Redwood Day Bullying and Harassment Policy

To maintain a safe, positive, and cohesive atmosphere at Redwood and in conformity to Illinois state law, bullying and harassment in all forms are unacceptable. Bullying is contrary to State law and the policy of the non-sectarian nonpublic school. Nothing in this Section is intended to infringe upon any right to exercise free expression or the free exercise of religion or religiously based views protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or under Section 3 of Article 1 of the Illinois Constitution.

Bullying is classified as negative acts carried out repeatedly over time, involving a real or perceived imbalance of power. Bullying is physically, emotionally, and/or mentally harming a student through acts or threats and interferes with a students’ education.  Bullying may include but is not limited to the following: (1) Placing the student or students in reasonable fear of harm to the student's or students' person or property; (2) Causing a substantially detrimental effect on the student's or students' physical or mental health; (3) Substantially interfering with the student's or students' academic performance; or (4) Substantially interfering with the student's or students' ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or privileges provided by a school. Bullying may take various forms, including without limitation one or more of the following: harassment, threats, intimidation, stalking, physical violence, sexual harassment, sexual violence, theft, public humiliation, destruction of property, or retaliation for asserting or alleging an act of bullying. 

Cyberbullying, as with all other bullying, includes but is not limited to the following misuses of technology: harassing, teasing, intimidating, threatening, or terrorizing another student or staff member by way of any technological tool, such as sending or posting inappropriate or derogatory e-mail messages, instant messages, text messages, digital pictures or images, or Web site postings (including blogs). Cyberbullying involving students may occur both on campus and off school grounds.  It may involve student use of the school’s Internet system or student use of personal digital devices while at school, such as cell phones, digital cameras, and personal computers to engage in cyberbullying. There is a clear right of the school to involve itself in a disciplinary fashion in cases in which students are the victims of cyberbullying which occurs either outside or in a combination of inside/outside the school day, but whose ramifications extend to school.

Any Redwood student, parent, guardian, or staff member who believes that they/their student is being subjected to bullying behavior shall report the behavior to a Redwood staff member/Redwood Head of School (Becky Sinclair, becky@redwoodliteracy.com, 312-401-5597). Redwood Head of School shall promptly investigate the complaint and inform parents/guardians of students involved in the alleged incident(s) to discuss, as appropriate, counseling and psychological services, disciplinary actions, interventions, and/or restorative measures. 

Allegations of bullying shall be promptly investigated and will be treated as confidential and private to the extent possible within legal constraints. No student will be punished for reporting bullying or supplying information even if the investigation concludes that no bullying occurred. However, knowingly making a false accusation or providing false information will be treated as bullying for purposes of determining appropriate consequences or other remedial actions. Reprisal or retaliation against any person who reports an act of bullying is prohibited and shall also require determination of appropriate consequences and remedial actions. 

 Staff members will (1) intervene immediately to stop a bullying incident that they witness, (2) report bullying, whether they witness it or not, to an administrator, and (3) inform the administration of locations on school grounds where additional supervision or monitoring may be needed to prevent bullying. Administration will (1)  make all reasonable efforts to complete the investigation within 10 school days after the date the report of the incident of bullying was received and (2) take into consideration additional relevant information received during the course of the investigation about the reported incident of bullying.

Redwood will use restorative measures to address bullying, outlined in our SEL Framework and  Relationship Reparation Policy which may include social-emotional skill-building, counseling, and behavior implementation plans. This policy is consistent with other Redwood Day School policies. 

As part of the process of reviewing and re-evaluating the policy, Redwood Day evaluates parents through an End of Year Survey to assess the outcomes and effectiveness of the policy that includes factors such as metrics of confidence and self-concept growth over the year as well as student and family observations of safety at a school.