient given the rest of the HIP report. So, the board's still going to affirm the
superintendent's recommendation. parent has the right to appeal that decision to the commissioner of education and request that the commissioner of education determine whether or not the board of education's action in finding the hib was arbitrary, capriccious or unreasonable. Okay. Well, what does that
mean? arbitrary, capriccious or unreasonable is the standard of review at the commissioner of education level for any board action in order to sustain and again this is I cannot provide you with legal advice as to what is considered arbitrary, capriccious or unreasonable. I can just
tell you that the standard is if the board's decision is arbitrary, capriccious or unreasonable, the commissioner of education has the authority to overturn it. It is a very high standard. I will say that. Um, and then next slide, please.
In 2022, the uh New Jersey legislature modified the HIP law. It was originally written in 2011. They made some revisions to it um including including reporting timelines um mandating that a form 338 be in existence and be filed um
increased penalties for parents whose children have committed cyber harassment. New Jersey is on the front lines of that behavior. So what we're dealing with in that situation is parents can be held responsible if their children engage in cyber bullying of another child. That is a unique
situation. Um, I believe, and don't quote me on this, New Jersey and Massachusetts, maybe one other state have it. There's not a lot of states that have adopted this action, but you're seeing more and more kind of come aboard. And most of these provisions became effective in July 2023. So,
they're not really new at this point in time, but still, I always like to point it out because there was a revision. the um the legislature doesn't often look at education laws, but when they do, they make some pretty monumental changes, and that's kind of what occurred here.
So, that is the extent of my legal presentation for you. I kind of may have taken a lot of Miss West's thunder, but she is here to speak to you this evening about board specific and district specific issues. Um, if I if if I can
pop in at any point, I'm more than happy to. But thank you all for your attention. I really appreciate my and allowing me to have the sort of candid conversation that we just had. And thank you very much for your time and attention. I'm going to stand. I was a teacher and I always stood when I taught. So, I have
to be able to stand. Dr. Corbett just informed me I have 45 minutes to present my slides. No, I'm going to try to limit myself to 15 minutes or less. We do have some redundancy in the information. The difference is I'm going to be much
briefer, particularly starting with the prongs. So, you'll see as I go along. Uh, next slide, please. And please help yourselves to coffee, cookies, water. I'll start the next slide before he gets there. Who am I? I'm the district
director of human resources. I'm also the affirmative action officer, the title nine coordinator, and the anti-bullying coordinator. So, anything that involves any kind of harassment, whether it's ch among children, children to adult, adult to child, um sexual in
nature, it's on me. So, very, very fun titles. I used to hate grading papers in English and now I get to deal with all the fun stuff. Next slide, please. The definition of hib. Miss Mora Jezy, who I always mispronounce your name. Tell me. >> J.
>> More Jay-Z. I usually say more geese. So, I'm getting better. more Jay-Z um did go through it through it. Single incident or a series of incidents. Next slide. I don't read um again these are the four prongs. Reason well let me talk about prongs. She had seven. We have
them listed as four and I'll explain why in a minute. Reasonably perceived um takes place on school property substantially disrupts or prong four which is the three-parter. Next slide. I share this because this sits on our district HIV website. Why does she have
seven prongs? Why do I have four? Uh we use a platform called hipster. Prior to hipster we used one called my K12. They have taken the seven prongs and actually made them four. So prong one is it reasonably dis perceived prong two does
it take place on school property? Prong three substantially disrupts. Prong four is the eitheror one. Next, I'm going to go fast. Abe. All right. Again, she went over these and we talk about the characteristics. When we fill
out a form, there are a total of 11 distinct characteristics of which nine are on the right. The tenth is on sorry nine are on the left, the 10th is on the right. Whereas we can't give you an exhaustive list of what other
distinguishing characteristic is. I have a few listed here. Um, height, weight, I mentioned how petite Miss Jeezy is, more Jay-Z is. I also am quite petite. So, you know, it's the opposite issue. Um, socioeconomic, hair color,
style, maybe I decided to have an emotional moment and cut bangs and people start making fun of me. That's a distinguishing characteristic. birthmark freckles, accentless stutter, the way someone walks, academics, um among others. And I added one
actually from a previous presentation, imbalance of power. So if a situation continues to occur and a kid becomes a repeated target, it could show an issue of imbalance of power and they've become target. That actually has started to filter into other distinguishing
characteristic. Next slide. Um the most common one is it's there is no distinguishing characteristic and that just means there is something going on but it does not fit any of the characteristics whatever it is it's conflict whatnot. Um and again it we did
quote one of your cases. Next slide. Again I'm keeping mine short. Um, our district website does have all of our forms listed, the policy, uh, the district HIV reports and grades, which were just released last Wednesday and placed on the district website last
Thursday. The district anti-bullying specialists along with their teams, which we'll talk about um, later on in the slides, review that those questions and submit their own self- assessment scores. the state approves them as well as the contact information of all of our
anti-bullying specialists and their school safety teams. Now, obviously the underlined items are links. I'm not sure about your presentation. Mine will be posted on the district website. So, you'll be able to access all the links. >> We will post what I'll do is combine
them into one presentation and we'll post both. Next slide, please. This is the main screen. If you notice the prongs are there. I did cut bits and sorry I can't move away. I did cut bits and pieces out but you can see and you'll see it closer later above my face
is reporting form 338. It's also listed under the links. It's the very first link on the bottom of the page along with the policy which is also in another section but again we want to make it easy to find on the HIV page. You don't see it on the screen. Further down are
the districts the each individual schools HIV teams as well as a presentation we give every year. Next slide, please. All right. So, what do we do in Rockaway? Miss Moore Jay-Z went through all of the legal pieces. I'm going to go piece by piece to what we do. This is where I'm going to get
wordy. So, the parents call, email, or complete the form 338. Sometimes we receive an email. Because of the severity of the situation, the principal or the counselor will create the form 338 and copy paste your email right into it as the body of what the concern is.
