These are members of your county delegation in Tallahassee; they are Senators Storms Justice, and Joyner.
Here are all of your delegation's names: drop them a line of instruction or rebuke.
REP.WILL WEATHERFORD, CHAIR REP. ED HOMAN;SEN. VICTOR CRIST, VICE CHAIR REP. KEVIN AMBLER; REP. SETH MCKEEL;
SEN. ARTHENIA JOYNER; REP. RACHEL BURGIN; REP. RON REAGAN;SEN. CHARLIE JUSTICE; REP. FAYE CULP; REP. BETTY REED;
SEN. RONDA STORMS; REP. BILL GALVANO; REP. DARRYL ROUSON;REP. RICH GLORIOSO; REP.MICHAEL SCIONTI.
My letter to Senator Storms is below Tom Gonzalez's scolding of me below. She helped me to prod the School Board and administration into action. Their idea of shutting me up is to have their overpaid consigliere, Tom Gonzalez, $275,000 tax dollars a year when he has a frail grasp of punctuation and doesn't pay attention to the schools' business so that he can moonlight at USF for more tax-kitty loot.
Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:03 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury
From: Anonymous [mailto:noreply-comment@blogger.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:03 PM
To: tdecesar@tampabay.rr.com
Subject: [Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on The Godfather's Ersatz Mouthpiece Speaks for the H....
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Godfather's Ersatz Mouthpiece Speaks for the H...":
Lee,
I asked Andy Ford of the FEA about Tom Gonzalez's statements, and he said he checked with FEA's counsel (Florida Education Association), and they said the bill covers employees. He said I should check with HCTA (the local Hillsborough teacher association).
Even if Hillsborough is allowed to water down the bullying bill (have no idea if they are allowed by law to do this), why would they want to define the bullying law so narrowly so that the least amount of human beings are protected? Is Tom Gonzalez saying the district does not want to protect its employees from bullying? Is that what the school board says? That is pretty shocking! Our bosses are letting the attorney to say that we will not and can not be protected from bullying, in my opinion. That is pretty shocking. There are a lot of shocking things the school board tolerates, but this takes the cake. The school board candidates trying to unseat incumbents should use this as a campaign issue stating that the current school board does not want to protect its employee from bullying and allows the school board attorney to state this publicly.
If the CTA honchos were on teachers' side instead of being in bed with the administration, the leader now would state this publicly. I can't figure out how the public schools' CTA is always in bed with the administration. The guy who heads it up now is an attorney; his word against Tom Gonzalez would count because of his credential. But he remains placid and mum. And the teachers pay him $500 a year out of their meagre salaries to do what?
When I was president of FUSA at HCC, I fought the administration for teachers. That is what a union is for.
Lee
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Posted by Anonymous to Lee Drury De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch at 6:02 PM
De Cesare's Casting-Room Couch] New comment on The Godfather's Ersatz Mouthpiece Speaks for the H....
My message to Senator Storms follows below after Tom Gonzalez's letter to me.
Seeing Arthenia Joyner's face in the legislative delegation reminds me that I served on a prostitution committee in Hillsborough County once with Senator Arthenia when we still lived in Tampa twenty years ago. It was the result of my complaining nonstop that the police department arrested women but not men for prostitution. Any time I had a free morning on meeting day for the Tampa City Council, I would go downtown and nag the
Council about the prostitution arrest disparity.
To shut me up, somebody appointed the prostitution committee.
During our first weekly meeting the rabbi on the committee was arrested for solicitation; then the next week ditto for Hugh Smith, the Chanel 13 talking-head anchor person. Then a big-name, old-Tampa family guy and community icon for the old-fart crowd two generations away from sharecropping ancestors who set up homesteads in South Tampa because land was cheap there and then affected that they were aristocrats. This guy owned an insurance company and posed as a pillar of the community.
