Student Safety & Wellbeing

Presentation High School is committed to providing a safe school environment that respects Catholic values where all members of the community are treated with dignity and respect and that is free from harassment and bullying in any form. Harassment or bullying of any student by any other student, teacher, coach, staff member, or school volunteer is prohibited. 

Specifically, bullying or harassment on the basis of actual or perceived traits or characteristics: age, color, creed, national origin, race, religion, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex and gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, physical attributes, political party preference, political belief, socioeconomic status, or familial status is prohibited. Presentation High School is committed to responding promptly to all allegations of prohibited bullying or harassment, and further commits to taking all reasonable steps to eliminate any ongoing harassment and remedying the harm. 

No employee, volunteer or student shall engage in harassing behavior based on this list of traits or characteristics, or in bullying for any reason.

Harassing conduct by students towards other students or towards faculty or staff members may result in corrective or disciplinary action, up to and including suspension or expulsion from Presentation High School. Harassment of students by faculty or staff members will result in corrective or disciplinary action, up to termination of employment.

This policy applies to both on-campus and off-campus conduct.

Harassment can take many forms, and may include verbal, written, physical, or visual conduct.

What constitutes harassment is determined from the perspective of a reasonable person with the characteristic on which the harassment is based. What one person may consider acceptable behavior, or an innocent joke, may reasonably be viewed as harassment by another person. Therefore, students should consider how their words and actions might reasonably be viewed by other individuals.  It is important to note that harassment can occur even if there is no intent to harm, or when the conduct is not directed at one individual.

Harassment on the basis of any legally protected characteristic, as identified above, is prohibited. This includes conduct such as:

1. Verbal conduct, including threats, epithets, derogatory comments or slurs, whether communicated verbally, in writing, electronically (such as email, instant message, text message, digital pictures or images, website postings - including social media) that intimidates, abuses or humiliates another based on an individual’s protected characteristic, and that the reasonable person would also find to be intimidating, abusive, or humiliating;
2. Visual conduct, including derogatory posters, photographs, cartoons, drawings or gestures designed to intimidate, abuse or humiliate another based on protected characteristic;
3. Physical conduct, including intimidating or unwelcome conduct, such as touching a person or a person’s property, hazing, assault, stalking, unwanted touching or blocking normal movement because of an individual’s protected characteristic;
4. Offensive and unwanted communication via electronic media of any type of images, words, or threats that are sexual, or related to a protected characteristic.

Sexual harassment includes unwanted sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature:

1. Submission to such conduct is made a term or condition of education;
2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as a basis for educational decisions affecting the individual; or
3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a student’s educational performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive educational environment.
4. Unwanted sexual advances;
5. Sexual comments, e-mails, texts, notes, letters, drawings, cartoons, photos, or images;
6. Sending or showing nude drawings, cartoons, videos, photos, or images;
7. Physical conduct such as unwanted kissing, hugging, patting, petting, pinching, touching, sexual assault or violence, intimidating or vulgar body language such as leering, brushing up against another’s body, or blocking normal movement;
8. Threats and demands to submit to sexual requests as a condition of admission to the school, continued good standing in class or at the school, maintaining a certain grade or status in class, or to gain some school benefit or to avoid some loss;
9. Making or threatening reprisals after a negative response to a sexual advance.

“Bullying” means systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees. It is further defined as: unwanted purposeful written, verbal, nonverbal, or physical behavior, including but not limited to any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, by an adult or student, that has the potential to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment or cause long term damage; cause discomfort or humiliation; or unreasonably interfere with the individual’s school performance or participation, is carried out repeatedly and is often characterized by an imbalance of power.

Bullying may involve, but is not limited to:

• Unwanted teasing
• Threatening
• Intimidating
• Stalking 
• Cyber stalking
• Cyberbullying
• Physical violence
• Theft 
• Sexual, religious, or racial harassment
• Public humiliation
• Destruction of school or personal property
• Social exclusion, including incitement and/or coercion
• Rumor or spreading of falsehoods

Students should keep in mind that sending or receiving nude images may also be a criminal act, as it is against the law to possess, produce, or distribute obscene matter depicting children under 18 years of age.  

