Employee-Student Relationships at Proof School

We encourage a warm, trusting, and respectful relationship between students and teachers. Our teachers serve as students’ role models and mentors in learning as well as living. It is our hope that each student at Proof School will discover that they are extraordinarily important to the faculty and staff, as individuals as well as learners.

However, having a proper attitude of care and concern for a student can be confused with a relationship that becomes too familiar or close. One helpful standard that can be quickly applied when assessing whether conduct is appropriate is to ask , “Would I be doing this if the student’s family were standing next to me?” For the sake of the student, the employee, and the School, our faculty and staff must avoid inappropriate interactions with students.

The purpose of this policy is to give clear direction regarding appropriate conduct and boundaries between faculty and students. The term “boundaries” is defined as acceptable professional behavior by staff members while interacting with a student. Trespassing the boundaries of a student-teacher relationship is deemed an abuse of power and a betrayal of public trust. The objective of the following list of acceptable and unacceptable behavior is not to restrain positive relationships between staff and students, but to prevent relationships that are inappropriately intimate or could lead to, or may be perceived as, sexual misconduct.

The positive relationships that we maintain with our students form the basis for the safe and supportive community that is a foundational aspect of our students’ experience at Proof School.

    • Celebrate with students with fist bumps and high fives; a smile with eye-contact and thumbs up also works well.

    • Send email via school accounts, confine remarks to topics pertaining to school activities or that impact life at school, and copy other faculty/staff where suitable or prudent.

    • Leave your door open when students visit you in an office. If the topic permits, hold conversations in an open or public area; this promotes community discussion and often helps to put students at ease.

    • Gently and kindly, but firmly, correct students if they cross boundaries.

    • Keep the leadership team informed when student issues develop. It’s a good idea to act in tandem before contacting parents or when a complicated situation related to boundaries arises.

    • Two adults should be present whenever a situation requires being alone with a student. It is also advisable to keep notes on problematic situations or incidents.

    • Giving students a ride to/from school or school activities;

    • Being alone in a room with a student at school out of sight of others;

    • Allowing or inviting students into your home; or

    • Sending emails or texts to students if the content is not related to school activities.

    • Giving gifts to an individual student that are of a personal or intimate nature;

    • Kissing, embracing, or tickling of any kind;

    • Intentionally being alone with a student on campus or away from the School, unless doing so in specific fulfillment of a school obligation, such as chaperoning a commute;

    • Making, or participating in, sexually inappropriate comments, jokes, or stories;

    • Excessive attention toward a particular student; or

    • Discussing inappropriate personal troubles or intimate issues with a student.