These arrests confirmed my contention that the "good" male citizens made use of the prostitutes, many of whom studies show were abused children. I think the
"pillar of the community belonged to Ye Mystique Krewe" and maybe the Episcopal Church, but I never saw him in the congregation on the Sundays when I went to church downtown.
The press had a wonderful time with the male prostitution arrests. In fact, fun was had by all. That's the effect of exposing hypocrisy. It stimulates instant hilarity.
Years later, the first thing I ask people running for city office is if they will insure that the police arrest men as well as women for prostitution. We are lucky to have two women on the St. Peterburg's City Council who rigorously enforce the the arrest of men as well as women for prostitution.
Write or email your senators and representatives about whatever is bothering you that they can help you with. That's how democracy works. Voters contact people whom they elect to public office if they need them to do something to assist them or if a citizen disagrees with something a legislator does.
They take letters seriously my old man says--more seriously than a call or an email. I listen to him because he was a councilperson in our little beach town for two years and mayor for ten years--the longest serving in the city's history. He got a little park dedicated to him. He was popular the whole time. He still is. People in Winn Dixie accost him to beg that he be mayor again.
The phone also rang, rang, rang when my husband was mayor.
He finally resigned because there is a lot of aggravation in public office. I think he could have died in the job if he had wanted to. Now he will die in his Stratolounger in front of Sports TV.
It's also good to tell public officials when you approve of them. But don't overdo it. Too much praise makes them arrogant and slipshod. They are already arrogant and slipshod enough.
I used to have to log constituent calls for Mayor De Cesare. Ring Ring Caller: "Is the mayor in?" Me: "No, but you are speaking to the First Lady of Madeira Beach, and I will tell my husband to call you the minute he walks in the door." Caller: "Please do, ma'am. I am so aggravated that I may bust a gut. Them damn dogs has turned over a dozen garbage cans at the pick-up area at 149th Street again. It's a mess. I am fit to be tied." Me: "Don't shoot the dogs, pray; I will tell the mayor immediately when he comes home. He'll solve the problem. Dogs that upend garbage cans are his specialty.Bye bye. "
I got tired of constituent calls. Being the First Lady of a little beach town on the Gulf of Mexico is highly overrated. lee
And what do I like to do in my spare time if I don't like to log constituent calls? I like to write to public officials on any pretext whatsoever. Public officials can be wicked, so my usual subject is political wickedness. I now deal almost exclusively on skullduggery on the Hillsborough County School Board and its administration.
I don't know when I have had a better time than in responding to a letter below from Tom Gonzalez, Hillsborough County School Board overpaid, under-talented attorney.
Evidently, Senator Storms's requesting a summary from George Sheldon of what he has done to respond further to my charge after his child-abuse agency's turndown of it is the the cause of this letter from Le Gonzalez.
My filing against the Hillsborough County schools special-ed administration and asking for Senator Storms's assistance in getting this complaint against the special-ed administration of the Hillsborough County schools processed caused a ROSSAC kerfuffle not to mention a flurry of anxiety in the ROSSAC bunker with the usual automatic cover-up of what really goes on in board and administration's Star Chamber activities, always way out of the sunshine.
My colloquy with a state senator threatens to shine a light on the vile doings of the board and administration that the public never knows about. The prospect causes panic in the ROSSAC redoubt.
The child-abuse report that I made to the Children and Families agency and that it turned down, saying, in effect, "That's not our job" with my consequent appeal to Senator Storms for help catalyzed Ms. Elia and her gang of ROSSAC trolls to resort to their ultimate weapon--board mouthpiece Tom Gonzalez, Godfather's knock-off Tom Hegan, Gonzalez's being a rough equivalent of Hegan, only not as pretty as Robert Duvall.
Le Tom's below letter to me, the tone of which is that it addresses an inhabitant of Chattahoochee in the last stages of Alzheimer's catatonia, represents board-and-administration template for trying to discredit a person who complains about their thuggery. The aim is to depict the complainer as crazy.
