SNHS CHILD PROTECTION POLICY

SORSOGON NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL CHILD PROTECTION POLICY AND ANTI-BULLYING ORDINANCE Introduction The School recognizes that learning takes place most effectively when students feel valued by their teachers, their schoolmates, their peers and their family. Much emphasis is placed on the personal responsibility of each member of the school community, teachers and students, for ensuring that relationships between school authorities and students and between and among the students themselves are positive and caring.

This policy complies with the order of the DEPED requiring all schools to adopt policies on ANTI- BULLYING as provided in ANTI-BULLYING ACT OF 2013. This policy also adopts the provisions of the DEPED CHILD PROTECTION POLICY. GOALS 1. The school shall create learning environment that is conducive to the education of the students. 2. The best interest of the child shall be the paramount consideration in all decisions and actions involving issues about children. 3. The teachers being the substitute parents and school personnel shall ensure zero tolerance of any act of child abuse, exploitation, violence, discrimination, bullying and other forms of abuse. OBJECTIVES 1. To provide students with personal and social education about friendship; other relationships and social interactions so that they become more aware of the importance of their responsibilities in maintaining good relationships and order in the school. 2. To take preventative measures against bullying by integrating lessons on bullying. 3. To provide students, parents, teaching and non-teaching staff with a clear set of procedures to be followed on cases of bullying. 4. To take action immediately if bullying arises. 5. To help bullies realize the consequences of their actions and to teach them different ways of behaving with self- discipline. 6. To support victims of bullying and to provide them with guidance on how to deal with harassment and bullying. 7. To provide school authorities with a set of procedures in disposing bullying incidents in the school. ARTICLE 1- CHID PROTECTION POLICY Sec. 1 ESTABLISHMENT OF CHILD PROTECTION COMMITTEE The school shall create a Child Protection Committee with the following members: 1. SCHOOL HEAD/ADMINISTRATOR- Chairperson 2. GUIDANCE COUNSELOR/TEACHER- Vice Chairperson 3. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE TEACHERS 4. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STUDENTS 5. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BARANGAY 6. REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE COMMUNITY Sec 2. GUIDING PRINCIPLES ON THE PROCTECTION OF CHILDREN IN SCHOOL 1. The school shall be conducive to learning and children shall have the right to education free from fear. 2. All students shall be protected from all forms of abuse and bullying to develop self-esteem and self confidence. 3. The school shal advocate a positive and non-violent mode of disciplining students to foster self-discipline and to improve self-esteem. 4. Corporal punishment shall not be imposed on any students in school for the purpose of discipline, training and control. 5. The school administrator shall take steps to prevent bullying and ensure that the appropriate interventions, counseling and other services, are provided for the victims of abuse, violence, exploitation, discrimination and bullying. 6. Pupils, students or learners shall respect the rights of others and refrain from committing acts of bullying and peer violence. 7. Parents shall be actively involved in all activities or events that raise awareness on children’s rights, positive discipline and the prevention of bullying. Sec. 3 DUTIES OF THE SCHOOL AUTHORITY AND PERSONNEL The School Administrator, teachers and personnel have the following responsibilities over students while the latter are under their custody: 1. Exercise special parental authority and responsibility over the child while under their supervision, instruction and custody. This is applicable to all authorized activities by the school including activities outside the school premises. 2. Enhance, protect,preserve and maintain the physical and mental health of the students at all times. 3. Give the students love and affection , advise and counsel, companionship and understanding. 4. Represent them in all matters affecting their interests. 5. Inculcate the value of respect and obedience 6. Practice positive and non-violent discipline as may be required under any circumstances provided that in no case shall corporal punishment be inflicted upon them. 7. Perform such other responsibilities as are imposed by law. Sec. 4. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STUDENTS 1. Comply with the rules and regulations of the school. 