fill in all the pieces. We're going to focus on the parents filling in or the students themselves actually have the right to fill in filling in the form. Principal looks at the facts as stated and determines if it would be found as a HIB if all facts
were true. In other words, it addresses one of the 10 prongs. Made fun of my bangs, my petiteness, um race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, whatever all those characteristics are. If it touches on any of those, we automatically open the HIB. If we read
the incident and it's Anita hit Dr. Corbett, Dr. Corbett, Corbett, doesn't say that Dr. Corbett hit me back, but it just says Anita hit Dr. Corbett. There's nothing in there that would potentially make it a HIP. That could be principal's discretion. We use it very, very rarely. I think within
each year, we've used principal discretion as little as zero times and as many as four times in all the years I've been the coordinator. So if yes, which more than likely yes, we we launch the investigation
and we do interview many staff and students. Parents are informed if students are interviewed. I ask you this as a parent. I have a middle schooler at home. Please remind your child to always tell the truth whether they are the alleged victim, aggressor, or witness.
It's not about I don't want to get in trouble, so I'm not going to admit to it. Sometimes in order to truly solve a situation, it's our best bet is to convince our children to encourage our children to just say what happened. Um, as a parent,
what I say to my child is if you lie to me and I catch you, I'm going to be upset with you. If you tell me the truth, my response is always going to be much lighter. Um, the HIV is investigated within 10 school days. And that's a that's a key component that I want to touch on. There are exceptions.
Exceptions include we get a report. It's obvious obviously a situation. We have to report it to the police. The police investigate it. It's day one. The day we open it, if the police open an investigation, our day one is frozen.
So, it's day one, day one, day one. It could go on for 20 days. So, day two becomes that 21st day after the police return the case to us. Another exception, uh, we did I liked your exception with the flu. That actually happened here. I don't know if you remember that here or from somewhere
else, but that actually did happen here at Copeland right around Christmas time, December. Another good exception that occurs is we're on like day eight, nine, we're getting ready to close the case and all of a sudden we get dumped another bunch of facts. We have to interview another group of five or six
students that could extend us past the 10 days. Next slide, please. When the case is closed, the principal add student consequences remedial me measures contacts the parents usually via phone call and email and then of the
alleged victims and the alleged aggressors and forwards it to the superintendent, superintendent and the anti-bullying coordinator, that's me. Review all cases in detail in preparation for the first board meeting. As soon as we come in on Thursday morning after the board
meeting, the letters are sent home twice. Once certified, once regular mail at the second board meeting, what Miss Mor Jay-Z just said, uh the board members vote to affirm the fidenings and then the second letter is sent home.
NB is Latin, not portion of the HIB is discussed in public. So we don't sit at a public meeting and say, so you know, Anita beat up Dr. Corbett because Dr. Corbett. What' you do, Doc? Something.
Dr. Corbett did something that was He called me petite. I like that. I like that. I've never been called petite in my life. Um except by myself. No. All jokes aside, because of what we're not going to sit here and name people and discuss
anything in public. Everything is redacted. Reports are always initials or student ID numbers. We don't put any identifying information on any report even that are reviewed. Um, and that's very important. Another thing that I
want to say specifically when I say please ask your children to tell the truth. And this is something I do. I investigate anything. It's somewhere on a later slide, but I'm going to touch it now. Um, I investigate anything that involves a staff member because um, a teacher and the counselor are in the
same union for example. We wouldn't cross those lines. So, anything that involves a staff member as a named potential aggressor, I immediately investigate. I call the parent as I speak to the students with the student there. So, if you get a phone call from me, I say, "Hi, I'm so and so. This is
what I do. Your child's not in trouble. They're here with me. I just wanted to let you know I just met with them." And that you will have an opportunity to talk to your child so you know they're also um okay. I advise my anti-bullying specialists to do the same. Next slide, please.
All right. If you want to appeal the outcome of a HIB, it is listed in both letters how you do it, but it is also in the district policy which is linked here. Next slide. All right. So, parents call, email, complete a form 338. As mentioned
earlier, reporting form 338 is there. Next slide. And you just click on that. And next slide. It opens up this beautiful screen. You can select the language. There's a whole slew of languages. If you're not comfortable writing in English, you can switch. At the bottom,
you identify your role. I'm family. I'm the student or non- staff. I'm a staff. At that point, you select the school. It takes you to the next slide. You do not have to identify yourself by name. If you are filling out a HIP form, just so you know, you do have to identify your
role. A parent, student, or staff member can complete the form and should if you are concerned. I always say when in doubt, fill out the form. We're better off investigating something and not finding something. I'm I purposely
shifted not to have my back to anybody, and I've had my back to you the whole time. Um, and it automatically triggers an incident number. It is automatically recorded. I have a spreadsheet, a running spreadsheet that I keep. Complete as much information as you can.