This mode is the same the board and administration with the complicity of Master Tom, Esquire, employed to discredit Mr. Erwin in the early '90s when he exposed graft and corruption in the schools. The crime spree was headquartered in ROSSAC, of course.
The letter to me has the tone of a village elder lecturing the village idiot. Hence, you will note Mr. Gonzalez's tone of condescension as if he spoke down to a brain-damaged recipient.
Board chair Ms. Kurdell, not the brightest color in the crayon box, had already set that twerp Steve Hegarty on me to explain that the reason she didn't allow me free speech at board meetings for agenda items listed for public comment was that I suffered from Alzheimer's and did not know what I was talking about.
The appropiate answer to lower-quartile Kurdell's Alzheimer's accusation was that even if I were in full-bloom Alzheimer's, I could wipe out in debate every person on the board with one hand tied behind my back. That bevy of C students includes the board lawyer.
I am having trouble with my scanner, so the second half of the Tom letter below is miniscule; use your magnifying glass with it.
My regular job is cooking for the cranky old guy whom I have been married to for 53 years, not computer hijinks.
lee
Here are all of your delegation's names:
REP.WILL WEATHERFORD, CHAIR REP. ED HOMAN;SEN. VICTOR CRIST, VICE CHAIR REP. KEVIN AMBLER; REP. SETH MCKEEL;
SEN. ARTHENIA JOYNER; REP. RACHEL BURGIN; REP. RON REAGAN;SEN. CHARLIE JUSTICE; REP. FAYE CULP; REP. BETTY REED;
SEN. RONDA STORMS; REP. BILL GALVANO; REP. DARRYL ROUSON;REP. RICH GLORIOSO; REP.MICHAEL SCIONTI
Logo for Tom's flossy law firm, scrambled because of my copying of it: ______________________________________
ONE TAMPA CITY CEN1 HARRISON C- THOMPSON. JR. MAROUFS w. HEILIG ‘lees -1994 OI N rRANkII STREET SUITE 1600 ERIN G. JACt WPLUAIr SIZEMQRE POST OFFICE Sax eag KCVFN 0. jOHNSON tHRISTOPHCP M 9ENTL.EY TAMPA. FLoR 3300’ GRETCHEN H LEHMAN JAMES M- C St3) 273-0050 DLNNPS w. MOORE FAJC NO. 8131 a73-OOn LARA J PEPPARD SACHA DYSON CAREN R. SKVERSKY THOMAS N- GONZALEZ DONNA V- SMITH GREGORY A- i4EARINS CHARLES .1- THOMAS ::::::::::: :: ::::t:z::r::N. January 27, 2010 BRIAN C ‘ • )CNNIFER L. WATSON
Ms. Lee Drury DeCesare
15316 Gulf Boulevard Unit 802
Madeira Beach. Florida 33708
Re: Your correspondence of December 15,2009, addressed to Storms.Ronda.Web
Dear Ms. DcCesare:
The office of State Senator Rhonda R. Storms has asked Superintendent of Hillsborough County schools MaryEllen Ella to respond to your referenced communication.
Superintendent Ella has asked that I address the issues you have raised concerning Fla. Stat § 1006.147 (1-113669), which prohibits bullying and harassment in Florida public schools. As you correctly note, this statute prohibits bullying by students and employees of Florida school districts.
You complain, however, of my legal opinion that this law does not protect school board staff. In fact, it does not,because of the definition of bullying which the Florida Legislature has provided. Specifically, FIt Stat. §l002 l47(3)(a)(which is entitled the “Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act”) defines bullying as “systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students.” (Emphasis added).
Thus you are correct when you say that employees of the School Board are not protected from bullying” but neither I nor the Hillsborough County School Board deleted any part of the Florida law of which you speak.
Fla. Stat. § 1002,147 required school boards to adopt rules which conformed to the statute’s requirements. These rules had to be submitted to the Statc Board of Education for approval. A model rule was provided by the slate. It and the statute itself required the School Board to adopt the definitions of the law provided by the Legislature. The School Board’s proposed rule was in fact found compliant and is in force to carry out the requirements of §1002.147.
