Topic: Safety
Hartford Police Officers joined me to help teach our students about how to stay safe and have fun on Halloween. I’ve added these safety tips to our website. I encourage you to discuss these with your child and to check out this website: www.halloweenmagazine.com/safety-game/
You may be aware that October is Bullying Prevention month. I want to emphasize that we work on anti-bullying efforts every day at White River School. Every adult in our school teaches about this and encourages our students to use strategies if they’re being teased, such as getting help from an adult if the teasing doesn’t stop and to report immediately to a trusted adult if he or she is scared, confused or upset by behaviors they’ve encountered among their peers.
The WRS School-Wide Plan highlights the expected behaviors in all settings and is really an anti-bullying effort. However, we also recognize that children can be impulsive and they are not always mature enough to use safe judgment. We are bombarded daily with national news about tragedies related to bullying.
With that said, we spent time at our safety assembly teaching our students how to stay safe while using technology at home and at school. We clearly stated that bullying will not be tolerated and that if it is reported, I will investigate and include the Hartford Police Department to help with the investigation.
Your child will use technology while in our school and most of you use technology in your home that may include: cell phones, ipads, ipods, computers, online gaming, Kindles, Nooks, etc… We want all of our students to learn the Hartford School District’s Acceptable Use Policy, which is included in the WRS Family Handbook. (Posted on our website) Mrs. Yates, HSD Technology Integrationist reviewed the policy and our expectations for our 3rd-5th graders.
HPD’s Officer Adams (also the HSD School Resource Officer) explained that her job is to work with the school principal to investigate any allegations of cyber bullying. She and I explained that we are required to investigate and that if she has evidence that shows that a student repeatedly sent threatening or hurtful messages, than Officer Adams can issue a citation to children 10 years of age or older. She and I would be required to meet with the children involved and to contact their parents. The Hartford Police Department may bring the case to court.
We never want this to happen! We used the excellent resource: www.netsmartz.org to teach our students four safety rules: (Another great resource is: www.commonsensemedia.org)
Your child will bring home an Internet Safety Pledge from Netsmartz.org. Please review this with your child, as her/him to sign it and we ask that you also sign it. We’d like your child to return this to his/her teacher on Monday. This will help your child understand that we all expect your child to keep his or her pledge to stay safe and to stay out of trouble while using technology.