CODE OF CONDUCT
EMPLOYEE/STUDENT BOUNDARIES
YULA High School employees are expected and required to maintain professional relationships with students whether on campus or away from campus. This Policy is also equally applicable to volunteers and interns that work with students at YULA High School.
Some activities may seem innocent from an employee’s perspective, but may be perceived as flirtatious, sexually suggestive, or otherwise inappropriate, from a student’s or parent’s perspective. In maintaining professional boundaries, employees must consider how their actions and words may be perceived by others, and must take care to avoid intimidation, abuse of authority, excessive attention, and any other conduct that is not an appropriate employee/student interaction or could be perceived as such.
This Policy is not intended to restrict positive and supportive relationships between employees and students, which are appropriate in an educational environment. This Policy is intended to restrict and prevent employee/student interactions that could lead to, or may be perceived as, as flirtatious, sexually suggestive, or otherwise inappropriate.
The below are protocols and requirements employees must follow regarding maintaining appropriate boundaries with students. These protocols and requirements are not an exhaustive list of prohibited employee conduct, but rather a general framework for describing inappropriate employee conduct that is prohibited. YULA High School may discipline employees for any conduct that YULA High School determines is not in keeping with YULA High School’s expectations for appropriate employee/student interactions.
• Employees must avoid creating excessive emotional attachments beyond the healthy employee/student relationship and are prohibited from establishing personal relationships with students that are unprofessional and thereby inappropriate. Examples of unprofessional relationships include, but are not limited to: employees fraternizing or communicating with students as if employees and students were peers such as writing personal letters or e-mails; communicating with students outside of School on topics unrelated to homework, class work; or other school related activities, sending inappropriate pictures to students; discussing or revealing to students personal matters about their private lives or inviting students to do the same (other than professional counseling by a School counselor); and engaging in sexualized dialogue.
• Employees must use sound judgment as to how much information they share with students about their own personal life, not share information for their own personal emotional gratification, and must avoid sharing any information about romantic, sexual, or other types of private or sensitive information or other information that is inappropriate to share. Employees must, in turn, refrain from asking students about overly personal information.
• Employees are prohibited from any sexual or romantic interactions or relationships with students, and must avoid any flirtatious, sexual or romantic interactions with students or conduct which a student may reasonably perceive as flirtatious, sexual or romantic. Dating and any other type of one-on-one social interaction between an employee and student are prohibited.
• Employee’s electronic communications with students must be for School related reasons only, through School authorized channels and consistent with Policy 4.6 on Social Media Guidelines and Policy 4.8 on Electronic Communications with Parents and Students, and must be professional in all respects.
• Employees are prohibited from making jokes, using slang, or suggestive comments or innuendo of a sexual or discriminatory nature in communicating with students (or at any other time at work).
• If a student shares confidential or other information that could pose a threat to the student or others, employees have an obligation to and must notify the employee’s supervisor or a School counselor and if applicable, make a report of suspected child abuse or neglect in keeping with YULA High School’s child abuse reporting policy and mandated reporting laws.
• Employees may not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs or consume alcohol or drugs at any Schoolsponsored activities where students are present. Employees are also prohibited from discussing any personal alcohol or drug use, whether past or current, with students.
• When meeting with a student one-on-one, employees must balance potential privacy concerns with appropriate professionalism and may not meet in locations that are closed off or not visible or accessible to others.
• Employees must act with transparency; any interaction with a student should be something an employee would feel comfortable saying or doing in front of that student’s parents, the Head of School, and the employee’s supervisor.
• Employees are prohibited from buying or giving personal gifts to individual students.
• Employees must notify their supervisor immediately if a student is or seems to be pushing the employee’s personal boundaries, attempting to establish an inappropriate relationship, or it appears another type of problem is beginning to emerge.
• Employees are prohibited from meeting with students off campus unless it is a pre-approved School activity or event that includes multiple students and other individuals. Employees are prohibited from otherwise meeting with students off campus unless an employees is meeting with students to plan School events or gatherings, the off-campus meeting is with multiple students, and the employee must first obtain the permission of a member of the YULA High School administration and the student’s parent or guardian.
Employees must understand their own responsibility for ensuring they do not cross the protocols and requirements established in this Policy. Employees have an obligation to model, through both language and behavior, the values and expectations of YULA High School, and to strictly comply with this Policy. Disagreeing with the wording or intent of the established protocols and requirements does not alleviate employees from strictly complying with this Policy and will be considered irrelevant for disciplinary purposes. If an employee finds himself or herself in a difficult situation related to boundaries or has questions related to these protocols and requirements, the employee should consult the Head of School or the employee’s supervisor. If any employee becomes aware of another employee failing to adhere to this Policy, the employee must immediately report the matter to the Head of School.
