Importance Of Student Codes Of Conduct

Code of Conduct Essay Portion Public school systems across the nation utilize codes of conduct to enforce particular rules pertaining towards the wellbeing of students. A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norms and responsibilities of, or proper practices for an individual, party, or organization. Schools have codes of conduct to ensure the safety of students and the people around. According to the online article, Student Codes of Conduct: Background, it states, “ Student codes of conduct are designed to serve both the classroom and the individual. They outline students ' rights, ensuring that no student will be penalized or singled out based on anything but a violation of established rules. They also outline students …show more content…
Schools throughout the country have a variety of different codes of conduct to depending on what kind of problems they might have came across in the past. Incidents such as one in southwest Illinois, where a young girl was beaten up on the bus. The real problem in this story was that the bus driver was well aware of the bullying that had been occurring numerous amounts of times before the incident escalated into a physical altercation between the young girl and the bully. The online article, Sue for Bullying? Yes, You Can, claims, “... the school bus driver witnessed the bullying over time and did nothing about it. The bullying culminated in a physical beating, and of course, the logical conclusion is that had the driver intervened or told the school district authorities, the violence would have been avoided” (Levinson). This goes to show that the bus driver had played a big role in the situation that happened on the bus and could have prevented this situation from ever happening. The parents of the young victim ended up suing the school district for failing to protect their daughter from the bully. Codes of conduct comes into play when schools get put into positions such as this one. It can decipher the punishment for the student that commits an unlawful action towards another. But, in this case, it was negligence by the bus driver to do nothing about …show more content…
These protocols are the schools’ and districts’ backbone when severe incidents take place. The codes of conduct are there to help the victim and at the same time provide the correct punishment for those who wish to disobey the rules. However, codes of conduct can be a detriment and cause hardships for someone. For instance, there was an appalling bullying story at South Hadley High School, located in Massachusetts. In 2009, Phoebe Prince, an Irish immigrant, moved to South Hadley, Massachusetts along with her family. She had been the new kid around school and got attention right away. According to the article, Who Failed Phoebe Prince?, many girls had envied her sporadic “fame.” But soon, Phoebe started to be tormented by other envious girls such as Ashley Lounge who was heard saying harsh remarks, “‘Close your legs’” (Giacobbe). The bullying kept on worsening, which lead to cyber bullying and physical harassment. Phoebe later committed suicide in January of 2010. The twist in this story is that Phoebe had gone to the counselor and principal’s office frequently about her ongoing bullying problem and all that was done was a slight “tap on the wrist” for the bullies. After an investigation, the school board had a hard time deciding a punishment for the bullies because the school claimed, “the problem was, bullying had not been defined — it was up to the