Um, scenario, my last name is West, my maiden name was not. If you can't spell my maida name and you come close or you put like we will find who you're talking about. We will figure it out. Give us as much information as you can. On another note,
and this time I'm going to pick on you by first name. If you just write Richard, the odds are there's at least 27 Richards in the district. It'll be a lot harder for us to find. I'm the only Anita in the district. Easier to find that kind of situation. So, just keep that in mind when you're giving us
information. You have the ability to upload documents and pictures into the form 338. So give us anything you have. And then once submitted, allow the specialist to conduct the investigation. Offering assistance can sometimes be a hindrance.
I'm going to touch on that a little bit later in some areas of what I do as a parent. Did I mention I have a middle schooler? I used to run an alternative ed high school and my middle schooler challenges me more than my high schoolers did. Next slide, please. All right. reporting procedures. Just so you
know, as employees, we are mandatory reporters. All board members, school employees, volunteers, and contract service providers are required to verbally report alleged violations to the principal or designate, and we must initiate. Again, we encourage everybody
to fill out the form 338. We can go in and fill it out. We do. We must, as Miss Moresy pointed out, we must have a form 338. So if whoever reports it doesn't fill it out, we do. But if it comes from the source, it's much more authentic.
Next slide, please. These are our district anti-bullying specialists. And I mentioned this before. I'm on there as anti-bullying coordinator. Anything involving staff members is me. Next slide. All right. What do the anti-bullying specialists do? Well, they chair their school safety team. They
lead the investigations of all the reported hibs within their buildings and they act as the primary school official responsible for preventing, identifying and addressing incidents of hib in school. This includes the lessons they teach in character counts. Character
strong. Character strong. Thank you. Next slide. All right. The team that they create, they are the chair as the anti-bullying specialist. Their principal is on the team. There's always a teacher on the team. And when I say teacher, teacher could be teacher, child
study team member, um other adult in the building. It doesn't necessarily have to be an instructional teacher. It could be like an occupational therapist, a different counselor. Uh a parent or a guardian is always on the team and other members determined by the principal. If
you look at our teams, we have schools that have seven staff members and three parents. We have schools that have one additional staff member. Uh it's up to the school. Again, they are uh that the teams are formed to develop, foster, maintain I hate reading slides, so it's very rare that I do. A positive school
climate, including HIP issues. They must meet at least two times per school year, and they identify and address patterns of HIV. They also fill out that self assessment every year. Next slide. All right. The investigation time frame, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it
because Miss Moray did. It is written here. It will be posted on the website. U next slide. All right. Again, within five school days, you can uh you have to get the reports. We mail it out the next day, which gives us that timeline as long as the post office is working with us. The
appeals are all listed there as was already addressed. Next slide. Um again, the findings, the letters that are formally come out are sent out from the board secretary who is our school business uh administrator. So, you will
get them twice again, regular mail and certified mail. Next slide. And then of course there are the findings. There are non-HIB events that are not code of conduct violations. It's a misunderstanding. It's a conflict. It's a discussion. There is the HIP defined as defined by the anti-bullying
bill of rights um and district policy. And there is a code of conduct violation. Anything else to be clear any type of discipline is due to code of conduct violation. The HIB is meant to
investigation is meant to mitigate solve the issues. The actual uh I just said the word and I forgot it already. The actual uh consequences are directly related to the code of conduct. You're going to >> Can I just add ahead to that?
>> Hib is a legal term. So, HIP, there's actually not any portion of the anti-bullying bill of rights that says if you're quote unquote guilty of a HI or HIP is substantiated that this type of discipline needs to be assessed.
