Dignity for All Students Act
CLICK HERE TO REPORT AN INCIDENT OF BULLYING
Dignity for all Students Act (DASA)
New York State’s Dignity for all Students Act (The Dignity Act) seeks to provide the state’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function.
Q. Who is protected by the Dignity Act?
A. All public elementary and secondary school students are protected by the Dignity Act.
Q: What does the Dignity Act prohibit?
A: NO student should be subjected to intimidation or abuse based on actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity or expression) or sex.
Q. What physical spaces are covered by the Dignity Act?
A. The Dignity Act applies to behavior on school property (including athletic fields, playgrounds and parking lots), in school buildings, on a school bus/vehicle, as well as at school-sponsored events or activities. Additionally, it has been expanded to include cyberbullying, defined as harassment by any form of electronic communication, and include incidents occurring off school property that create, or would foreseeably create, a risk of substantial disruption within the school environment.
Q. How does the Dignity Act relate to the school’s Code of Conduct?
A. The Code of Conduct has been amended to reflect the prohibition of discrimination and harassment of students by students and staff – in age-appropriate plain language.
Q. How does the Dignity Act define bullying?
A. Bullying is defined as a conscious, willful, deliberate activity intended to harm in which the bully uses power through actions or intimidation to cause pain and/or misery. It can be phsical, verbal or relational.
Q. What does the Dignity Act say about cyberbullying?
A. Cyberbullying is bullying or harassment that takes place through communication using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices such as cell phones, computers, and tablets as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages and websites.Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles.
The Dignity for All Students Act contains a cyberbullying amendment, which establishes protocols to respond to cyberbullying. It grants schools authority over communications that occurs off-campus if it creates a hostile environment, a risk of a substantial disruption at school and it is foreseeable that the conduct, threats, intimidation or abuse might reach school property.
Dignity Act Coordinators
If your child has been the target of such behaviors listed above or know someone who has, we encourage you to reach out to the school. Each building principal has been appointed as a Dignity Act Coordinator and are available to help you.
Kristina Saucke, Elementary School Principal
Phone: (585) 374-7951
Nicole Green, Jr./Sr. School Principal
Phone: (585) 374-7927
Additionally, students and families may report using the online form located directly on the Naples School District home page under the Quick Links section. Simply click on the "Bully Report" icon.
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