JDC

  • J
  • Students
JDC

File: JDC (pdf)
Codified: 1978
Revised: September 23, 1993, September 26, 1996, December 19, 1996, November 13, 2001, June 9, 2020, August 22, 2023

STUDENT CONDUCT

Along with the right to be active participants in the affairs of the school, students are expected to accept the attendant responsibility to conduct themselves in a manner compatible with the school's function as an educational facility. Conduct by students or others that disrupts or threatens to disrupt the operation of a school; interferes in any manner with the public or private rights of other students or members of the community; threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person; or damages property, will be addressed.

The Board expects that student conduct will be addressed preventatively and proactively to minimize necessary discipline. Schools are expected to incorporate a wide range of strategies to support positive student behavior, reduce misbehavior, and maintain a safe learning environment, including conflict resolution, restorative practices, counseling, and structured systems of positive interventions. Schools must have culturally sensitive and responsive expectations for student performance and conduct. School personnel and students must be educated about these expectations and good conduct must be recognized.

While on school grounds, in school facilities, in school vehicles, or at or during school-sponsored activities, including while participating in remote instruction, students shall be expected to conduct themselves in keeping with their level of maturity, acting with due regard for the supervisory authority vested by the Board in all School District employees; the educational purpose underlying all school activities; the widely shared use of school property and resources; and the rights and welfare of other students.

These expectations apply to students off campus to the extent their behavior has a nexus to school. Specific examples of the School District’s conduct expectations include, but are not limited to :

  1. Students shall maintain high personal standards of courtesy, decency, morality, and honesty in their relationship with others.
     
  2. Students are expected to respond to academic challenges with the highest degree of integrity and honesty that support the culture of the community. No student shall engage in scholastic dishonesty, which includes but is not limited to cheating on a test, plagiarism or unauthorized collaboration with another person or form of artificial intelligence in preparing work that is to be submitted for a formal assessment, grade, and/or evaluation.
     
  3. Diligence in study and achievement commensurate with ability is expected of all students. Students are expected to be prompt and regular in their attendance of school and classes and are responsible for work missed due to unexcused tardiness or absence.
     
  4. Students shall comply with Board policies and reasonable School District staff members’ directions.
     
  5. Students shall comply with Colorado and federal law. This includes but is not limited to those items identified in Colorado law as grounds for suspension or expulsion.
     
  6. Students shall be honest in their interactions with School District employees, and shall not lie or give false information, either verbally or in writing, to a School District employee. Students shall not make a false accusation of criminal activity against a School District employee to law enforcement or to the School District.
     
  7. No student shall engage in or encourage behavior that disrupts or poses a clear and convincing threat of disruption of the school operations or interference with the rights of others or with the ability of the school to provide educational opportunities to other students.
     
  8. No student shall engage in or encourage behavior that is detrimental to the welfare or safety of students, teachers, or school personnel on or off school property.
     
  9. Students shall not use, be under the influence of, bring, carry, possess, buy, sell, or exchange alcohol, marijuana, or other dangerous or restricted drugs or controlled substances.
     
  10. Students shall not use tobacco or nicotine products of any kind or otherwise violate the Board's tobacco-free schools policy.
     
  11. No student shall use, possess, bring, or carry any dangerous weapon of any kind, including a knife of any blade length (per this local restriction that does not include plastic or other utensils brought and used for eating), or a firearm facsimile without prior permission of the school principal or designee or the Superintendent or designee. See JDC-R, Conduct Related to Weapons.
     
  12. Students shall not cause or attempt to cause damage to school or private property, nor steal or attempt to steal school or private property.
     
  13. No student shall engage in bullying behavior. Bullying is defined as any written text, image, verbal expression, or physical or electronic act or gesture, or a pattern thereof, that is intended to coerce, intimidate, or cause any physical, mental, or emotional harm to any student. Bullying also includes cyberbullying which is bullying involving the use of communication technologies such as computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices to support deliberate and hostile behavior intended to do harm to others. Examples of cyberbullying can be in the form of text messages, instant messaging, emails, threatening or embarrassing photos or videos, and any use of any social media platform.
     
  14. No student shall engage in gang related activity. Schools should communicate with law enforcement and community members to address identified gang activity. As appropriate, schools may communicate with families about resources to support students at-risk of gang involvement.
     
  15. No student shall engage in harassment on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, sex (which includes marital status), sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, religion, ancestry, immigration status, the need for special education services, or physical characteristics, whether such characteristic(s) is actual or perceived. Harassing conduct may take many forms, including verbal acts and name-calling, as well as non-verbal behavior, such as graphic and written statements, or conduct that is physically threatening, harmful or humiliating.
     
  16. No student shall engage in physical abuse, including hazing, assault, or unwanted touching of a person or that person's property with a part of the body or with any object with the intent of causing hurt or harm or that actually causes harm.
     
  17. No student shall engage in verbal abuse either orally (including by telephone) or in writing in words or images (including by text, social media or other electronic means) including, but not limited to, swearing, screaming, obscene gestures or threats.
     