2. Respect the rights of other persons. 3. Observe the code of conduct of the students. ARTICLE 2- ANTI-BULLYING PROCEDURES Sec. 1. NATURE OF BULLYING Definition of bullying Bullying refers to willful aggressive behavior that is directed towards a particular victim who may be out-numbered, younger, weak, with disability, less confident and vulnerable. How bullying is committed Bullying is committed when a person or group of persons manifested an act or series of acts directed toward another, or a series of acts directed toward several students in a school setting or a place of learning, which results in physical and mental abuse, harassment, intimidation or humiliation. Sec.2 FORMS OF BULLYING The student or group of students are guilty of bullying when they commit the following acts: a. Threats to inflict a wrong upon the person, honor or property of the person or on his or her family. b. Stalking or constantly following or pursuing a person in his or her family. c. Taking of property d. Public humiliation, or public and malicious imputation of a crime or of a vice or defect, whether real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstances tending to cause dishonor, discredit or expose a person to contempt. e. Deliberate destruction or defacement of, or damage to the child’s property f. Physical violence committed upon a student, which may or may not result to harm or injury, with or without the aid of weapon. Such violence may be in form of mauling, hitting, punching, kicking, throwing things at the student, pinching, spanking or other similar acts. g. Demanding or requiring sexual or monetary favors, or exacting money or property, from a student and h. Restraining the liberty and freedom of a pupil or a student. i. Other analogous acts NOTE: The above acts have the same effects either spoken or written or placed on computer/mobile text messages or images on camera phones/internet sites/chat rooms/social networking sites. Sec.3 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CPC ,TEACHERS AND PERSONNEL The teaching and non-teaching staff have the following roles and responsibilities: 1. To be alert to possible harassment of fellow teachers, personnel or students. 2. To deal with incidents of bullying as the highest priority and 3. To follow the principles and procedures of this policy. The Child Protection Committee has the following roles and responsibilities: 1. Shall conduct hearing and disposition of bullying incidents that may be referred by the School Principal or Guidance Counselor. 2. Shall(evaluate and review) the anti-bullying policy, and will ensure that it is non-discriminatory. 3. Shall review and amend the policy, using previous experiences of dealing with bullying incidents in the previous year to improve procedures and taking account of new legislation and DEPED advisory.. 4. The Guidance Counselor and the Principal must keep a record of all reported incidents. Sec. 4. ROLES OF THE SCHOOL, PARENTS AND STUDENTS The School must implement the following: 1. Ensure that teaching and non-teaching staff receive regular training and updates on bullying cases. 2. Prepare monthly reports of bullying incidents to be submitted to the office of the Division Superintendent. 3. Implement programs that could lessen the incidents of bullying. 4. Provide up-to-date resources to all concerned in fighting bullying. 5. Establish linkage with the parents and the community to coordinate bullying incidents in and outside the school. The Parents must always inform the teachers or school authorities in cases of bullying incidents involving their students. . The Students must report to the teacher or school authority immediately if they are bullied or if they witness bullying of any other pupil. Sec. 4. STANDARD OPERATION PROCEDURES in HANDLING BULLYING INCIDENTS 1. Students will be informed of anti-bullying procedures through orientation and distribution of copies of ANTI-BULLYING POLICY. 2. Parents will be informed of procedures through annual orientation and distribution of ANTI-BULLYING POLICY. 3. The anti-bullying policy will be published in the Students’ Handbook. 4. Teaching and non-teaching staff will treat reports by students of bullying very seriously. 5. Teaching and non-teaching Staff will not ignore suspected bullying. 6. Unpleasantness by one student towards another will always be challenged and never ignored. 7. Teaching and non-teaching Staff will take action immediately. 8. If bullying is racist or involves persistent harassment or assault, it is a criminal offense and must be reported to the Principal immediately. This also applies to bullying which targets a student's religion/belief or sexual orientation. 9. Students will be encouraged to report all incidents of bullying . 