POLICY ON DRIVING WITH STUDENTS
Employees are prohibited from driving students in their personal vehicles, either to and from School or to and from School activities, field trips, and events unless they receive prior written authorization from the Head of School or a School Principal, and the parents of that student and there is another student or adult in the vehicle.. This Policy does not prevent employees from driving their own children who attend YULA High School.
Likewise, employees are also prohibited from riding in students’ personal vehicles to and from school, or to and from school activities, field trips, and events or to school activities, unless they receive written authorization from the Head of School, and the parents of that student and there is another student or adult in the vehicle.
Any questions should be directed to the Head of School or a Principal. Failure to comply with this Policy may result in disciplinary consequences, including termination of employment.
TECHNOLOGY POLICIES
SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDELINES
This Policy applies to all employees, including all faculty and staff of YULA High School in their use of the Internet, social media and electronic communications, regardless of whether the use is through devices and resources of the School or by any other means. YULA High School is a private institution committed to the education, betterment and safety of its pupils, who are minors, and also committed to establishing effective and satisfying working relationships among members of its community. This Policy is designed to help YULA High School carry out these commitments.
The following particular rules apply to employees:
1. Adhere to School Policies and Regulations: To the extent employees Internet, social media and electronic communications use affects or could affect or otherwise relates to YULA High School or YULA High School employees, students or School families, or their participation in the YULA High School community through work, education or otherwise, employees are required to follow School policies and rules. These policies and rules include, but are not limited to, those that protect individual privacy rights, and those that prohibit harassment, discrimination or retaliation, or workplace violence. If employees use of the Internet, social media or electronic communications adversely affects their job performance, the performance of co-workers, or members of the public served by YULA High School, such as students and School families, or if employees use is inconsistent with YULA High School’s vision, mission, pillars, and policies and expectations as expressed in the Employee Handbook, then YULA High School may take disciplinary action against the employee up to and including termination.
2. Adhere to the Religious Tenets of YULA High School: To the extent employees Internet, social media and electronic communications use affects or could affect or otherwise relates to YULA High School employees, students or YULA High School families, or their participation in the YULA High School community thr ough work, education or otherwise, employees are required to follow the religious tenets of YULA High School. YULA High School’s mission is to introduce students to its religious principles and provide a secure grounding in them, to help prepare them for adult life in which our religion can play a substantial part. If employees of YULA High School fail to follow its precepts outside through conduct on the Internet, social media or through other electronic communications, this harms YULA High School, and accordingly can lead to discipline of the employee.
3. Do Not Engage in Unlawful Conduct, Including Threats: Do not post statements, photographs, video, or audio that reasonably could be viewed as violating the law, such as by constituting unlawful, threatening conduct. Examples of unlawful, threatening conduct include posting material that would make a reasonable person afraid for his or her safety or the safety of his or her family.
4. Do Not Make Inaccurate or Defamatory Statements: Employees must never post any information or rumors the employees knows, should know, or believes to be false about their co-workers, students or School families. Strive for accuracy in any communication, be it a blog entry, post or comment. Employees can include a link to their sources of information. If an employee makes a mistake, correct the information, or retract it promptly.
5. Do Not Infringe Others’ Rights or Privacy: Employee must not disclose information that may violate student, School family member or employee rights. For example, employees must not disclose another individual’s social security number, or confidential medical or financial information. In addition, employees mus t not disclose pupil records or any other confidential student information. For safety reasons, employees are prohibited from posting on-line any photos of the School’s students or members of School families (employees who have children at the School, however, can post their own family photos).
6. Do Not Disclose Confidential Information: YULA High School also has its own confidential business and operational information, such as certain financial information, donor information, marketing data, confidential plans for optimizing its position in the marketplace, and other similar types of information. Communicating confidential School information to unauthorized individuals within or outside of YULA High School is prohibited. If there is any question about whether information is confidential or protected, employees must ask the Head of School.
7. Make Clear When You Are Not Speaking for the School: If employees publish a blog entry or post on-line content related to their work or subjects associated with YULA High School, employees must make it clear that they are not speaking on behalf of YULA High School. It is best to include a disclaimer such as, “The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of YULA High School.” Employees must respect the intellectual property rights of YULA High School, and must not make improper use of YULA High School’s logo, trademarks, official photographs, or any other of the School’s proprietary materials.
