SOUTH BEND — Is it OK for a teacher to hug a student, give students gifts or tell a little story that sheds light on who the teacher is?

These are among the questions that arose this week as the South Bend Community School Corp. board unanimously approved a new set of policies for staff-student relations.

One parent hailed the policies as the right step to prevent the sort of heartache he and his wife endured after, they say, their teen-aged daughter fell into an inappropriate relationship with a teacher.

But two representatives of the local teachers union feel the policy is open to interpretation, leaving teachers at risk of punishment for innocent things that teachers do.

Those are all good questions, board members said, agreeing that they don’t want teachers to be in trouble for connecting with students.

They pledged to re-evaluate the policy in three months. But they passed it as is Monday, in time for the training of principals and coaches before classes start Aug. 18.

Though a policy was on the books, this gives more direction, says board trustee Marcia Hummel. It states that employees should avoid situations or activities that could be considered abusive, sexually suggestive or involve tobacco, alcohol or drugs. It gives several examples that would violate the policy if they are “in the absence of a legitimate professional purpose.” The policy applies all staff and students at all grade levels.

Separate from this, the school board is reviewing another new policy that would require an expanded criminal history check of all applicants seeking employment. It’s now required by state legislation that passed this year.

Teachers’ concerns

Carolyn Peterson, a Washington High School teacher and president of the National Education Association-South Bend, honed in on one piece of the staff-student policy, which discourages staff from disclosing “personal, sexual, family, employment concerns, or other private matters to one or more students.”

Peterson recalls how she came to class one morning after spending the night at the emergency room when her husband fell ill. She told students about that, including how she didn’t have time to change clothes. This kind of honesty, she says, helps when a teacher is frazzled, exhausted or nervous.

“Kids respond very well if they understand where you’re coming from,” says Peterson, who was named the corporation’s Teacher of the Year this spring.

And in that case, she didn’t want to leave a particularly complex math unit to a substitute.

Peterson also has shared with students that she grew up in a family with abuse and alcoholism. She says she doesn’t go into details, but just saying she was an abused child helps her to be a role model.

“I tell them how education can get you beyond that,” she says.

“Our teachers are pressured to establish relationships (with students),” says Mary Ann Zimmerman, the NEA-South Bend director.

She raised issue with a part of the policy against “any type of sexual or inappropriate physical contact with students or any other conduct that might be considered harassment under the Board of School Trustee's policy on Sexual Harassment.”

It’s not unusual for students to spontaneously hug a teacher, she says.

And what, she asks, is “harassment”? The wording, she says, leaves “employees vulnerable to ill-defined standards.”

Zimmerman raised questions about the policy against “giving gifts of a personal nature to a specific student, unless approved by the employee's supervisor.”

Peterson says teachers often are invited to graduation parties, where a gift is expected. She often brings an item worth $3 or $4. She asks: Does that violate policy?

Parents’ backing

David Catanzarite of South Bend agrees there’s a fine line in interpreting some of the guidelines - like the difference between an innocent or inappropriate hug. But he still feels the new policy “goes a long way in closing loopholes.”

He says his daughter is now 19 and healthy and mending the ties with her parents. But he says she fell into an inappropriate relationship with a teacher at a South Bend high school. That man is no longer employed as a teacher, Catanzarite says.

Catanzarite says he and his wife started meeting with corporation officials late in 2008, and he has regularly attended board meetings. The couple never intended to sue. Catanzarite says they only wanted to see things change to prevent other families from facing the same ordeal. They felt officials at the school itself failed to respond to their concerns. He made a public presentation to the board in May.

The corporation’s superintendent, James Kapsa, said that, while the Catanzarites’ saga had an effect on the new policy, there were other potential problems and issues that sparked the policy, too.

Indeed, parts of the policy address the Catanzarites’ specific worries. Among them: dating a student and using cell phone texting or emails to discuss matters that don’t relate to school work. Also, there’s a part that says the staff should put students in touch with a professional who can diagnose or treat a problem if a student comes to staff for advice about their own substance abuse, physical health issues, sexual behavior or family relationships.

Catanzarite says he and his wife have been invited to be part of a training video.

“We offered to help in any way,” he says.

In three months

The punishment for staff members who violate the policy could be as much as suspension without pay or firing.

But Peterson says a mere accusation can hurt a teacher’s reputation.

“We’ve had teachers suspended for six weeks with pay, and then they found no impropriety,” she says.

Kapsa said corporation officials first had the new policy reviewed by its attorneys at Baker & Daniels.

By the time the board reviews the policy in three months, it expects to have finished an overhaul of the corporation’s general policy manual, which will include this new policy on staff-student relations. The manual and all of its new policies will have to be adopted as a whole at that time, Hummel says.

Here are other examples of conduct that the policy wouldn’t allow: sexual relationships, discussion or planning of future romantic relationships with a student, singling out students for personal attention or friendship beyond the normal teacher-student relationship, sexual banter or jokes or innuendoes with students, asking a student to keep a secret, and giving a student a ride in the staff member’s personal vehicle or taking the student on an outing without permission from the student’s parent/guardian or school administrator.

Staff writer Joseph Dits:
jdits@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6158