Pine Bush Central School District held its annual Code of Conduct Hearing on Tuesday, August 23, in conjunction with the Board of Education Meeting. Superintendent of Schools Brian Dunn opened by sharing the standards and features of a legal code of conduct which includes student rights and responsibilities, prohibited student conduct, dress code, penalties, procedures and referrals, progressive discipline charts and other categories. Dunn went on to share that there was only one substantial change in the code of conduct this year, called Aggressive Bystanding.

“Aggressive Bystanding was put in after a team of administrators looked at some of our infractions last year, primarily at the high school, and we worked with our attorneys to identify this phrase. The definition is: Aggressive Bystanding is purposefully obstructing the area around the incident in question to not allow others in or out of the incident area,” explained Dunn. Dunn used the example of a fight breaking out and a circle of students forming around the incident, not allowing adults or peacekeepers in to get access to break it up peacefully and keep people safe. He shared that the document allows the district to name a behavior that is not desirable and reinforce it in the code of conduct with appropriate consequences.

Board of Education President Gretchen Meier questioned whether cell phone recording of incidences such as fights was addressed in the code of conduct under purposefully obstructing an incident since videotaping and sharing the video are not a physical obstruction.

“It is in the code of conduct, it has to be addressed, to use your cell phone, to acquire footage of any incident of that kind, is already against the code of conduct. You’re covered there,” Dunn explained.

Dunn went on later in the meeting to clarify that under the Student Privacy via Audio/Video section of the code of conduct, “Students are required at all times to respect the privacy of other participants. This means never making audio or video recordings or screenshots of teachers or classmates.”

Board members discussed if this was in regard to both positive and negative items happening in addition to limiting use during class time. “Cell phones are not being banned in Pine Bush schools, but we are enforcing the rules we have about cell phones in the code of conduct.”

Dunn said language in the code of conduct empowers teachers, building leadership and adults in the schools to set the rules for each classroom lesson. Under his leadership, Dunn said the district will be using the code of conduct to enrich and improve Pine Bush’s culture and climate in the schools and set the barometer for expectations of the students to tighten student management in Pine Bush schools for the upcoming school year.