Discipline is assessed through the code of conduct. So, in reality, whether or not something is a HIB or not doesn't impact whether discipline is assessed. And I should have mentioned that earlier. That's why we're here to to work
together. Next slide, please. All right. This goes through what is a conflict versus what is a HIB. HIB is one-sided. One or more students are victims of one or more persons aggression as it applies to the definition. The intent is to
physically or emot emotionally hurt conflict. It's mutually competitive. It's an interesting word to use for conflict. Um or opposing action or engagement. It does include disagreements, arguments, and fights. And it is a normal part of growing up and of life. I've started to refer to
some of the things my son does. Again, 12 is interesting as age appropriate inappropriateness. Some of the things they do, you kind of have to take a step back and go, really? Next slide, please. All right. Um, reprisal, retaliation, prohibited. If you want to jump in on
this one, we do not believe in retaliation. Retaliation is not part of HI. If something does occur, we have had situations where a counterhip is open because of retaliation. So, we do not um we do not tolerate that. Next slide, please. All right. Some warning signs of
HIPS. Again, I don't want to read all of these, but again, comes home with damaged or missing clothing or other belongings. Um, here's a fun one. Mom, uh, I had to turn in my Chromebook cuz it broke. Unless it's a very clumsy child or me,
the odds are they're not just constantly, especially with like the intensity with which we buy protectors for Chromebooks. um reports losing items such as money, books, electronics, unexplained injuries, um constantly not feeling well, having trouble sleeping,
changes in eating habits, is causing self harm, is not eating in school, and is coming home like ravenous, running away from home, let's move, I want to change schools, things of that nature, seem socially isolated with few if any
friends or as you pointed out earlier clear a change in friends. Next slide. Um is not talking to friends like before. Again, is afraid of going to school. Grades are slipping. This is a point we sometimes discuss. I
think if you have a kid whose grades all of a sudden magically improve with changes in in social interactions, it could mean something. Appear sad, moody, angry. um god forbid talking about suicide, feeling helpless, feeling like
they're not good enough, blaming themselves for their problems, um avoid going to certain places. I don't want to go on the field trip, I'm going to stay in school. What kid wants to sit in school when they can go on a field trip? Those are things to be concerned about. Behaviors are changing. Next slide. Um
before I get to additional resources, I want to share a little bit about what I do. Again, I want to take the legal side of it and bring the parent into it. middle schooler, seventh grade, he's going to be 13 soon. What do I do to do like as a parent for my child? One, I
check his phone on a regular basis. I monitor his activities. Who are you chatting with? Whether it's the game, whether it's the messenger kids, whether it's the chat. It was actually quite cute. Uh I was driving him to soccer two days ago and on the way home he goes, "I told my friend because they exchanged numbers in the car. He can't text me
that stuff because my mom checks the phone." And I'm like, don't tell people, but that's okay. Um, I do not allow him to have any social media. He has zero social media accounts. He's asked me for Instagram. I said, absolutely not. I also was not going to buy him a phone till he graduated 8th grade, and I had to give in at the beginning of seventh
grade. Um, I limit his hours of phone activity. And probably the most important thing I do, his phone charges downstairs in the living room. It is not allowed in his bedroom at any if it's 2:00 in the afternoon and he goes up there, I'm not worried about it. But at night, you're not even going up there
before bed to relax. You're downstairs, you put your phone down, then you go up. Um, probably the the thing I want to just shout out, I do not text or contact his friends, but I give him guidance on how to uh handle situations with his
friends. Sometimes as parents, we want to jump in and be like, "Hey, that's not appropriate." Or, "Hey, how's my kid doing?" We want to try to avoid those kinds of things. we're better off on helping them do that. Um, again, these are additional resources. They are all
on the district HIV website, but I did also share them here. And I think I limited myself to 45 minutes, boss. Um, I want to just say next slide. And thank you very much in a multitude of languages. Thank you.
Let me throw things at you guys. >> All right. I took copious notes when during this presentation really quick. I because you've been sitting there very patiently for a long period of time. From the superintendent's perspective, I have to mention a couple of things that I think is very relevant. Um,
we're interested in the truth. And um, I'm not suggesting that any students that we have are liars. But I will say that very often when you're interviewing young people, they're reticent and reluctant to tell the truth. Right? They don't want to lie, but they're reluctant to tell the truth. Why? Because first of
all, they don't want to be a rat. They're afraid. If I get called down to the office and I say and I'm a witness to not even the victim or the aggressor, but I'm a witness and I tell the principal this, then my friends are going to find out and I'm a rat. I don't
want to be a rat. So that has to do with retaliation. They're afraid of retaliation. And I try to assure parents that we do whatever we can, the best we can to guarantee that there's no retaliation, as much as we can. All right. The other thing, by the way, to
keep in mind with regard to students is they're reticent very often when they're the victim. They don't want to come forward. They don't want to tell you what's happening because they want it to go away. They don't want to be the negative um the the negative center of
attention, right? So, they'll be very quiet. They could be really being bullied def, you know, by the definition being bullied and you call them down and say, "What's going on? What's h nothing? I'm fine. everything's fine. They want it to go away. You, as the parent, I think, have to be able to communicate
effectively with them. And when you suspect something is going on, you got to call us so we can help protect your student, right? So, please keep that in mind. The truth is so important and it's important for you. Please tell your, you know, to to support us in that effort
because the truth is what's going to help this community grow. Um the other thing I want to mention to uh these are just some notes um that came up. Oh, if you're talking to the principal or the investigator or anybody, we can only
talk about your student. Very often parents want to know what happened to the other student like what were the circumstances? How come my how come my child has consequences and this other child didn't receive any consequences? We can only talk about your child, right? So, a principal, an
administrator, a supervisor, counselor will never talk about another child. We're not allowed to legally. And finally, I want to say this. If your child has an IEP, and I think we changed the policy, correct me if I'm wrong, Jamaa, but we as unless it's impractical or impossible, when your child is being
interviewed, that can be intimidating, right? Even as good as the interviewer is, like the principal or a counselor interviewing a child, you know, you're you're a kid in an office and something went wrong. Maybe you're being accused of something. It's very intimidating. I don't want We don't want to intimidate children. We want them to feel
comfortable and they we want them to trust us because we are trying to help them even if they did something wrong. Guess what? All these we all do. I did something wrong all the time, right? We're growing up. We're learning from the experience. Doesn't make them a bad kid because they did something wrong.