You also complain that the School Board does not “set aside time on the agenda to comment.”[I complained that teachers and students did not have a set-aside time on the agenda to comment.] In fact, the School Board always allows public comment during and after
Note the bizarre, hypertrophied, illegible signature of the School Board consiglierie: it's an infalliable sigin of raging insecurity and probably hoof-and-mouth disease as well.
Dear Senator Storms:
Tom Gonzales, board attorney for the schools, has sent me a letter with a copy to you alleging that the bullying law does not apply to school employees. He errs. He does so deliberately. He thinks if a lawyer says something about a piece of writing that a non-lawyer must take it as gospel even when the plain English words say otherwise. In addition, the School Board's own submission refutes Le Tom's patent distortion, known in demotic
English as a flat-out lie. See below.
This big spoiled baby litigator expects that people will not to disagree with him because of his gigantic intellect and his being an esquire. If they do make that mistake, they must fall down before this icon of ego and do obeisance, beat their chest, kiss the hem of his robe, and say they erred and to please forgive them, Massa Tom.
I am not adept at that maneuver, however, and beg to differ with Mr. Tom's quixotic interpretation of the law. It's massaged to coincide with the board and administration's practice of using the Professional Standards office to cook up charges to threaten teachers' and staff's jobs if they don't keep quiet.
I append the implementation submission that the schools sent to the Secretary of Education as required. It says both employees and students will receive the benefits of the bullying law. This submission was for show apparently to mislead the secretary of education, who, alas, is far too easy to mislead. He came out of the school bureaucracy, so what can one expect?
I read in the paper that employees have already used the bullying law to protect themselves in another county.
I infer the thinking that went into any faux document that the board cooked up for Dr. Smith was the usual board-and-administration flim-flam of "We'll say this, but we won't do it." That's their idea of adroit administration.
An average person unburdened by a law degree can understand that the law says it applies to students and school personnel alike and that the language of this implementation proposal by the
Mr. Gonzalez distorts the law ad lib in its application in the schools and expects people to swallow this distortion because the wisdom sprang from his talking-out-of-both-sides mouth talent; he'll say anything to propitiate his board bosses, who pay him $275,000 a year for such elastic legal interpretations.
The administration and board want to to retaliate against teachers or staff with the Professional Standards Office Abu Ghraib, which the board and administration use to shut teachers up by cooking up false charges against them or exaggerating trifles to threaten their jobs. But if teachers and staff can invoke the bullying law against this blackmail, then Professional Standards won't be able to file false charges against them to shut them up about how the board and administraton misrun the schools.
I asked as government-in-the-sunshine information from Ms. Kipley, the academic bona fides manque head with academic-lite home-ec credentials of the Professional Standards gauntlet, for a sample of public-information charges against teachers and administrators.
La Kipley provided a stack for the teachers but none for the administrators. Professional Standard is a boutique Abu Ghraib that tortures only teachers.
Otherwise, the board and administration would have required a Professional Standards investigation of the toe-cracker administrator at King High who ordered pubescent boys into his office; who ordered the boys to take off their shoes and socks; and who then fondled their feet. He was not bothered by a Professional Standards charge. He enjoyed the usual Teflon administrative immunity. Even Principal Smith, whom the Alafai PTA parents would not tolerate, did not get a Professional Standards Charge against her toxic conduct but rather an offer by Ms. Elia to waste $4500 each for Ms. Smith and her vice principal to attend Eckerd personality seminars on how to be a human being. But the parents scotched that too curative seminar idea too. They said Smith had to go. Did she get fired as she should have? No, what happened is that Ms. Elia out of the sunshine created Ms. Smith another job in the book repository, which sounds like a clerking job, with the same principal salary of $60,000 that she made at Alafai.
