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Maintaining Professional Boundaries

Disclaimer Please understand that the purpose of this presentation and handout is educational. Nothing in either should be construed as specific legal advice for a particular situation. Sound legal advice requires an understanding of all the facts of a particular situation, something that cannot occur in an education setting.

The Risk of Doing Business The school district employees, agents and volunteers are covered by liability insurance while acting within the scope of their duties Intentional wrongs, acts or crimes are excluded

Canfield & Associates 5 The Need to Feel Safe! 60% of all students feel that safety is the number on concern in schools today! 90% of parents feet that safety is the number one concern in schools today!

Canfield & Associates 6 DISTRICT LIABILITY AND PARENT’S EXPECATIONS Parents have the expectation that their children will return to them in the same condition or better than when they left for school! Theory of “in loco parentis” (in the place of parents)

Canfield & Associates 7 Legal Terminology Deliberate indifference: –When a school district employee, agent or volunteer chooses to act outside the policies, procedures of the district and/or the rules and regulations governing the activity, the person may be guilty of deliberate indifference and therefore exposing themselves to personal liability

Canfield & Associates 8 Determining Liability Duty of Ordinary Care Foreseeable Known or should have known Breach of that Duty Doing something you shouldn’t have done Not doing something you should have done Damages or Injuries Occurred To individual To property Proximate Cause Natural and continuous sequence of events with no casual element interrupting sequence and nothing outside the chain of events impacting cause and effect

Overview Define the problem Definitions Boundary invasion = prevention Examples Consequences of Sexual Exploitation Reporting Standard of care for a safe school

Overview (cont.) What school employees can and should do to keep students and themselves safe? Offender, Victim, Bystander Sample Policy

Canfield & Associates 11 RCW 28A If you have reasonable cause to believe that a school employee is guilty of physical abuse or sexual misconduct, you should report your beliefs to your school administration. The school administrator is then required to investigate and report (or cause to have reported) to the proper authorities as soon as possible, in no case longer than 48 hours. During the course of the reasonable cause determination, the school administrator shall contact all parties involved in the complaint.

Problem Defined PEOPLE VS. ORGANIZATION Reactive Crisis Response Pro-active Prevention Intervention

A Closer Look 9.6% of female students K-12 reported unwanted school employee sexual misconduct. (Shakeshaft, 2004)

A Closer Look 45 million students have suffered from some form of sexual exploitation during their K-12 education (Shakeshaft, 2004)

A Closer Look 70% of cases involve female victims