Retaliation is any form of intimidation, reprisal, or harassment directed against a student who: reports sexual misconduct, discrimination, harassment, or bullying; provides (or could provide) information during an investigation of such behavior; or witnesses or has reliable information about such behavior. Retaliation against any individual for reporting violations of the policy, or for participating in an investigation, will not be tolerated. Each retaliatory offense will be investigated and, if appropriate, sanctioned. A student found to have retaliated in violation of this policy shall be subject to measures up to, and including, suspension and expulsion.

Retaliation against a person because the person has filed a bullying or harassment complaint or assisted or participated in a harassment investigation or proceeding is prohibited. 

An individual who knowingly files a false bullying or harassment complaint and a person who gives knowingly false statements in an investigation shall be subject to discipline by appropriate measures.

Any student who believes that she has been harassed, discriminated against, or subjected to retaliation or abusive conduct should immediately report their concerns to any faculty or staff member of Presentation High School, or to the Director of the Office for the Prevention of Student Bullying, Harassment, and Abuse. Reports can also be submitted via the anonymous STOPit app or on paper in the Speak Up boxes located in the Main Office, Center, and Counseling Office. When a report is received, the School will review the complaint in a fair, timely, thorough and objective manner and will respond in a manner that provides all parties appropriate due process and reaches reasonable conclusions based on the evidence collected. In the case of anonymous reports, the School will take reasonable steps to address the reported conduct, but the School’s ability to do so may be limited, depending on the nature of the information received.

If the complaint relates to an area where the faculty or staff member has a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect, she or he must immediately file a mandatory report, and the information will be provided to Child Protective Services (CPS) or other outside agencies/parties per state law. The outside agency will then determine the appropriate course of action.

Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children's Services at (408) 299-2071. A child welfare social worker is available 24 hours a day to take reports.

Whether or not a complaint is referred to an outside agency, any complaint alleging a potential violation of this policy will be referred directly to the Director of the Office for the Prevention of Student Bullying, Harassment, and Abuse.

When the allegations, if true, might result in a suspension or expulsion, the School will investigate the allegations.  All members of the PHS community are expected to cooperate fully with any investigation under the Harassment and Discrimination policy.  In conducting an investigation, PHS will take the following steps:

• Written notice to the accused student, including a basic overview of the allegations, the name of the victim/complainant, the date and location of the incident, and a reminder of PHS’s prohibitions against retaliation;
• The opportunity for both parties to offer relevant evidence and to suggest relevant witnesses;
• An opportunity for the respondent to meaningfully respond to the allegations;
• A thorough and neutral review of the evidence gathered;
• Additional interviews of either party or any witness, if appropriate (i.e., should new facts come to light during the course of an investigation, there might be a second interview with either party);
• In the event there is a finding of responsibility, a determination of sanctions that are reasonably calculated to end the harassment and prevent its recurrence; 
• A written communication to each party at the conclusion of the investigation process, with an overview of the process used and the rationale for the conclusion(s); and,
• Either party may appeal.  Any appeal should be sent to the Principal within 7 days from the written notification regarding the investigation outcome.

Upon completion of the review, the School will communicate its conclusion, in writing, to both parties. If the School determines that this policy has been violated, remedial action will be taken, commensurate with the severity of the offense, up to and including student expulsion or the termination of an employee contract. Appropriate action will also be taken to deter any such conduct in the future.

At Presentation High School, the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of every student is our highest priority. To ensure accountability and transparency, we invite families to review the Employee Policies that govern adult-student interactions and uphold our values.

Crisis Hotlines:

In-Home Support/Crisis Response:

Emergency Response for Youth:

Local Resources and Community Services:

Informational Resources: