Durham Catholic District School Board and St. Mary Catholic Secondary School promote responsibility, respect, civility and academic excellence in a safe learning and teaching environment. A positive school climate exists when all members of the school community feel safe, comfortable and accepted.
All students, parents/guardians, teachers, staff, trustees, volunteers, visitors, parish and community members have the right to be safe and to feel safe in their school. With this right comes the responsibility to contribute to a positive school climate.
We are focused on prevention, early intervention and progressive discipline as the keys to maintaining a positive environment where students can learn and educators can teach.
Each school has developed a School Code of Conduct based on the Ministry of Education's Code of Conduct. As per our Board's policy Safe, Caring and Healthy Secondary Schools and the Ontario Safe School Act, a school's Code of Conduct is developed in consultation with parents, educators and the Catholic School Advisory Council. All members of our school community are responsible for adhering to the expectations as outlined in this Code of Conduct.
| Report It |
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Report It is a tool for parents and students to advise us of non-emergency incidents of bullying and other school safety issues (for example vandalism). It is not monitored on a 24/7 basis. If this is an emergency, call 911. If a student needs immediate emotional support, please call the Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 or Durham Mobile Crisis: 905-666-0483 or toll-free: 1-800-742-1890. Our top priority is the safety and well-being of all students. All students deserve to learn in a place where they feel safe. We want to know about incidents of bullying and other safety concerns so that we can take action and prevent further incidents from happening. We take issues of bullying and school safety very seriously. We encourage parents and students to report incidents of bullying or other school safety concerns as soon as it happens. Speak with a teacher or school administration to provide information about the situation. |
| Medical Conditions |
| Ensuring the health and safety of children and students with medical conditions is essential to promoting well-being, and requires a partnership among families, members of the school community and community partners, including health care professionals. Ontario Ministry of Education has provided direction to school boards to have policies and procedures in place to support children and students with certain medical conditions (e.g. anaphylaxis, asthma, diabetes, and/or epilepsy) in schools. Please visit the Ministry of Education: Healthy Schools for more information. |
| Concussion Protocol (Rowan's Law) |
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Our Board recognizes concussions as a serious injury. Concussion awareness, prevention, identification and management are a priority for the Board. A concussion is a serious event, but you can recover fully from such an injury if the brain is given enough time to rest and recuperate. Returning to normal activities, including sport participation, is a step-wise process that requires patience, attention, and caution. Please speak to your Vice-Principal if you have a concussion.
If a child has experienced a previous concussion, then the following form must be completed: |
| Protection of Anaphylactic Students (Sabrina's Law) |
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The Board, principals, teachers and parents play an important role in providing a safe environment for anaphylactic students. It is essential that all schools are aware of the issues facing students with anaphylaxis, have developed strategies to minimize the risk of an allergic reaction, and are equipped to respond appropriately in the event of an emergency. Anaphylaxis emergency plans can help to create safer environments for allergic individuals. School anaphylaxis plans help to reduce the risk of exposure to allergens and prepare school communities for an emergency situation. Parents/Guardians shall:
If applicable, Parents/Guardians should complete and submit Individual Education Plan: Protection of Anaphylactic Students to the Main Office. |
| Ensuring Asthma Friendly Schools (Ryan's Law) |
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Ryan's Law, 2015, was recently passed by the Ontario Legislature. This piece of legislation is an important step to support the well-being of students with asthma in Ontario schools. Over the course of the next school year, the Durham Catholic District School Board will be working to implement the requirements of this legislation and developing a more formal process to identify students with asthma and their asthma medication. If your child has asthma, as a best practice and to support your child, we ask that you immediately contact the main office at your school to provide information about your child's asthma medication. With your permission, your child will be allowed to carry their asthma medication |
Safe and Caring Schools
| Emergency Response Procedures | ||||||||||||