  18. No student shall engage in behavior on or off school property that is detrimental to the welfare or safety of other students or school personnel, including behavior that creates a threat of physical harm to the student exhibiting the behavior or to one or more other students. This also includes violent or aggressive behavior, including any expression, direct or indirect, verbal or behavioral, of intent to inflict harm, injury or damage to persons or property. A threat of violence and aggression carries with it implied notions of risk of violence and a probability of harm or injury.

The Board’s policy specifically addresses the most serious offenses and requirements of state and federal law. The Superintendent or designee shall develop such additional written definitions of behaviors as may be needed to accurately describe and report student behavior.

Violations of these expectations may result in discipline in accordance with applicable law and Board policy.  At its sole discretion, the School District may conduct a threat assessment to consider any suspected or reported behavior of concern by a student. Also, students may be referred to law enforcement authorities. The Board expects that parents/guardians shall be informed about their student’s significant behaviors and school discipline. Also, the Board expects schools will notify parents about threat assessments and referrals to law enforcement, as appropriate and as soon as possible which may be after the referral has been made.

At-Risk Students

The school shall identify students who are at risk of suspension or expulsion. An at-risk student includes, but is not limited to, any student who is likely to be declared habitually truant or habitually disruptive.

The District may enter agreements with appropriate local and state agencies, community-based organizations, and institutions of higher education to work with the student’s parent/guardian to provide services to students at risk of being suspended or expelled and those who have already been suspended or expelled.  The services include, but are not limited to:

  1. Tutoring services;
  2. Counseling services;
  3. Drug or alcohol-addiction treatment programs;
  4. Family preservation programs;
  5. Alternative education programs; and
  6. Vocational education programs.

At a minimum, each agreement shall specify the services to be provided, the entity that will coordinate and oversee provision of the services, and the responsibilities of each entity entering into the agreement.

Each agreement shall require each participating entity to contribute funds for the specified services. The agreement shall specify the amount and source of funds and the mechanism for providing the funds.

The District shall use a portion of its per pupil operating fund to provide services. The District may also use federal and state money and money received from private and public grants. Services shall be provided at no/low cost and all efforts shall be made to assure cost is not a barrier.

Educational Programing for Students Pending Adjudication for Certain Offenses

As authorized by Colorado law, whenever the District is notified that a student at least 12 years of age but under 18 years of age is the subject of a juvenile court petition for or charged in district court with an offense that would constitute a crime of violence or unlawful sexual behavior, the Board of Education designates the Superintendent or designee to  determine whether the student has exhibited behavior that is detrimental to the safety, welfare, and morals of the other students or personnel at school, and whether educating the student at school may disrupt the learning environment, provide a negative example for other students, or create a dangerous and unsafe environment for students, teachers, and other school personnel.

If it is determined that the student should not be educated at school, the District may institute procedures to suspend or expel the student. Alternatively, the District may delay consideration of the student's suspension or expulsion pending the outcome of the juvenile court or district court proceedings, during which time the District shall provide the student with an appropriate alternate education program, including a home-based or online program as determined by the School District. By Colorado law, no student who is being educated in an alternate education program or a home-based education program shall be allowed to return to the education program in the public school until there has been a disposition of the charge. The School District will consider and implement appropriate safety planning for the student and school setting. The time that a student spends in an alternate education program shall not be considered discipline, including suspension or expulsion.

 

LEGAL REFS.:

C.R.S. § 16-22-102 (9) (unlawful sexual behavior)
C.R.S. § 18-1.3-406 (crime of violence)
C.R.S. § 18-3-202 et seq. (offenses against person)
C.R.S. § 18-4-301 et seq. (offenses against property)
C.R.S. § 18-9-124 (2)(a) (prohibition of hazing)
C.R.S. § 22-12-105 (3) (authority to suspend or expel for false accusations)
C.R.S. § 22-32-109.1 (1)(b) (definition of bullying)
C.R.S. § 22-32-109.1 (2)(a)(I) (policy required as part of safe schools plan)
C.R.S. § 22-32-109.1 (2)(a)(I)(A) (duty to adopt policies on student conduct, safety and welfare)
C.R.S. § 22-32-109.1 (9) (immunity provisions in safe schools law)
C.R.S. § 22-32-144 (restorative justice practices)
C.R.S. § 22-33-105 (5)(a) (alternate educational programs for students with certain criminal charges)
C.R.S. § 22-33-106 (1)(a-g) (grounds for suspension, expulsion, denial of admission)
C.R.S. § 22-33-106.1 (suspension and expulsion for students in preschool through second grade)
C.R.S. § 22-33-204 (services for at-risk students)

AGREEMENT REF.:

Teachers' agreement, Section C

 CROSS REFS.:

AC Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunities
ADC, Tobacco Free Schools
ADD, Safe Schools
JB, Equal Educational Opportunities
JBB, Sexual Harassment
All JD and JR policies, Student Conduct and Discipline Code

 

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