But when they But if your child, particularly if they have an IEP, they should feel comfortable. We want them to feel as comfortable as possible during the interview process. Therefore, when it's practical and possible, we would like the case manager to be there or guidance counselor to sit next to them so they feel comfortable talking about
the situation. Somebody that they trust. It doesn't have to be necessarily a case manager or guidance counselor. Maybe a teacher or a faculty member that they really trust can sit next to them while the investigators asking a question. Whenever it's practical, we like to provide that. So, those are just a few notes I have. Um, if the board has any
uh questions or comments, otherwise we can open it to the public if that's okay. Madame President. >> Yeah. questions. We're open. Any questions or comments? If you'd like to come up to the mic, please feel free to do so. >> That's what she's asking. >> If I may say something while we're
waiting, feel free to email call me anytime. I'm not always in my office, but I always get back to you. No questions or comments. Uh, and I will reiterate what um um Miss West said. By the way, I do always recognize the chain
of command. However, you're free to copy me on an email to email me questions, concerns that you have and I will respond. I will get back to you. >> Madam President, if there are no questions, I think we >> Oh, you do. I apologize.
>> Okay. So, my question is, and again, it's about a hit, but I'm going to leave everybody's name out of it. I'm just going to give a circumstance. Uh, for my situation, my son is the um attackee. Uh the person has continuously um bullied
my son um to the point where no when I mentioned it to the principal I did not say my son was uh not sleeping because I didn't think that that was relevant. That was information I learned here tonight. But I found out recently that the HIB um was not considered a HIP but a code
of conduct um where again like I said it did affect my child but a lot of parents don't know that hey let's uh actually talk to the parent and see how their child is acting at home. So for me, for me going through
the situation with the hip, how I felt is that there was no communication for the parent. And again, the information here tonight is more it was I was able to learn a lot more and things that I should have put in my letter when I sent it over to the principal as well as
wrote it in the HIP. Again, um again, I was and about the HIP, I was informed that it would be a code of conduct and it can change once it reaches the board and things like that. So, that's kind of where I'm at. Um, I need to know more information when it comes down to my
child. I'm a very hands-on parent and I like to know what I'm talking about when when I have to confront or any issue when it comes to my child. So, that's where I'm coming from uh for myself and uh my child. Um, so my question is what
is the actual uh procedure? when is why why hasn't any communication like you stated been really given to the parent when they're waiting two to three weeks for the results for the HIP and we're just told, hey, this is it. What else do we get? How do we know that we have the
Bill of Rights when we're putting things in there? How are we supposed to know that this is where we're supposed to go and information that we're supposed to provide to the board of education as well as the superintendent as well as the principal or anybody else that's in the school? Well, I'll take a stab at that that um
that concern that you have. Um the there are statutory communications and letters that have to go out as Miss Mojay reviewed with everyone. Okay. But in addition to that, communication with parents is essential. So I would suggest that when in doubt, the principal should
be calling the parent. when in doubt whether or not the princip the parent has the information they need. Um the principal should be calling and informing the parent about the situation. So if that was neglected in some way, shape or form if that wasn't at least done to your satisfaction,
you're welcome to give me an email and let me know. >> Oh, I sent an email. I sent an email. Matter of fact, I sent an email to the whole board >> and I only person who reached back out to me was the principal. I never heard any response from anybody on the board. Well, I'll look for your email, but
maybe you >> board maybe it was in board mail. I didn't see it. >> So, do you have any other questions? >> No, that's it. >> Hello, I'm Kristen Frozie. I just had a question. Um, actually I have a couple
questions if you don't mind. Um, so based on the legal presentation, my understanding is that the intent of the perpetrator isn't necessarily relevant, but based on the school presentation, it
is. So my question, can you please clarify how does the intent of the perpetrator affect the outcome of the investigation? >> The intent matters to the extent of are they targeting based on a distinguishing characteristic. Where the intent doesn't
matter is whether it was done for a beneficial purpose or for a negative purpose. Right? Right. So I gave an example of um children who were attempting to help another child by making bringing this
using this terminology using this characteristic to the student yourself. The the law does not care that you did it to help someone. It's that the comment was used and it was targeting a specific person. That's where the intent of the perpetrator doesn't matter. So if
I misstated that actual statement, that was not my intention. No, I don't think you misstated it. I guess I'm still a little confused and I'll give you an example. Maybe that'll help clarify for me. >> So, if a child uses a racial slur um for
as an example >> and the racial slur fits a characteristic that's distinguishing with the other child, right? Um, and then when the perpetrator is then interviewed, they say, "Well, I didn't
mean it like that." But it's pretty clear that it's a racial slur, >> right? Yeah. >> Does that statement then kind of absolve this person of any >> No, because the the we're getting into
those or factors, right? It's either would it have would a reasonable person believe that it has the impact of in fact demeaning or having a negative impact on another student >> or that it actually has that impact. So if a reasonable person hearing a racial
slur being used in that context where the perpetrator says, "Well, I didn't mean it that way." But would a reasonable person think that you did? >> Right? >> Because in that circumstance then yes, potentially it is a hip if all the other criteria are met and there is a substantial disruption. >> Okay. >> Does that answer your question? >> Yes. Thank you. That clarifies. Um,
okay. So, uh, another question I had is what exactly prompts the HIV investigation? Are all physically violent um, acts investigated automatically as
an HIV? Does it require a parent or a student complaint? Like, if a teacher observes >> something, can a teacher >> prompt the investigation? Um, are all racial slurs investigated? How?