I have tried for weeks to get a public-information job description of Ms. Smith's manufactured slot and the date the job description went on the books: no luck yet. Personnel Director Valdez, who works hand in glove with Professional Standards in La Kipley's coercion of teachers has not caught up with writing his semester essay yet on this mysterious job. My conclusion: it's a manufactured job at $60,000 a year, about twice the salary of beginning teachers produced by Ms. Elia instead of the superintendent's firing Smith as she should have done. Administrators don't get fired unless they violate the ROSSAC worship protocols that Ms. Elia demands.
The board and administration have not yet announced the results of a psychological examination of the King administrator foot fetishist that a parent insisted that they do or face a law suit. I heard this on the information underground. There is no explanation of why teachers, students, and staff, not to mention the PTAs and the public can't see the results of this psychological evaluation of the King administrator Toe Popper toe and what the analyst's credentials are or the lack thereof and whether he or she has any complaints about professionalism lodged with the state oversight authorities. Cover-up is the board's and administration's default mode. Knowledge is power, so they hide everything they can. The government paid for this psychological exam; taxpayers have an open-records right to see it.
Since the Professional Standards office is nothing but an in-house torture machine to shut up teachers with the understood threat of losing their jobs if they speak out, then if teachers have access to the bullying law, they have a tool to fend off this administrative-board bullying to threaten their jobs. That is the key to Gonzalez's twisting the law's meaning to exclude teachers.
The board pretends it doesn't know what's going on in this or anything else. The board comprises lower-quartile Stanford specimens, but they are not dumb when it comes to shutting teachers up so that they can enjoy the perquisites of being in charge of the millions of tax dollars that pour into the county schools based on student head count, an unseemly chuch of which they use to gad around the country on joy rides at the taxpayers' expense. The board gives silent across-the-board approval to this bullying abuse of teachers, whom they pretend to love and respect so that they can continue their perks. The voters would not like this sadism against teachers and staff if they knew about it; but the board and administration make sure that all news about the schools' administration gets filtered tbrough the Public Information Laundromat.
A manufactured charge trapped teacher Steve Kemp. The board and administration leaped into sadism mode when a whiff of professional-standards fodder appeared for Mr. Kemp. They suspended him for a year and threatened to fire him. The board and administration had lain in wait to trap Kemp because he had a blog that discussed education. The board and administration don't want any whiff of discussion about how education fares under their iron fists in the Hillsborough County schools. A teacher who has a blog has a flag by his or her name in the Professional Standards office. Kemp escaped because of the publicity given his charge. He still has his job in a new school.
The board and administration abhor free speech. Pole Girl Board Member Jennifer Falliero, who committed adultery in-house with former Community Affairs director Hart, fired on cooked-up charges to preserve Pole Girl Falliero's "reputation,' wrote a letter to the SPTimes demanding that the paper put a team on round-the-clock duty to screen out negative letters about the school board.
Ms. Falliero and the head of security choreographed a kick-out of me from the board room in retaliation because I made known her on-the-job adultery. And all the board made Pole Girl chair despite its members all knowing of her erotic romps on and off campus with Mr. Hart. Their ethics are not coincident with being school board members in charge of the community's children's morals.
This bullying bill distortion by the attorney Mr. Gonzalez is simple. Even babes in the woods don't need Machiavelli to explain what's going on. Mr. Gonzalez's outback Jesuitical explication of the bullying law to exclude teachers and staff from its protection comes from his bosses' desire to prevent teachers and staff from having the shield of the bullying law. Mr. Gonzalez will twist language to say anything he thinks his bosses want him to say. He can't write worth a darn, and when he lies, he writes worse. He flatters himself that his rhetorical flim-flam will make the criticism go away. The man's ego is the Hindenburg in inverse proportion to his grey matter.
Don't let the school-board copy of the Godfather's mouthpiece bamboozle you, Senator Storms. And pray do what only an elected official can do: ask the Attorney General for an opinion on whether the bullying law applies to students, teachers, and staff in the county schools. If General McCollum can count noses, he will know that there are many, many teachers in the county who will vote in his gubnatorial election and only a few crooked, power-mad administrators and board members who will vote.
