In response to both a lawsuit and a maelstrom of negative publicity arising out of the purported sexual assaults and bullying of its high school students by some of its faculty, a New York-based private school not only retained an outside firm and launched a large-scale investigation as to the merits (or the lack thereof) of these former students' claims, but also charged this firm with the task of compiling a comprehensive anti-harassment (and anti-bullying) policy for the school.
Naturally, and as part of the policy manual adopted by the school, the manual, in delineating prohibited conduct - and the specific protocols to be followed in the event of any misconduct, necessarily defined bullying. Its definition, which I think is rather good, is as follows:
- pushing, elbowing, poking, tripping, sitting on, kicking, or hitting
- threatening another with physical harm
- taunting others because of their physical traits including, but not limited to, age, voice, height, weight, athletic skill, social skills or any other personal characteristic
- taunting others, either verbally or using gestures (or using derogatory terms) about their actual or perceived sexual orientation, race, color or national origin
- excluding someone from a group or activity purposely to hurt them, e.g., refusing to let someone sit at a particular lunch table
- damaging, hiding, taking of property
- posting on Facebook, or any other on-line social networking site, or texting mean, offensive, demeaning, embarrassing, or threatening comments or images
