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Under AB 500, Marymount must disclose its Employee-Student Boundaries Policy which can be found by reading more below.
Employee Student Boundaries
Marymount 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 the School.
Marymount 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 the 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 relationships employees must be diligent to avoid any conduct that is not a professional or 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. 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.
- Employees must avoid creating excessive emotional attachments beyond the healthy employee/student relationship.
- 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 avoid any sexual or romantic interactions or relationships with students. Dating and any other type of one-on-one social interaction between an employee and student are strictly prohibited.
- Employee communications with students (e.g., notes, email, texts or other electronic exchanges, or phone calls) must be for School related reasons only 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). Employees must not ask questions or make comments to students through any medium when those questions or comments pertain to sex, sexuality, or related matters; to the student’s appearance; or to any other matter that would make a reasonable student personally uncomfortable.
- If a student shares confidential information that could pose a threat to the student or others, Employees have an obligation to and must notify his/her supervisor, Dean of Students or Academic Dean, or make a report of suspected child abuse or neglect in keeping with the School’s child abuse reporting policy and mandated reporting laws as set forth in this Employee Handbook.
- Employees may not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs or consume alcohol or drugs at any School-sponsored 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 should avoid meeting 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 and the employee’s supervisor.
- Employees are prohibited from buying or giving personal gifts to individual students.
- Employees should consult their supervisor 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 with other individuals present or if employees are meeting with students to plan school events or gatherings, the employee must first obtain the permission of the 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. 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 him or herself in a difficult situation related to boundaries or has questions related to these protocols and requirements, he or she should consult the Head of School or his or her supervisor. If any employee becomes aware of another employee failing to adhere to this policy, the employee must immediately report the matter to Head of School.
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