A. DEFINITION OF GENERAL MISCONDUCT

Prohibited conduct includes, but is not limited to, the following:

General Violations of Rules/Miscellaneous

• Repeatedly violating communicated campus or classroom standards of behavior.
• Failing to comply with directives given by school personnel.
• Behaving in any way that disrupts the school environment or educational process.
• Disobeying rules for conduct on school buses.
• Leaving school grounds or school-sponsored events without permission.
• Cheating or copying the work of another.
• Violating the district or campus dress code.
• Gambling.
• Damaging or vandalizing property owned by others.
• Defacing or damaging school property including textbooks, lockers, furniture, and other equipment with graffiti or by other means.
• Falsification of records, passes, or other school related documents, including paper records and computer records.
• Engaging in conduct that constitutes criminal mischief.
• Stealing, theft, robbery.
• Engaging in any misbehavior that gives school officials reasonable cause to believe that such conduct will substantially disrupt the school program or incite violence.
• Inappropriate discharge of a fire extinguisher.
• Violating safety rules.
• Violating any local, state, or federal laws.

Inappropriate Physical or Verbal Conduct

• Hazing.
• Committing extortion, coercion, or blackmail (obtaining money or another object of value from an unwilling person), or forcing an individual to act through the use of force or threat of force.
• Use of profanity, vulgar language or obscene gestures.
• Engaging in conduct that constitutes sexual harassment or sexual abuse whether the conduct is by word, gesture, or any other sexual conduct, including requests for sexual favors.
• Name-calling, ethnic or racial slurs, or derogatory statements that school officials have reason to believe will disrupt the school program or incite violence.
• Bullying, defined as written or oral expression or physical conduct that a school district's board of trustees or the board's designee determines: 1) To have the effect of physically harming a student, damaging a student's property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of harm to the student's person or of damage to the student's property; or 2) To be sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive to create an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment for a student.
• Harassment, defined as conduct that threatens to cause harm or bodily injury to another student, is sexually intimidating, causes physical damage to the property of another student, subjects another student to physical confinement or restraint or maliciously and substantially harms another student's physical or emotional health or safety.
• Dating violence, including the intentional use of physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse by a person to harm, threaten, intimidate, or control another person in a dating relationship.
• Throwing objects that can cause bodily injury or property damage.
• Fighting.
• Making false accusations or hoaxes regarding school safety.
• Aggressive, disruptive action or group demonstration that substantially disrupts or materially interferes with school activities.
• Engaging in inappropriate physical or sexual contact.
• Engaging in threatening behavior toward another student or district employee or property, including the creation of a hit list, defined as a list of people targeted to be harmed, using a firearm, a knife, or any other object with the intent to cause bodily harm.
• Record the voice or image of another without the prior consent of the individual(s) being recorded or in any way that disrupts the educational environment or invades the privacy of others.

Prohibited Items

• Student possession and use of paging devices or cellular telephones must be in accordance with District and campus policy.
• Possessing or using matches or a lighter.
• Possessing, smoking, or using tobacco products.
• Possession or distribution of pornographic materials.
• Possessing published or electronic material that is designed to promote or encourage illegal behavior or that could threaten school safety; using e-mail or Web sites at school to encourage illegal behavior; or threatening school safety.
• Behaving in a manner that contains the elements of an offense relating to abusable glue or aerosol paint or relating to volatile chemicals.
• Selling, giving, delivering, possessing, using, or being under the influence of an alcoholic beverage; committing a serious act or offense while under the influence of alcohol.
• Possessing, selling, using, or distributing medicines that are available without a prescription in a manner that is not consistent either with the medicine's intended use as indicated on the manufacturer's labeling or with district policy concerning the handling of such medicines.
• Violating the district's policy on taking prescription drugs or over the counter drugs at school.
• Abusing the student's own prescription drug, giving a prescription drug to another student, or possessing or being under the influence of another person's prescription drug.
• Possessing drug paraphernalia.
• Possessing or selling look-alike drugs or items attempted to be passed off as drugs and contraband.
• Selling, giving, delivering, possessing, using or being under the influence of marijuana, a controlled substance, or a dangerous drug.
• Possessing or using any articles not generally considered to be weapons, including school supplies, when the principal or designee determines that a danger exists.
• Possession of a razor, box cutter, chain, or any other object used in a way that threatens or inflicts bodily injury to another person.
• Possession of knives, bladed instruments, BB guns, air guns, chemical dispensing devices, mace/pepper spray, fireworks, replica firearms, electronic stunning devices, ammunition, home-made weapons, and other dangerous items.
• Use, exhibition, or possession of the following: A firearm (defined on page 12); an illegal knife, such as a knife with a blade over 5 1/2 inches; hand instrument, designed to cut or stab another by being thrown; dagger, including but not limited to a dirk, stiletto, and poniard; bowie knife; sword; spear; a club; or a prohibited weapon, such as an explosive weapon; a machine gun; a short-barrel firearm; a firearm silencer; a switchblade knife; knuckles; armor-piercing ammunition; or zip gun.

