Bullying/Harassment Policy

Sebastian River High School Navy JROTC does not tolerate bullying, hazing, or harassment in any form.  The Senior Naval Science Instructor and Naval Science Instructor will investigate and take timely and appropriate action upon receipt of any reports of bullying, hazing, or harassment.  While the Senior Naval Science Instructors of NJROTC units are responsible for implementing bullying, hazing, and harassment prevention programs, The goal of the program is that it should be led by the NJROTC unit's cadet leadership. The unit's program must ensure cadets can report improper conduct without fear of reprisal and take corrective action as deemed necessary to prevent recurrence in accordance with school policies regarding misconduct.

CONTACT:

Cadets needing peer assistance should contact their squad leader and continue up the chain of cadet command as needed until they receive assistance.

Any cadet, student, staff member, teacher, parent or other interested party needing assistance should contact the SNSI using the Contact Us page or any method most convenient to the person needing assistance.

DEFINITIONS:

a. Hazing is the practice of rituals and other activities involving harassment, abuse or humiliation used as a way of initiating a person into a group. Hazing is any action or situation, with or without the consent of the participants, which recklessly, intentionally, or unintentionally endangers the mental, physical, or academic health or safety of a student.

b. Bullying is any type of unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance with the intent to abuse, embarrass, control and/or harm the victim. Bullying can be physical, verbal or written (to include social media).

c. Cyber bullying is bullying that uses electronic communications devices, and it cannot be ignored as an avenue for bullying and sexual harassment. With the proliferation of social media, most students are aware of cyber bullying immediately and quite often know the perpetrator and the victim. However, most cyber bullying goes unreported. Nobody deserves to be bullied or sexually harassed, and it is our shared responsibility to ensure it doesn't happen.

d. Sexual harassment is bullying of a sexual nature and includes the creation of an atmosphere of fear or mistrust. Hazing/bullying is not acceptable in any form in the NJROTC program.

RESOURCES:

NJROTC cadets should feel confident in their knowledge of hazing and bullying prevention, and apply that knowledge throughout their school and community. We want and expect our cadets to be role models for other students to emulate.  As professionals we understand that there is no place for any form of hazing or bullying.

An outstanding web resource for recognizing and dealing with bullying is stopbullying.gov.  This site has several pages, videos and other resources to help with this problem.  To check it out, click HERE.

If you have witnessed others being bullied or harassed, or if you yourself are experiencing this, please contact one of your NJROTC instructors directly.  If you feel more comfortable talking with another cadet about this issue, we encourage you to contact our unit's senior cadet representative for this issue.