Mr. Gonzalez, the board, and the administration will hate you if the attorney general's opinion restores teachers and staff to the bullying law's protection. But the bazillion of county teachers will worship the ground you walk on.
These teachers that the board allows the administration to bully and mistreat are your constituents; they live in your country. They teach our children and grandchildren. They should have the protection of a senator and the county's legislative delegation if these legislators are not afraid to use their power to rein such dicey practitioners as Mr. Gonzalez in his louche interpretation of the language of HB 669 to coincide with his bosses' prejudices and sadistic practices of Professional Standards coercion to keep teachers quiet or lose their jobs.
Respectfully,
Lee Drury De Cesare
Tom Gonzalez
School Board
Ms. Elia
The Hillsborough County Legislative Delegation
The City Council
The Mayor
The County Commission
marshall@sptimes.com
solocheck@sptimes.com
lagaceta@roadrunner.tampabay.com
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF STUDENTS
Hillsborough County Public Schools
Policy Against Bullying and Harassment
5517.01/page 1 of 7
It is the policy of Hillsborough County Public Schools that all of its students and school
employees have an educational setting that is safe, secure, and free from harassment and
bullying of any kind. The district will not tolerate bullying or harassment of any type.
Conduct that constitutes bullying or harassment, as defined herein, is prohibited.
Definitions
“Bullying” means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological
distress on one or more students, employees, or visitors. It is further defined as unwanted
and repeated written, verbal, or physical behavior, including any threatening, insulting, or
dehumanizing gesture, by a student or adult, that is severe or pervasive enough to create an
intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment; cause discomfort or humiliation;
or unreasonably interfere with the individual’s school performance or participation; and may
involve but is not limited to:
A. Teasing
B. Social Exclusion
C. Threat
D. Intimidation
E. Stalking
F. Cyberbullying
G. Cyberstalking
H. Physical violence
I. Theft
J. Sexual, religious, or racial harassment
K. Public humiliation
L. Destruction of property
“Harassment” means any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, use of data or
computer software, or written, verbal or physical conduct directed against a student or
school employee that:
A. places a student or school employee in reasonable fear of harm to his or her
person or damage to his or her property; or
B. has the effect of substantially interfering with a student’s educational
performance, opportunities, or benefits; or
C. has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of a school
Bullying and harassment also encompasses:
A. Retaliation against a student or school employee by another student or school
employee for asserting or alleging an act of bullying or harassment. Reporting
an act of bullying or harassment that is not made in good faith is considered
retaliation.
B. Perpetuation of conduct listed in the definition of bullying or harassment by an
individual or group with intent to demean, dehumanize, embarrass, or cause
emotional or physical harm to a student or school employee by:
1. Incitement or coercion;
1
Hillsborough County Public Schools (
Page 1 of 7
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF STUDENTS
5517.01/page 2 of 7
2. Accessing or knowingly and willingly causing or providing access to data
or computer software through a computer, computer system, or computer
network within the scope of the district school system; or
3. Acting in a manner that has an effect substantially similar to the effect of
bullying or harassment.
"Harassment" or "bullying" also includes electronically transmitted acts (i.e., internet, e-mail,
cellular telephone, personal digital assistance (PDA), or wireless hand-held device) directed
toward a student(s) or staff member(s) that causes mental or physical harm or is sufficiently
severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive
educational environment for the other student(s).
Cyberstalking as defined in s. 784.048(1)(d), F.S., means to engage in a course of conduct
to communicate, or to cause to be communicated, words, images, or language by or through
the use of electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at a specific person, causing
substantial emotional distress to that person and serving no legitimate purpose.
