I. Students Rights/Responsibilities
A. Student Rights
The district is committed to safeguarding the rights given to all students under state and federal
law. In addition, to promote a safe, healthy, orderly and civil school environment, all district students
have the right to:
- Participate in all district activities on an equal basis regardless of race, color, creed, national origin,
religion, gender or sexual orientation or disability. - Present their version of the relevant events to school personnel authorized to impose a disciplinary
penalty in connection with the imposition of the penalty. - Access school rules and, when necessary, receive an explanation of those rules from school
personnel.
B. Student Responsibilities
All district students have the responsibility to:
- Contribute to maintaining a safe and orderly school environment that is conducive to learning and
to show respect to other persons and to property. - Be familiar with and abide by all district policies, rules and regulations dealing with student
conduct. - Attend school every day unless they are legally excused and be in class, on time, and prepared to
learn. - Work to the best of their ability in all academic and extracurricular pursuits and strive toward their
highest level of achievement possible. - React to direction given by teachers, administrators and other school personnel in a respectful,
positive manner. - Work to develop mechanisms to control their anger.
- Ask questions when they do not understand.
- Seek help in solving problems that might lead to discipline.
- Dress appropriately for school and school functions.
- Accept responsibility for their actions.
- Conduct themselves as representatives of the district when participating in or attending school-sponsored extracurricular events and to hold themselves to the highest standards of conduct,
demeanor, and sportsmanship.
II. Prohibited Student Conduct
Any actions that may be deemed disorderly, insubordinate, disruptive, violent, unsafe or immoral are
prohibited and subject to disciplinary action. This includes academic misconduct and all other offenses
outlined in the FFCSD Code of Conduct and the DASA legislation.
III. Penalties
Students who are found to have violated the district’s code of conduct may be subject to the
following penalties, either alone or in combination. The school personnel identified after each penalty
are authorized to impose that penalty, consistent with the student’s right to due process.
- Oral warning – any member of the district staff
- Written warning – bus drivers, hall and lunch monitors, coaches, guidance counselors, teachers, principal, superintendent
- Written notification to parent – bus driver, hall and lunch monitors, coaches, guidance counselors, teachers, principal, superintendent
- Detention – teachers, principal, superintendent
- Suspension from transportation – principal, superintendent
- Suspension from athletic participation – coaches, athletic director, principal, superintendent
- Suspension from social or extracurricular activities – activity director, principal, superintendent
- Suspension of other privileges – principal, superintendent
- In-school suspension – principal, superintendent
- Removal from classroom by teacher – teachers, principal
- Short-term (five days or less) suspension from school – principal, superintendent, board of education
- Long-term (more than five days) suspension from school – superintendent, board of education
- Permanent suspension from school – superintendent, board of education.
IV. Student Searches & Interrogations
The board of education is committed to ensuring an atmosphere on school property and at school
functions that is safe and orderly. To achieve this kind of environment, any school official authorized
to impose a disciplinary penalty on a student may question a student about an alleged violation of law
or the district code of conduct. Students are not entitled to any sort of “Miranda”-type warning before
being questioned by school officials, nor are school officials required to contact a student’s parent
before questioning the student. However, school officials will tell all students why they are being
questioned.
In addition, the board authorizes the superintendent, building principals, the school nurse and
district security officials to conduct searches of students and their belongings if the authorized school
official has reasonable suspicion to believe that the search will result in evidence that the student
violated the law or the district code of conduct.
An authorized school official may conduct a search of a student’s belongings that is minimally
intrusive, such as touching the outside of a book bag, without reasonable suspicion, so long as the
school official has a legitimate reason for the very limited search.
An authorized school official may search a student or the student’s belongings based upon
information received from a reliable informant. Individuals, other than the district employees, will be
considered reliable informants if they have previously supplied information that was accurate and
verified, or they make an admission against their own interest, or they provide the same information
that is received independently from other sources, or they appear to be credible and the information
they are communicating relates to an immediate threat to safety. District employees will be considered
reliable informants unless they are known to have previously supplied information that they knew was
not accurate.
Before searching a student or the student’s belongings, the authorized school official should
attempt to get the student to admit that he or she possesses physical evidence that they violated the law
or the district code, or get the student to voluntarily consent to the search. Searches will be limited to
the extent necessary to locate the evidence sought.
Whenever practicable, searches will be conducted in the privacy of administrative offices and students
will be present when their possessions are being searched.