10. Teaching and non-teaching Staff must report the incident of bullying formally.It must be recorded properly. 11. Reportee must fill in and submit an incident report and must affix his signature. 12. Teaching and non-teaching Staff must observe confidentiality in dealing with bullying cases. 13. All incident of bullying must be reported to the GUIDANCE COUNSELOR or to the SCHOOL PRINCIPAL INTAKE PROCEDURE (at the GUIDANCE OFFICE) 1. Interview the victim, alleged bully and any witnesses separately. 2. Try to ensure that there is no possibility of contact between the students interviewed, for example by texting. 3.If a student is injured, take the student immediately to the Nurse for first aid and for medical opinion on the extent of the injuries. 4.Use a room that allows you to interview in privacy. A witness is recommended for serious incidents. 5.Avoid making premature assumptions. It is very important not to be judgmental at this stage. 6. Be non-confrontational. 7. Ask the alleged bully and the alleged victim to write down details. This may need prompting with questions from you to obtain the full picture. It may be appropriate to use the ‘guidance questions for interview’ 8. Ask additional witnesses/Bystanders for information, preferably written. 9. Reiterate to witnesses that there are no innocent bystanders - they are all responsible if anyone is being bullied. 10.Listen carefully to all accounts - several students saying the same does not necessarily mean they are telling the truth, particularly if they have had an opportunity to discuss the incident in advance. 11.Do not attach blame until your investigation is complete. 12.Tell all students interviewed that they must not discuss the interview with other students. 13.Write a very brief summary of the incident. A separate interview sheet is needed for each student involved. 14.Place these interview sheets in the individual files of each student involved. 15.Write a more detailed single account and attach written statements of alleged victim, alleged bully and witnesses. Full names of all involved should be included in this account. Send this to the Principal. 16.After reading the initial report, the Principal will determine whether or not the parents will be called for hearing before CPC. 17. If the Principal decided to call the parents of the victim and the bully, a formal complaint will be sent to the parents of the bully informing them of the act committed including the request to prepare their counter statement and be present on the designated date of hearing.Likewise, a letter of invitation to attend the hearing shall be sent to the parents of the victim informing them of the details of the incident and requiring them to be present during the hearing. 18. If the Principal decided not to call the parents, the alternative action taken by the Principal must also be noted and documented. Sanctions Sanctions to deal with bullying behavior will be dependent on the level, seriousness and persistence of the bullying, but will follow the sanctions stipulated in ANTI-BULLYING ACT OF 2013. For minor/single incidents 1. The student offender must manifest an apology, assurance and promise that bullying acts shall no longer be done.( Must prepare a promissory note signed by the student with the adviser or parents.) 2. Temporary exclusion from certain areas of the school premises to avoid re-occurrence of the bullying incident. For more serious cases 1.Parents will be required to come to school to discuss the problem. 2. The bully shall be suspended for 3 days. For very serious cases 1. Suspension of 5 days can be given to the guilty student or 2. A penalty of EXCLUSION from the roster of the students can be effected to the bully or 3. In the most extreme cases, a student may be expelled. Note: In case of exclusion from the roll, the school must immediately issue the transfer credentials after the investigation.The school must inform DEPED within one year of its decision excluding from its roll. The penalty of expulsion requires the approval of DEPED Secretary. . Sec. 5. SANCTIONS FOR TEACHING AND NON-TEACHING PERSONNEL 1.For failure to act on bullying incidents, an administrative sanction shall be considered. 2.For being the bully or perpetrator of child abuse, both administrative and criminal sanctions shall be considered depending on the intensity and assessment of circumstances of the act. Sec. 6. CONSTRUCTIVE AND REHABILITATION PROGRAM 1. Both the victims and the bullies shall be accorded with various support from constructive advises to guidance and counseling activities. 2. The school shall continue to design programs to help both the victim and the bully. 3. The school shall be handling bullying with utmost care and protection. Prepared by: Armando D. Engay Guidance Counselor Approved by: DR. Ma. Theresa R. Duazo School Principal