>> So, I will tell you what the law requires. And prior to 2022, when the um revisions to the law came out, there was no form 338. A district could have a form, but they didn't have to have a form. And in that circumstance, when I was giving trainings, I was always
telling people, head on a swivel, right? parents, children, uh, administrators, teachers, if it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, I need to know about it so I can determine whether or not it's a duck. If you think that this is an altercation based on that could
potentially be considered a HIB, report it to the principal, let them conduct the investigation. Now that we have form 338, that same standard still applies. If someone witnesses something, it should still be verbally reported. However, you need to follow up with the form 338. From a parent's perspective,
the best way to to do the activity that to initiate a HI is if you believe that something an altercation has happened with your child and that your child is the victim of a bullying situation, report the circumstances on form 338 so that we can conduct the investigation.
form 338 automatically triggers us to look into it whether it's by a principal's determination or a preliminary determination or not, we have to do something as it re relates to that. So the best tool that you can use is put a situation in form 338 as much information as you possibly have so that
we can conduct the investigation. We're obligated to do something with a form 338. >> Okay. So to clarify, if a violent altercation happens between two students, there was no form 338. There's no blatantly obvious, you know,
charact disting distinguishing characteristic, you know, among the students. It may not be investigated as an HIV. it would be investigated as a code of conduct situation >> that as a result of that investigation
as more facts came out it may prompt the filing of form 338. >> Okay. >> So it's so in that in that circumstance it could be done in sort of a backwards situation where you're investigating what you believe to be on its face as a conflict between two students. But when
you sort of peel back those layers, well I punched him in the face because he made fun of my shoes. Well, I don't know if that's a h. It could be a hib. It could be a distinguishing characteristic, but we got to peel back those layers. What was the motivation for why the violent altercation occurred? >> Got it. >> Okay.
>> Anita, do you want to add anything to that? >> She's pulling up form 338 to >> I just wanted the website open to the form. Um, >> I think I'm going to just reiterate what I said before, which is if you are in doubt, please fill out the form.
>> Um, and give us as much information. Even if you decide not to fill out the form, if it's a matter of this time, I'm going to pick on you because you're to my left. Anita hit, uh, Miss Anderson, there's no distinguishing anything. It was just Anita hit. That's a code of conduct. We need as much information as
possible in order to open up a an HIV. Um, and the reason I'm picking on the hit specifically is a physical altercation will not necessarily trigger an HIV investigation the way a racial a racial slur or a sexual comment would. Those are automatic triggers.
Does that make sense? Because I could hit somebody just because I'm a violent individual who likes to hit people. I'm not, just for the record. But if I was sorry I tell my counselors don't ever sit to the right or left at me because I talk with my hands and you end up being
my examples. But it's it's a matter of what like would it tr remember if it's initial for the principal's discretion would the initial statement as investigated if all facts were true would it meet a charact characteristic and Anita would hit Miss Anderson or
Anita hit Miss Anderson would not >> but if in so my question to you then is if in the investigation of that hit it comes out that Anita hit Miss Anderson because she has red hair does that then become >> yes as part of the code of conduct. If that's what comes out, then it would
turn into that. Yes, that's a good question. >> Was that kind of what you were getting to in like the physical altercation? Like if it came to why they hit them, >> it prompted like with the hip? >> I didn't have a >> Okay. >> reason for asking. I just really wanted
to get it clear in my mind because I I'm just a little confused because I've had >> um an HIV investigation uh for my daughter as the victim and I wasn't open for quite some time yet. It was a racial slur. So, I'm just a little bit confused
as to how they get open because it was reported and nothing was done for months. So, I I just don't quite understand how it is supposed to happen and now I think I've got it. Um I do have another question. Um in the case of the first prong,
does the characteristic or must the characteristic be different either between or among the perpetrator or perpetrators and the victims? >> No. So what it doesn't have to one be either true like I don't have to say I
have brown hair and have that be true or not true. And it just because I'm a white person and Allison is also a white person. If I call her racial slur, I don't know. It went off the top of my head and I'm glad for that. But it could
still be a hip be even though I am also that characteristic. >> Okay. Thank you. That helps a lot. I appreciate it. Um my final question promise. Sorry. >> Um my last question is just are parents typically interviewed? And I think that
kind of touches on another um question that we had. And my question my my reason for asking that question is just um I think along the lines of of the other question often we don't
necessarily get as parents a lot of notification as to like what's going on at school, but we may notice something that's happening at home. So, we may not exactly know that, you know, our student is, I don't know,
>> showing up late class or like whatever, you know, whatever little thing cuz it's minor, right? But at home, we're noticing like lots of acting out, lots of fighting with siblings, lots of, you know, >> staying up late all night, doesn't want to go to bed, doesn't want to go to school in the morning, like things like that. Um,
>> I'm just wondering how do we involve parents in the investigation, if at all? So from a traditional standpoint, and Anita, you can correct me if I'm wrong, parents are not by nature of a HIP investigation being opened, interviewed
as part of it. There may come a time where parents have relevant information that renders them to be a witness that requires them to be interviewed, but by default, no. What I will say is that