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Staff, students and visitors in our schools have the right to learn, work, and be present in a safe and secure environment. To enhance safety and security, it is important that we have plans for responding to threats of violence, whether they occur outside of the school, inside of the school or as a threat, for example a bomb threat. The Ministry of Education, school boards and police services from across the province work in partnership to ensure that we are provided with the most current and relevant information required to create effective Emergency Response Plans, for example the mandatory Lockdown and Hold and Secure plans. This year, the Ministry of Education has made it a requirement that all schools have a consistent approach to bomb threat planning and explosive incident response. During September's Safe and Caring Schools week, members of our school's Emergency Response team were trained in the changes and updates to our school's Emergency Response plans. They in turn, will be training all staff so that we can communicate and practise the changes with our students. We will be completing the first of two mandatory Lockdown drills and Bomb Threat Response drills by the end of October. As parents and guardians, you have an important role to play in supporting our Emergency Response planning efforts. We ask that you reinforce with your child(ren) the importance of listening closely to all directions from staff members and following them exactly. It is important that students take the practice of these drills seriously so that should an emergency occur, everyone knows exactly what to do. Over the course of the next few months, we will share more information with you about our Emergency response plans so that you can reinforce them with your child(ren). |
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| Lockdowns | ||||||||||||
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Last month, we had the opportunity to practice one of our mandatory Lockdown drills. Fortunately, the need for a real Lockdown is a rare. However, if a lockdown is required, it is vital that staff and students react immediately to maximize safety for all. To help in the practice of this drill so that all students know immediately what to do, beginning this year the acronym R - SAFE will be used and repeated in all preparation and practice situations. Please review this acronym with your child(ren) to help reinforce what they need to do and why.
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| Community Threat Assessment and Intervention Protocol – Fair Notice | ||||||||||||
| The Durham Catholic District School Board is committed to providing safe learning environments for all students, staff, school visitors and community members. When student behaviours pose a potential threat to safety or serious harm to self or others, all schools in the Durham Catholic District School Board follow the Community Threat Assessment and Intervention Protocol (C-TAIP), which outlines how a school responds immediately to threatening behaviour. This protocol involves supports from various partners, including community agencies, hospitals and police services. Personal information shared throughout this process will always respect and balance each individual’s right to privacy while ensuring the safety of all. For more information, please refer to the school website or ask the principal for more information. | ||||||||||||
| Search and Seizure | ||||||||||||
| According to the Police/School Board Protocol for Durham Catholic District School Board, it is the right and authority of the Principal or designate to search school and personal property, such as lockers, desks, backpacks, purses, etc., without notice or permission of any person as long as the Principal or designate has reasonable grounds to believe that there has been a breach of school regulations and that the search would reveal evidence of that breach. Police may from time to time be invited onto school premises to conduct their own searches, also without prior notice to or permission of any member of the school community. |
| Community Partners |
| Through outreach, school and community partnerships already in place may be enhanced and new partnerships developed with community agencies and other groups within the community (e.g., Kinark Family and Child Services, Aboriginal Elders). Community agencies are important resources that schools can use to deliver prevention or intervention programs. Protocols are effective ways of establishing connections between boards and community agencies and formalizing the partnership. These partnership agreements must respect all applicable collective agreements and Board policies. |
| Durham Regional Police Service Partnerships |
| The Durham Regional Police Service plays an essential role in making our schools and communities safer. The police investigate incidents in accordance with our Police/School Board protocol. This protocol is based on the provincial model developed by the Ministry of Education. The Durham Regional Police Service are instrumental in supporting our schools with all emergency preparedness procedures and Safe Schools initiatives. Each of our schools has regular access to a School Liaison Officer. |
| Restorative Schools |
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We believe that safety begins with positive connections between the students, staff and parents. To foster these relationships, staff in the Durham Catholic District School Board use restorative practices, including classroom circles and small group conferences to build community within the classroom and the school. Restorative Practice is rooted in the same philosophical approach as Canada’s Native Aboriginal communities. It rests on the belief that it is best to do things with people, rather than to them. When conflict arises, using restorative practice engages students in a fair process that responds to behavior in ways that strengthen and repair the relationship. It is collaborative rather than adversarial in nature. The aim of restorative practice is to hold individuals accountable for their actions while restoring and repairing any relationships amongst each other and within the community that may have been harmed. Catholic Restorative Schools will:
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