Doing Our Due Diligence

I forwarded to our leadership team a newspaper article which reported on a situation in Austin in which the district and a high school were found liable for the death of a student. The argument was that the campus knew that the victim was being harassed by the perpetrator and did not take prudent steps to stop the action.

The issue is now settled. If we are aware of a situation of harassment and do not take steps to stop it, we may be held liable for what ever hurt arrises from the harassment. REmember, harassment does not have to be Title IX type sexual harassment as was true in the newspaper article, it may be bullying or other forms of harassment.

I am certain that our staff, counselors especially, hear of situations like this every day. If we as administrators do not step in firmly, we may be liable for what ever follows. The real lesson here is that we must do everything we can to protect our students. After all, if we are not the ombudsmen for children, who will be?