if there is information that a parent has that is potentially relevant to an investigation, they should share that to the invest with the investigators, but it cannot be considered in substitution for the actual statement of a witness or
a victim or an aggressor. So, what Dr. Corbett spoke earlier about about having children be truthful when they're being interviewed and feel comfortable and sharing their information is it's all well and good if I speak for my child about what I'm seeing them feel, but I really need to
come from the kid themselves. That a firsthand account of what you are going through will rule the day a hundred times out of a hundred secondhand from anybody is never going to be as powerful as it coming from the kid themselves. However, it's still
relevant for a determination. So, the information, if you're made aware of the situation, hey, I've noticed this behavior. It sort of coincided with the dates that I've been made aware of this. Let the investigators know. Let the principal know. Let the anti-bullying specialist know. Let Anita know as this
process continues. >> Okay? And then in line with that, if a parent were to send an email during an open investigation or even before an open investigation, right, um, is prompted to give details that were
showing those kinds of things. Would that then be included in the report? >> It is typically yes. If it's if the investigation is still open, it is included in the investigation report. What I will tell you is in my experience where I have gotten that information more frequently than not is at the HIP
hearing. Once a determination was made to let's say not substantiate a HIB for a particular victim and the parents like wait a minute of course there's a substantial disruption because my kid hasn't slept in a week or my kid hasn't slept in a month or my kid's grades are falling. Then you come in and you present that information to the board of
education. That's information that the board of education considers in supplementing the report and the investigation that they've already received that may not have that information in there based on who was questioned, but the board has the authority in that circumstance to say, "Hold on a minute. Let's not vote to not
substantiate this. H we need to reopen this investigation and get more information based on that." So, the board has the capacity when I say affirm, modify, or reject. Affirm meaning agree with the superintendent's recommendation. modify meaning let's go back and look at this and reopen the
investigation or reject means no the evidence doesn't support what the ultimate determination is we're going to completely reverse it so yes it does become relevant at that point >> okay thank you very much I appreciate it >> if I might that's another reason why it's so important on that 338 to put
details down such as that for example let the investigations know from the beginning on the 338 my child is not sleeping because of this so I'm glad that you're all here tonight. I wish every parent was here tonight because I think knowledge of these problems is so very very important in terms of
reporting it. And back to the other situation about two fights, like for example, two fights don't mean anything to me. I mean, two kids getting in the fight, particularly if it's on like a soccer field or something like that, that tells you nothing. If you if you fill out a 338 and say, "Well, this child punched my child, period." That
tells us nothing. So there you go. Like the information, the details, the devil's always in the details. The more details you provide to us, the better. and what might not be relevant to you but is springing to your head might be relevant to me or to an investigator or to somebody else as part of the whole
process. So I would rather have more information than less whenever I'm looking at these investigations and these reports. >> I agree. >> I agree with that and I actually do want to thank the parents that came out tonight because knowledge is power. So
even things myself I've given at least the thing things to look for presentation before as I was looking at them in preparation for tonight I was like checking off things that I wasn't even thinking about could be um situations. So, as the more you get
informed, the better off you are because then you start noticing things like again it's very easy. I keep joking seventh grade parent. It's very easy to know that a seventh grade who's fully hormonal is just going to get moody. But then there are certain things that are out of character and when they're
younger it's even more out of character when you see it. So, if you're seeing things kind of just keeping being aware of it, the more informed you are when you come to events like this, the better off. So, thank you all for being here. And it might not even be something that you come into contact with in the
context of an altercation or event that would trigger a HIV. It's just my kid's not behaving normally. Let me reach out to the administration. Let me reach out to the kids's guidance counselor. Let me reach out to the teacher and say, "Hey, are you aware of anything because my son's not acting normally? My child's
not acting normally. This is different." Because those kinds of inquiries are what contain the right kind of language for the professionals in your school district to be looking for the right things to be looking for how do we now
commence this process? Do we need to based on what you've said to us b commence a hip investigation because of x y or z or are we aware of something that didn't really matter at first? Was there a violent altercation between two kids that was addressed or everybody
moved on from and now one kid's having still impacts after the fact? It allows us as an administration and as a school district to put two and two together and piece things together after the fact. We recognize this law is not perfect. We as humans are not perfect. We don't always
get information this from our kids all at once. We get it peacemeal. But we our obligations still remain no matter when when we get the information we have to react to it. >> I think that um we've heard
from parents like you who've questioned like well how do parents know this? And this is the purpose of tonight's listening session. We had one two years ago and we sat again and decided that parents don't know certain things and unfortunately we don't really get a packed house but we are trying to make
efforts to get this information to parents because it's true good knowledge is power and so thank you again for coming I think it's important um if you'd like to speak afterwards I don't recall getting an email I don't I didn't hear your name up there so if you're but
