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BULLY PREVENTION
Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District strives relentlessly to maintain spaces where students feel safe and welcome. In order to continue this, we are now using STOPit, an online and app-based system, to empower students, parents, teachers, and others to anonymously report anything of concern to school officials - from cyber-bullying to threats of violence or self-harm.
WHAT IS STOPIT?
STOPit does more than just help schools address incidents and mitigate risk.
STOPit will also help us go beyond reacting to bullying and inappropriate behavior and instead start deterring it. As young people continue to engage more with technology every day, we are taking
a proactive step to empower our students to become upstanders in our community in the way that they feel most comfortable. We believe our adoption of STOPit is an important step in our continued effort to provide a positive school climate and a safe learning environment for our students.
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What is Bullying?
Bullying is an unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves an imbalance of real or perceived power between individuals with the intent to cause harm. Students who are the targets of bullying behavior and those who exhibit bullying behavior toward others may suffer serious, lasting consequences. In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must include:
A Deliberate Act: To cause emotional or physical harm to another individual.
An Imbalance of Power: Those who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and vary in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
Repetition: Bullying behaviors that display more than one time or have the potential to happen more than once.
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Physical Bullying
Physical Bullying are seen as the following:
- Physical fights
- Injuries
-Physical Antagonization
-Verbal and emotional insults.
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Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying can involve all three types of bullying and takes place using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices and equipment such as cell phones, computers, and tablets, as well as communication tools including social media sites, text messages, chat, and websites. This type of bullying is becoming more prevalent every day. Examples include:
- Demeaning or hateful text messages or emails
- Rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites
- Embarrassing pictures, videos, website, or fake profiles posted online
Cyberbullying can occur in the following places:
- Social Media - Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media networks.
The issue:
Cyberbullying can be persistent, permanent and or hard to notice making it difficult for students to find relief.
- When posted online, negative comments become publically available and may lead to a negative online reputation impacting college admissions, employment, and other areas.
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Social Media Bullying
According to bullyingstatistics.org cyberbullying statistics show most cases are taking place on popular social media sites such as
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Twitter
Social Media Bullying can take many forms, such as:
- sending mean messages to people or threats to a person's life, aggressive or rude texts, tweets, posts, or messages.
It can also be stealing a person's account information to publicize private information by spreading it on social media websites.
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HOW TO REPORT BULLYING.
If you believe a child is being bullied, do the following:
- Report bullying to a school site staff member either verbally or anonymously through the STOP!T App or via the Website.
- Complaints of bullying will be investigated and resolved in accordance with the district's uniform complaint procedures specified in Board Policy 1312.3
- When a student is reported to be engaging in bullying off-campus, we will investigate and document the activity and identify specific facts or circumstances that explain the impact or potential impact on school activity, school attendance, or the targeted student's educational performance.
- When the circumstances involve cyberbullying, individuals are encouraged to save and print any electronic or digital messages that they feel constitutes cyber-bullying and to report it to a teacher, school administrator so that the matter can be investigated.
**Please Note:**
If you are submitting an anonymous report for more than one school site, please make sure you have completed the submission form or have logged out completely before submitting another report to a different school.
RESOURCES
- Bully Information
- Stopbullying.gov
- Board Policy - Hate-Motivated Behavior
- Board Policy - Nondescrimination/Harrassment
- Board Policy - Sexual Harrassment
- Board Policy - Suicide Prevention
- FAQ's (Español)
- Formulario de Procedimientos
- Procedimentos Uniformes de Quejas
- Uniform Complain Procedures
- Uniform Complaint Procedure Form
Frequently Asked Questions
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What student information does the school or user need to provide to STOPit?
None! STOPit does not require any end user information whatsoever. Your child will authenticate using an Access Code, which is the same code as their peers, so they all remain anonymous. Information provided by STOPit app users is also kept private and secure. Please read our Privacy Policy. To learn more about our commitment to keeping data provided by students safe, learn more about the Student Privacy Pledge, to which STOPit is a signatory.
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What information does STOPit obtain when using the app?
STOPit may automatically collect certain information from a user of the STOPit app, such as IP address; details about the browser, operating system and/or device/hardware; general location, if available; your activities when using our app; and other logging information, including the date and time of your use of the STOPit app. Please read our Privacy Policy.
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Is it really anonymous? Can the school find out who my child is through the STOPit app?
STOPit is truly anonymous. The school has no ability to identify the submitter of a report or message. At their discretion, an end user may choose to voluntarily provide identifying information in the content of their report or message. Please see our Privacy Policy – Making Reports with STOPit & How “Anonymous” Reporting Works for details.
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Can STOPit be used by children under the age of 13?
The STOPit app (and its browser-based version) may be used by children under the age of 13. We urge parents to contact the school's administration to learn more about how the school uses STOPit and the data we provide them.
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What type of behavior or activity is supposed to be reported with STOPit?
STOPit is an entirely configurable experience and each district and school makes the decision about what types of reports they are asking the students to submit. STOPit has been used as a school safety solution as well as a powerful reporting tool for issues including bullying, hazing, violence, weapons possession, sexual harassment, discrimination, inappropriate on-line behavior, or threats.
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Who receives the reports my child submits via STOPit?
Reports and Messenger messages will be received by the contacts designated by the school. Please check with your school for more information.
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Can I as a parent use the app to report incidents?
Parent access of the STOPit app varies from school to school. If your school makes STOPit available to parents, then yes, you may use STOPit to report incidents. Schools often add a web link to the STOPit web app from their site(s).