Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • February 8, 2012 FLOW Area New policy aims to control dating violence at school by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hill Regional High School Board of Education has adopted a policy and regulation to address dating violence at school. The regulation supporting the policy defines dating violence as behavior in which one person threatens to use, or actually uses, physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse to control a dating partner. A dating partner is defined as a person involved in an intimate association with another individual that is primarily characterized by the expectation of affectionate involvement, whether casual, serious, or long-term. The policy requires the board of education to incorporate age-appropriate dating violence education in grades nine through 12 through the health education curriculum in support of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Comprehensive Health and Physical Education. That educational program must include, but is not limited to, a definition of dating violence, recognizing the warning signs of dating violence, and the characteristics of healthy relationships. “The board of education believes a safe and civil environment in school is necessary for children to learn,” the policy states. “A pupil who is a victim of dating violence suffers academically and the pupil’s safety at school is jeopardized. Acts or incidents of dating violence at school, whether they are verbal, sexual, physical, or emotional, will not be tolerated and will be dealt with in accordance with the school’s pupil code of conduct.” The policy points out that dating violence may include incidents characterized by physical, emotional, verbal, or sexual abuse; digital or electronic acts or incidents; and/ or patterns of behavior that are threatening or controlling. The policy states that school staff members must take all reasonable measures to prevent acts or incidents of dating violence at school involving a pupil. The consequences contained in the policy include admonishment, temporary removal from the classroom, classroom or administrative detention, in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, reports to law enforcement, and/or expulsion. Retaliation toward the victim of any act of dating violence will be considered when administering consequences to the alleged aggressor based on the severity of the incident. Under the policy, a parent or legal guardian of a pupil less than 18 years of age must be permitted to examine the dating violence education instruction materials developed by the school district upon written request to the school principal, within a reasonable period of time after the request is made. The regulation contains procedures for reporting acts or incidents of dating violence, guidelines for responding to at-school acts of dating violence, procedures for administrative investigation, and the procedures for working with the victim and the aggressor. The regulation also describes the warning signs of dating violence. “Recognizing one or more signs of teen dating violence plays an important role in preventing, educating, and intervening in acts or incidents of dating violence,” the document states. Warning signs include name-calling and putdowns, extreme jealousy, making excuses for a dating partner, canceling or changing plans, monitoring a dating partner, uncontrolled anger, dramatic changes in appearance, unexplained injuries, and relationships that get serious very quickly. Signs also include cases of isolation in which one person in the relationship gives up spending time with family and friends. Historian Charles McSorley will present “Suffragette Movement: How Women Won the Vote” to the Woman’s Club of Wyckoff on Wednesday, Feb. 15. This program will be held at 1:45 p.m. at the clubhouse at 176 Wyckoff Avenue. The club will hold a meeting for members at 1 p.m. McSorley to discuss Suffragette Movement McSorley’s program, which is open to the public, will follow. The program is funded by The Horizons Speaker Bureau of The New Jersey Council for The Humanities, a state partner of The National Endowment for The Humanities. For details, call (201) 891-2435.