Pine-Richland Student Handbook to Include Expanded Cyber-Bullying Policy

Parents and students will notice a change in Pine-Richland’s anti-bullying policy in the upcoming student handbook.

At Monday’s school board meeting, officials approved adding an expanded definition of the district’s updated cyber-bullying policy to the printed handbooks, which will be given to students at the start of the 2013-14 school year.

Last fall, the board voted to expand its anti-bullying/cyber-bullying policy to include off-campus settings. This also includes online bullying on social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter.

The district’s former policy, which was established in January 2009, referred to bullying in school settings only.

While the current handbook address cyber-bullying, School Board President Peter Lyons noted there is some “ambiguity” in the printed policy, which still contains the district’s original anti-bullying definition.

“The issue is just to make it more explicit,” he said.  

The district also will update the policy in the online student handbook found on the district's website.