Expected Behavior
Hillsborough County Public Schools expects students and school employees to conduct
themselves appropriately for their levels of development, maturity, and demonstrated
capabilities, with a proper regard for the rights and welfare of other students and school
staff, the educational purpose underlying all school activities, and the care of school facilities
and equipment.
The school district believes that standards for student behavior must be set cooperatively
through interaction among the students, parents/legal guardians, staff, and community
members producing an atmosphere that encourages students to grow in self-discipline. The
development of this atmosphere requires respect for self and others, as well as for district
and community property on the part of students, staff, and community members. Since
students learn by example, school administrators, faculty, staff, and volunteers will
demonstrate appropriate behavior; treat others with civility and respect, and refuse to
tolerate bullying or harassment.
The school district upholds that school-related bullying or harassment of any student or
school employee is prohibited:
A. During any education program or activity conducted by a school sites educational
institution;
B. During any school-related or school-sponsored program or activity;
C. On a school bus or bus stop of a school sites educational institution; or
D. Through the use of data or computer software that is accessed through a
computer, computer system, or computer network of a school sites education
institution.
Consequences
Concluding whether a particular action or incident constitutes a violation of this policy
requires a determination based on all of the facts and surrounding circumstances. The
physical location or time of access of a computer-related incident cannot be raised as a
defense in any disciplinary action. Consequences and appropriate remedial action for
students who commit acts of bullying or harassment may range from positive behavioral
2
Hillsborough County Public Schools (
Page 2 of 7
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF STUDENTS
5517.01/page 3 of 7
interventions up to and including suspension or expulsion, as outlined in the Code of
Student Conduct. A district employee found to have committed an act of bullying or
harassment may be disciplined in accordance with district policies, procedures, and
agreements. Additionally, egregious acts of harassment by certified educators may result in
a sanction against that educator’s state issued certificate. (See State Board of Education
Rule 6B-1.006, FAC., The Principles of Professional Conduct of the Education Profession in
have committed an act of bullying or harassment shall be determined by the school
administrator after consideration of the nature and circumstances of the act, including
reports to appropriate law enforcement officials.
Consequences and appropriate remedial action for a student found to have wrongfully and
intentionally accused another as a means of bullying or harassment range from positive
behavioral interventions up to and including suspension or expulsion, as outlined in the
Code of Student Conduct. A district employee found to have wrongfully and intentionally
accused another as a means of bullying or harassment may be disciplined in accordance
with district policies, procedures, and agreements. Consequences and appropriate remedial
action for a visitor or volunteer, found to have wrongfully and intentionally accused another
as a means of bullying or harassment shall be determined by the school administrator after
consideration of the nature and circumstances of the act, including reports to appropriate
law enforcement officials.
Procedure for Reporting
At each school, the principal or the principal’s designee is responsible for receiving
complaints alleging violations of this policy. All school employees are required to report
alleged violations of this policy to the principal or the principal’s designee. All other members
of the school community, including students, parents/legal guardians, volunteers, and
visitors are encouraged to report any act that may be a violation of this policy anonymously
or in-person to the principal or principal’s designee.
The principal/site administrator of each school or site in the district shall establish, publicize,
and prominently post (e.g., posters, student handbook, district website, school website) to
students, staff, volunteers, and parents/legal guardians, how a report of bullying or
harassment may be filed either in-person or anonymously and how this report will be acted
upon. The victim of bullying or harassment, anyone who witnessed the bullying or
harassment, and anyone who has credible information that an act of bullying or harassment
has taken place may file a report of bullying or harassment. A district employee, school
volunteer, student, parent/legal guardian or other persons who promptly reports in good faith
an act of bullying or harassment to the appropriate school official and who makes this report
in compliance with the procedures set forth in the district policy is immune from a cause of
action for damages arising out of the reporting itself or any failure to remedy the reported
incident. Submission of a good faith complaint or report of bullying or harassment will not
affect the complainant or reporter’s future employment, grades, learning, working
environment, or work assignments.