8. Do Not Use Social Media at Work: Employees must not use working hours when the employee is not on a meal or rest break for their personal social media use. Employees must not use their YULA High School email addresses to register on social networks, blogs or other online tools utilized for their personal use.
9. Do Not “Friend” Or Interact with Students Through Social Media Outside the School: YULA High School employees, including faculty members, are prohibited from communicating or interacting with School students or their parents via Social Networking Sites, other than as authorized and through the official School sites. This restriction applies to former students and their parents as well, until the former student reaches the age of 18. (This does not apply to employees who are also parents at the School as to their interactions on social media with their own children or other parents in that capacity.) YULA High School employees may not initiate or accept social media friends or contact requests from current students (of any age) or former students under the age of 18.
10. Conduct School Business Only Through School Electronic Resources: Employees must use YULA High School resources when conducting School business, absent prior authorization from the Head of School. Employees must not use personal email addresses, texts from personally owned devices, individual WhatsApp or other social media platforms and accounts, or other personal and non-school resources to conduct School business, except if communicating on a personal and non-school resource is necessary due to an emergency or other urgent situation, in which case, the employee must copy one of the School’s Principals or the Head of School on the communication and the employee must promptly follow-up in writing with the individual copied on the communication to notify that individual they were copied in compliance with this policy, as the communication was sent using a personal and non-school resource.
11. For Media Contacts, Do Not Interfere with YULA High School’s Official Response: YULA High School strives to anticipate and manage crisis situations in order to reduce disruption to our employees, maintain our reputation, and avoid disruption for the students and families who are part of our community. To best serve these objectives, YULA High School will respond to the news media only through its designated spokesperson. Employees are not authorized to comment for YULA High School and should direct inquiries regarding YULA High School’s particular position on a matter to the Head of School.
Finally, if employees would like to keep their personal life separate from your professional or work life, use privacy settings to restrict personal information on public sites. Employees should consider whom to invite or accept to join their social network, as those individuals will have access to the employee’s profile, photographs, etc. Understand that even if an employee has private settings, those employees invite into a network can easily, print, save, cut, paste, modify, or publish anything posted. Material can be archived on the Internet even after it is removed.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION WITH PARENTS AND STUDENTS
1. General Guidelines. Employees are expected to represent themselves, as well as YULA High School through appropriate, respectful communication at all times. YULA High School’s standards of professional conduct, as well as Torah and Halacha serve as a guide for YULA High School’s expectations of our employees in all of their communications with parents and students.
2. Schoology Learning Management System, Email and Other Accounts Employees must use YULA High School resources when communicating with students, except that employees may also use WhatsApp to communicate with a group of students (e.g., a group of students in a specified class, sports team, club, committee or other organized school group). Employees may not use WhatsApp to communicate with an individual student. The primary forms of school resources employees use when communicating with students are through YULA High
School official email accounts, the Schoology Learning Management System, and google group chat associated with their YULA account and YULA email. Communications are sent through these platforms on a daily basis and it is the employees’ responsibility to monitor emails and communications through these platforms and ensure communications are being received and read. During the school year, employees should typically reply within 24 hours for communications received Monday-Thursday and within 72 hours on weekends. When School is closed for an extended period of time, such as holidays, employees should respond to communications within 24 hours after school resumes.
Employees must not use personal email addresses, texts from personally owned devices, other social media platforms and accounts, (except that employees may communicate on WhatsApp with a group of students, but not an individual student, as set forth above) or other personal and non-school resources when communicating with students, except if communicating on a personal and non-school resource is necessary due to an emergency or other urgent situation, in which case, the employee must copy one of the School’s Principals or the Head of School on the communication and the employee must promptly follow-up in writing with the individual copied on the communication to notify that individual they were copied in compliance with this policy, as the communication was sent using a personal and non-school resource.
3. No “Friending” Students. Employees may not initiate or accept a social media or contact request from current students or from former students under the age of 18.
4. Resolving Questions or Concerns. If students or parents have a question or concern about any academic matter, the first step is to speak directly with the Teacher. It is not usually possible to give proper and respectful consideration in the time directly before or directly after class and students and parents should not pressure teachers to discuss questions or concerns during these times. Students and parents should let the teacher know they have a question or concern and ask to arrange a time to discuss it. Parents may request individual conferences with teachers to discuss their child’s progress or challenges, and for other issues related to education. Teachers may arrange individual conferences with parents when academic and/or social concerns arise. Teachers and parents are responsible for working together to schedule a conference or meeting. Typically, students or parents should address, discuss, and attempt to work out any academic matters prior to any request to address these academic matters with the School administration.
