CODE OF CONDUCT - Guidelines for Protecting Our Students

Our Code of Conduct outlines appropriate standards of behavior for all adults towards our students. The Code strives to protect students, reduce opportunities for abuse or harm to occur, and promote student safety and welfare in the Porter-Gaud School environment.
The following expectations of behaviors and boundaries are for all adults interacting with students within our School community. This includes all full-time and part-time employees, volunteer coaches, substitute teachers, Flik Dining personnel, student athletic trainers, tutors, bus drivers, chaperones for overnight field trips, after-school or summer camp program staff, parent/guardian volunteers, and any others who may be in close contact with our students at the School's behest.
If an adult breaches the Code of Conduct, Porter-Gaud may take disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, as well as initiate a criminal investigation with the City of Charleston police department or the appropriate law enforcement agency.
Appropriate Interactions
● Behave as positive role models to students.
● Promote the safety, welfare, and well being of our students.
● Be vigilant and proactive with regard to student safety and student protection issues.
● Comply with the guidelines published in the student protection code of conduct.
● Provide age-appropriate supervision for students.
● Interact with students in positive, observable and interruptible situations. At no time may an adult be alone (1:1) with a student in an isolated or unobservable environment.
● Use positive techniques of guidance, including praise, encouragement and acknowledgment, as well as positive reinforcement with all students.
● Ask permission to touch a student for necessary purposes. Respect a student's rights not to be touched in ways that make him/her feel uncomfortable.
● Use appropriate touch including pats on the back, side hugs, handshakes, and high-fives.
● Respond to students with respect and consideration, warmth and kindness.
● Photographing students for professional use - including in emails to parents, division blogs, documenting classroom activity, etc. Photography to be used by Admission office, external School marketing, on Porter-Gaud website and social media channels will be reviewed, approved by, or secured by Porter-Gaud Communications Department.
● Use public applications, School email, or social media platforms (i.e. Remind app) to contact groups of students or parents, and/or include another adult, faculty member, or student in the communication chain.

Inappropriate Interactions
● Isolated or one-on-one interactions with a student that cannot be observed or interrupted by others (example: locked door).
● Use of profanity.
● Show preferred treatment to individual children.
● Contact such as frontal hugging or patting buttocks.
● Private or 1:1 interactions via personal email, personal cell phones, social media, applications, computers, or other electronic communication - this includes texting.
● Photographing individual children for personal use.

Prohibited Interactions
● Risqué or inappropriate jokes.
● Sharing intimate details of personal lives with students.
● Touching of personal areas (i.e. face, mouth, legs, breasts, stomach or genitals).
● Actions or speech that discriminates, humiliates, threatens, ridicules, degrades, or frightens any person or group of people on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status.
● Any form of corporal punishment.
● Showing intimate, romantic, or sexual displays of affection towards any student.

● Viewing pornography or involving students in pornography. 

 

The handbook contains reference to SC's mandated reporting laws:

 

MANDATORY REPORTING
Porter-Gaud strives to abide by South Carolina law, which dictates requirements for reporting child neglect or abuse, even when it occurs outside the School. South Carolina law requires that any physician, nurse, dentist, optometrist, medical examiner or coroner or an employee of a county medical examiner’s or coroner’s office or any other medical, emergency medical services, mental health, or allied health professional, member of the clergy, including Christian Science Practitioner or religious healer, school teacher, counselor, principal, assistant principal, social or public assistance worker, substance abuse treatment staff, or childcare worker in any child care center or foster care facility, police or law enforcement officer, undertaker, funeral home director or employee of a funeral home, persons responsible for processing of films, computer technician, or any judge who has reasonable cause to believe that a child’s physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by abuse or neglect as defined by state law is to immediately report it to the local DSS or other proper law enforcement agency. S.C. Code §20-7-510.
The state law definition of child abuse and neglect is specific and detailed. A faculty or staff member who suspects or has any concern regarding child abuse or neglect is expected to report this information promptly to either the Head of School, the division Dean, the School Counselor or any Division Head, who will assist in determining the School’s duty and, if determined appropriate, assist in contacting the proper authorities. A written copy of any report made to authorities will be maintained by the Head of School.
A faculty member or administrator who has reason to suspect abuse or neglect and fails to report it is subject to prosecution; however, the person making the report based on valid suspicion and concern is protected by law from both civil and criminal retaliation.
Porter-Gaud maintains a partnership with T&M Protection Resources, a nationally recognized firm with expertise in sexual misconduct investigations, especially in academic settings. This partnership does not replace the current mandatory reporting protocol of our faculty and staff as required by South Carolina state law. T&M will serve as an additional option through which students, parents, or alumni can privately report concerns related to sexual misconduct. We understand the complex social dynamics that may impede individuals from coming forward, and we are hopeful that this partnership will provide supplementary professional support to our community. Faculty and Staff may contact Laura Kirschstein of T&M Protection Resources at 212-916-8852 or via email at lkirschstein@tmprotection.com

 

RELATIONSHIPS WITH STUDENTS
The School expressly prohibits employees from seeking out, engaging in, pursuing, or otherwise permitting an actual or perceived flirtatious, dating, romantic, or intimate relationship, whether of a sexual nature or not, with any current School student, prospective student, or recent former student of the School. For the purpose of this policy, a recent former student is any former student of the School who is under 21 years of age or is not yet four years removed from the student’s last date of enrollment at the School. This prohibition applies regardless of whether such attention is welcome or not, and regardless of whether the student has reached the age of majority under South Carolina law. Such behavior is inherently unprofessional and undermines the integrity and reputation of the School, disrupting the employee’s interaction with colleagues, present and prospective students, their parents, and the community