Any written or oral reporting of an act of bullying or harassment shall be considered an
official means of reporting such act(s). Reports may be made anonymously, but formal
disciplinary action may not be based solely on the basis of an anonymous report.
3
Hillsborough County Public Schools (
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF STUDENTS
Hillsborough County Public Schools
Policy Against Bullying and Harassment
5517.01/page 1 of 7
It is the policy of Hillsborough County Public Schools that all of its students and school
employees have an educational setting that is safe, secure, and free from harassment and
bullying of any kind. The district will not tolerate bullying or harassment of any type.
Conduct that constitutes bullying or harassment, as defined herein, is prohibited.
Definitions
“Bullying” means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological
distress on one or more students, employees, or visitors. It is further defined as unwanted
and repeated written, verbal, or physical behavior, including any threatening, insulting, or
dehumanizing gesture, by a student or adult, that is severe or pervasive enough to create an
intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment; cause discomfort or humiliation;
or unreasonably interfere with the individual’s school performance or participation; and may
involve but is not limited to:
A. Teasing
B. Social Exclusion
C. Threat
D. Intimidation
E. Stalking
F. Cyberbullying
G. Cyberstalking
H. Physical violence
I. Theft
J. Sexual, religious, or racial harassment
K. Public humiliation
L. Destruction of property
“Harassment” means any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, use of data or
computer software, or written, verbal or physical conduct directed against a student or
school employee that:
A. places a student or school employee in reasonable fear of harm to his or her
person or damage to his or her property; or
B. has the effect of substantially interfering with a student’s educational
performance, opportunities, or benefits; or
C. has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of a school
Bullying and harassment also encompasses:
A. Retaliation against a student or school employee by another student or school
employee for asserting or alleging an act of bullying or harassment. Reporting
an act of bullying or harassment that is not made in good faith is considered
retaliation.
B. Perpetuation of conduct listed in the definition of bullying or harassment by an
individual or group with intent to demean, dehumanize, embarrass, or cause
emotional or physical harm to a student or school employee by:
1. Incitement or coercion;
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2. Accessing or knowingly and willingly causing or providing access to data
or computer software through a computer, computer system, or computer
network within the scope of the district school system; or
3. Acting in a manner that has an effect substantially similar to the effect of
bullying or harassment.
"Harassment" or "bullying" also includes electronically transmitted acts (i.e., internet, e-mail,
cellular telephone, personal digital assistance (PDA), or wireless hand-held device) directed
toward a student(s) or staff member(s) that causes mental or physical harm or is sufficiently
severe, persistent, or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive
educational environment for the other student(s).
Cyberstalking as defined in s. 784.048(1)(d), F.S., means to engage in a course of conduct
to communicate, or to cause to be communicated, words, images, or language by or through
the use of electronic mail or electronic communication, directed at a specific person, causing
substantial emotional distress to that person and serving no legitimate purpose.
Expected Behavior
Hillsborough County Public Schools expects students and school employees to conduct
themselves appropriately for their levels of development, maturity, and demonstrated
capabilities, with a proper regard for the rights and welfare of other students and school
staff, the educational purpose underlying all school activities, and the care of school facilities
and equipment.
The school district believes that standards for student behavior must be set cooperatively
through interaction among the students, parents/legal guardians, staff, and community
members producing an atmosphere that encourages students to grow in self-discipline. The
development of this atmosphere requires respect for self and others, as well as for district
and community property on the part of students, staff, and community members. Since
students learn by example, school administrators, faculty, staff, and volunteers will
demonstrate appropriate behavior; treat others with civility and respect, and refuse to
tolerate bullying or harassment.
The school district upholds that school-related bullying or harassment of any student or
school employee is prohibited:
A. During any education program or activity conducted by a school sites educational
institution;
B. During any school-related or school-sponsored program or activity;
C. On a school bus or bus stop of a school sites educational institution; or
D. Through the use of data or computer software that is accessed through a
computer, computer system, or computer network of a school sites education
institution.
