The Montgomery Area School District is committed to providing a safe, civil, positive learning environment for all district students. Bullying creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, detracts from the safe environment necessary for student learning, presents an obstacle to social/emotional development of students, and may lead to more serious violence. Therefore, MASD prohibits bullying by district students.

What is bullying?

Bullying may include a wide variety of behaviors, with deliberate intent to hurt, embarrass, or humiliate the other person. Bullying occurs repeatedly and over time.

The behavior of bullying occurs in four forms: physical, verbal, emotional or exclusion, and cyber-bullying.

  • Physical Bullying – Hitting, kicking, damaging property, or any physical aggression
  • Verbal Bullying – Teasing, name calling, put downs, or other behavior that would deliberately hurt others’ feelings or make them feel badly about themselves
  • Emotional or Exclusion Bullying – Starting rumors, telling others not to be friends with someone or other actions that would cause someone to be without friends
  • Cyber-bullying – Using electronic devices such as but not limited to computers and cell phones to bully (bullying defined above) others through methods such as posting comments, statements, or pictures on blogs, websites, social networks, text messaging, instant messaging and email

Reporting

  • A student or third party who believes he/she has been subject to conduct that constitutes a violation as outlined above is encouraged to immediately report the incident to the building principal or a district employee.
  • A school employee who suspects or is notified that a student has been subject to conduct that constitutes such a violation shall immediately report the incident to the building principal.
  • Students and employees are encouraged to use the paper reporting form available in the office, in the P.R.I.D.E. café, or online here. Paper forms may be dropped off in the office or placed in the “Bully Box” in the P.R.I.D.E. café.
  • Additionally, you may access on-line reporting by following the link below. When you submit your completed form, it will automatically be sent to the school’s principal and assistant principal for review. Please note that the ‘Your name’ field is optional for those who prefer to remain anonymous.

On-line reporting available here.