For information related to student conduct, disciplinary action, and the School Safety Act of 2001, please refer to MS CODE ' 37-11-55 and Policy JCB, Code of Conduct.

CHILD ABUSE OR NEGLECT

In compliance with MS Code ' 43-21-353, district personnel shall immediately report suspected child abuse or neglect to the Mississippi Department of Human Services.  The number for the Child Abuse Hotline is (601) 359-4991, or toll free (800) 222-8000.

Under section §43-21-353 of the Mississippi Code, any public school employee “having reasonable cause to suspect that a child is a neglected child or an abused child, shall cause an oral report to be made immediately by telephone or otherwise and followed as soon thereafter as possible by a report in writing to the Department of Human Services.”  MS Code Section 43-21-355 grants immunity to any teacher, principal, or social worker who, when acting in good faith, reports cases of suspected child abuse or neglect.

The following procedures are to be used in the Ocean Springs School District when reporting suspected child abuse and or neglect:

1. Any school employee shall report suspected child abuse and/or neglect to their school counselor, principal, or principal designee.
2. Upon receiving the report from a school employee, the principal or his designee shall gather facts in an attempt to determine whether the child has been or subjected to non-accidental physical injury, sexual abuse, mental injury, maltreatment, burning, torture, mutilation, or sexually exploited.  Employees shall be reminded that physical discipline, including spanking, in a reasonable manner shall not constitute child abuse.
3. Having established reasonable cause, the pertinent information shall be recorded on the appropriate reporting forms.
4. The Department of Human Services shall be notified by telephone or in person.
5. This notification shall be followed by a faxed written report to the Department of Human Services.  The written report shall include: Name(s) and address(s) of child and parent(s) or guardian(s); age of child; nature and extent of injury(s) and/or neglect, including evidence of previous injury(s) and/or neglect, and any other information that might be helpful in establishing cause(s) of injury(s) and/or neglect.
6. Upon proof of identification, authorized personnel from the Department of Human Services shall be allowed to have an in-school conference with a child who has reportedly been abused and/or neglected.
7. Any report and or call forwarded to the Department of Human Services shall remain confidential and shall not be disclosed to any other service unless so ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction.

DISASTER EMERGENCY

If the School Board determines that it is not economically feasible or practicable to operate any school within the district for the full one hundred eighty (180) days required for a scholastic year as contemplated due to an enemy attack, a manmade, technological or natural disaster in which the Governor has declared a disaster emergency or the U.S. President has declared an emergency or major disaster to exist in this state, the school board may notify the State Department of Education of such disaster and submit a plan for altering the school term.

If the State Board of Education finds such disaster to be the cause of the school not operating for the contemplated school term and that such school was in a school district covered by the Governor's or President's disaster declaration, it may permit said school board to operate the schools in its district for less than one hundred eighty (180) days.  ' 37-13-63 (2003)

SAFETY DRILLS

Each school shall have a current disaster plan and shall conduct regular safety drills, to include but not limited to bomb threat, earthquake, fire, and tornado.

It shall be the duty of the principals and teachers in all school buildings to instruct the pupils in the methods of fire drills and to practice fire drills until all the pupils in the school are familiar with the methods of escape.  Such fire drills shall be conducted often enough to keep such pupils well drilled.  It shall be the further duty of such principals and teachers to instruct the pupils in all programs of emergency management as may be designated by the state department of education.  ' 37-11-5 (1980)

HARASSMENT

Student-to-student sexual harassment will not be tolerated.  Complaints of student-to-student sexual harassment will be handled in accordance with Policy JB:  Students Complaints of Sexual Discrimination/Harassment - Title IX Procedures.

STUDENT AND STAFF PROTECTION

It shall be unlawful for any person to intimidate, threaten or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten or coerce, whether by illegal force, threats of force or by the distribution of intimidating, threatening or coercive material, any person enrolled in any school for the purpose of interfering with the right of that person to attend school classes or of causing him not to attend such classes.

Upon conviction of violation of any provision of this section, such individual shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine of not to exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00), imprisonment in jail for a period not to exceed six (6) months, or both.  Any person under the age of seventeen (17) years who violates any provision of this section shall be treated as a delinquent within the jurisdiction of the youth court.  ' 37-11-20 (1972)

SAFETY DURING INSTRUCTION

Each student and teacher is required to wear an appropriate industrial quality eye protective device at all times while participating in or observing any of the following courses of instruction:

1.    Vocational, technical, industrial arts, chemical, or chemical-physical, involving exposure to:

a.    Hot molten metals, or other molten materials;
b.    Milling, sawing, turning, shaping, cutting, grinding, or stamping of any solid materials;
c.    Heat treatment, tempering, or kiln firing of any metal or other materials;
d.    Gas or electric arc welding, or other forms of welding processes;
e.    Caustic or explosive materials; or

2.    Chemical, physical, or combined chemical-physical laboratories involving caustic or explosive materials, hot liquids or solids, injurious radiations, or other hazards not enumerated.

For purposes of this section unless the context indicates otherwise "Industrial quality eye protective device" shall mean a device meeting the standards of the American National Standard Practice for Occupational and Educational Eye and Face Protection, Z 87.1-1968, and subsequent revisions thereof, approved by the American National Standards Institute, Inc.  Such devices may, at the discretion of the individual school, be 

a.    furnished for all students and teachers;
b.    purchased and sold at cost to students and teachers; or 
c.    made available for a moderate renta l fee.

Such devices shall be furnished to all visitors to such shops and laboratories.  ' 37-11-49 (1974)

TRANSPORTATION SAFETY

Maximum regard for pupil safety and adequate protection of health shall be primary requirements which shall be observed by the school board in purchasing used school buses. ' 37-41-103 (1982) 


The Mississippi Public School Accountability Standards for this policy are Standards 35, 36, and 37.

LEGAL REF.: MS CODE as cited

                 Mississippi Public School Accountability Standards

ADOPTED:  07/13/1976
 

REVISED:    08/08/2006
                     05/11/2010