um again yes we do understand that parents don't know all of it and so we're hoping to explain it in a simple for manner. >> Can I say one thing? Um just to make a point that when we get emails um and there's a
thread of administrator responding, we as board members will not get involved with that. We are we would read it but we would not be able to answer anything from that point. I mean for me it's not work. I can't let that
record take on but it not that kind of as a parent >> because like I said I'm going to
matter what the situation I'm also just as a parent as a person That's a great point and um I appreciate the feedback because that that would make sense just so you know that we've
seen it. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you and thank you for the dialogue. I just want to say if when you guys speak from your seats, it does not record into the meeting. Just I I just want you to be aware. So if when anybody's watching too, they'll hear us dialoguing one way. I do want to share a
scenario if I may. I know I'm done presenting. When we say 10 school days, we mean 10 school days. Last year, on the last day of school, we had a form 338 submitted. That was day one. Day two was the first day of school in September. So, when
you're thinking 10 days in response times as well, I just want to make sure that's out there and we keep that in mind because in the summer, there's no way for us to investigate a case as well. So, just just informative >> and that's from a legal perspective. We can't compel anybody to come back to
school to conduct an investigation. So that's why the law is written for the 10 school days. Like I can't ask a kid to come and give a statement when they have summer camp. Like that's just not practical. >> And I just want to say one thing also. We we've talked a lot here about you've
heard about about legal obligation, the law, all of these things. I 100% agree with you what you said about your email. Um, aside from the legal obligations, if I'm speaking for everybody on the board here, we also feel morally that is our
responsibility to do what's right for the kids of this district. So, if you didn't receive an email back or you didn't feel as though um you had any uh you weren't addressed at all, please don't hesitate. And he said it already here today. Dr. Corbett is very
approachable. So, if you didn't get the results that you wanted as far as not receiving an email or not receiving any confirmation, you can reach out to him personally and let him know your situation and he will get back to you. And as she said, we as a board, we cannot respond to emails. That's Dr.
Corbett's office and he reports that to us in our board meetings. So, I I do understand and that probably should not have happened and uh we will definitely discuss that and and uh make sure that that gets better. Please feel free to direct future
questions uh to me or Anita. Direct them to me. I'll forward them to Anita. No, no, but really seriously, you know, we do want to help and assist you. So, and thank you for being here tonight. >> I think we are >> I think as long as we don't have any
other questions on tonight's presentation, um we do because this is a regular scheduled board meeting. While our presentation has concluded, we do have the opportunity for public comment. Um, and I'll ask uh, Madame President to
read that portion. If there's anybody who would like to come and speak about any matter involving the Rockway Township Public Schools, you are welcome to do so at this time. >> During the course of the board meeting, the Rockaway Township Board of Education offers members of the public an opportunity to address issues regarding
the operations of the Rockaway Township Public Schools. The board reminds those individuals who take this opportunity to identify themselves by name and address and to limit their comments to items listed on the agenda and/or items directly related to the operations of the school district. Issues raised by
members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of others in of others individuals when speaking. Specifically,
comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the
public. Members of the public should be should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in the comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. In accordance with board policy 0167, public discussion is limited to 15 minutes with
a threeinut limit per member of the public. The board president shall have the right to modify the length of public discussion as she deems appropriate. Can I please have a motion to open public comment? >> So moved. Seconded. Show of hands. Do we have anybody for public comment at
this time? Can I please have a motion to close public comment? >> Second. >> Can I please have a show of hands? >> If I may offer just an editorial note on public comment. Um, if you've never been to a board of education meeting before,
the board of education at every regular board meeting has two opportunities for public comment. First opportunity for public comment is for agenda items if you have any questions on anything that's been presented as well as an open um public comment section at the end of the meeting.
While I'm telling you this because of the fact that we we've learned this evening that information is key, um I do want you to know that if you come and you have a particular issue regarding your child, public comment is not the
place to do it. Just put that out there. Thank you. Do we have any old business? >> Just a reminder that tomorrow is family literacy night. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> What? >> Family literacy night. Yes. What time?
>> Uh 6:00 p p.m. 6 p.m. >> 6:00 to 7 here and then the book fair is in session. >> Awesome. Thank you. I think also Jackie, correct me if I'm wrong, but Saturday is the bingo for Rockaway Township. >> Yes. Yes. So, I recommend everybody take
a look at the Rockway Township Substance Abuse Alliance. Uh they have a bingo night. Um every every single scent they make and it's a lot of money goes to the district and the kids of the district and training and resources. So, and it's a fun night. So, they they hold a lot of
fun events for the kids. They also hold um fun events for the community as well. So, if you can go, if you just want to donate some money, if you want to uh speak to the person who runs it, he'd be happy to speak to you as well. But, it's a great event. It's a fun event and every cent goes to the kids.
>> Great. Thank you. Any new business? Okay. Uh, can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting, please? >> So move. >> Seconded. >> Show of hands. >> Meeting is adjourned at 7:58 p.m. Thank you everyone for your time tonight and
your discussion.