Inappropriate use of Computers/Internet/Email

• Violating district computer acceptable use policies, rules, or agreements.
• Attempting to access or circumvent passwords or other security-related information of the district, students, or employees or uploading or creating computer viruses, including off school property if the conduct causes a substantial disruption to the educational environment.
• Attempting to alter, destroy, or disable district computer equipment, district data, the data of others, or other networks connected to the district's system, including off school property if the conduct causes a substantial disruption to the educational environment.
• Using the Internet or other electronic communications to threaten district students, employees, or volunteers, including off school property if the conduct causes a substantial disruption to the educational environment.
• Sending or posting electronic messages that are abusive, obscene, sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, damaging to another's reputation, or illegal, including off school property if the conduct causes a substantial disruption to the educational environment.

The following definitions apply throughout the code:

Use: This term means a student has smoked, ingested, injected, imbibed, inhaled, drunk, or otherwise taken internally, on or off campus, a prohibited substance recently enough that it may be detectable by, but not limited to, the following: the student's appearance, actions, breath, or speech.

Under the influence: This term means a student's faculties are noticeably impaired by alcohol and/or drugs, but the student need not be legally intoxicated. Impairment of a person's physical and/or mental faculties may be evidenced by a pattern of abnormal or erratic behavior and/or the presence of physical symptoms of drug or alcohol use.

Possession: This term means actual care, custody, control, or management of an object or substance. A student shall be considered in possession of any substance or object prohibited or regulated by this Code if the substance or object is: (1) on the student's person or in the student's personal property, including but not limited to the student's clothing, purse, book bag, or briefcase; (2) in any private vehicle used by the student for transportation to or from school or school-related activities, including but not limited to an automobile, truck, motorcycle, or bicycle; or (3) in any school property used by the student, including but not limited to a locker or a desk.

B. CONSEQUENCES FOR GENERAL MISCONDUCT

Students who engage in general misconduct as defined in Part A will be disciplined. Campus administration will make a good faith effort to contact the parent/guardian concerning any violation of the Student Code of Conduct within a reasonable amount of time. Students will be disciplined through the use of any appropriate discipline management techniques as listed on page 4; by the removal of the student from the regular classroom environment and placement of the student at a disciplinary alternative education program (see III. B. "Removal to a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program"); or by the suspension of the student as provided below:

Removal by Teacher [TEC 37.002(b)(d)]
A teacher also has the authority to remove a student. A teacher may remove from class a student who has been documented by the teacher to repeatedly interfere with the teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the students in the class or with the ability of the student's classmates to learn; or whose behavior the teacher determines is so unruly, disruptive, or abusive that it seriously interferes with the teacher's ability to communicate effectively with the students in the class or with the ability of the student's classmates to learn. [TEC 37.002(b)] A teacher or administrator may also remove a student from class for an offense for which a student may be suspended and/or placed in a disciplinary Alternative Education Program. [TEC 37.002(d)] If the following offenses are committed against the teacher, the student may not be returned to the class without the teacher's consent: assault with bodily injury, aggravated assault, sexual assault, or aggravated sexual assault. The principal or appropriate administrator must send a copy of the teacher's documentation or of the Code of Conduct violation to the student's parent or guardian within 24 hours of receiving it.

Conference
When a student is removed from the regular classroom, a conference will be scheduled within three school days with the student's parent/guardian, the teacher, and the student. Pending the conference, the principal or other appropriate administrator may place a student:

• In another appropriate classroom.
• In in-school suspension.
• On suspension.
• In a disciplinary Alternative Education Program

(See page 14 for students with disabilities.)

After the conference, the principal will notify the student and parent(s) of the consequences of the Student Code of Conduct violation. When a student has been formally removed from class, the principal or other administrator may not return the student to the teacher's class without the appropriate teacher's consent unless the Placement Review Committee (described below) determines that the teacher's class is the best or only alternative.

Placement Review Committee [TEC 37.003]
Each school will establish a three-member committee composed of two teachers chosen by the faculty and one member chosen by the principal. In addition, there will be one alternate member chosen by the faculty. The purpose of this committee is to determine placement of a student when a teacher refuses the return of a student to the teacher's class and to make recommendations to the district regarding re-admission of expelled students.

Suspension [TEC 37.005]
Students may be suspended for any behavior listed in the Student Code of Conduct as a general misconduct violation, Disciplinary Alternative Education Program placement, or expellable offense. In addition, suspensions may be used for students who have committed a removal or expulsion offense and for whom a conference or hearing is pending. State law allows a student to be suspended from school for up to three school days per offense, with no limit on the number of times a student may be suspended in a semester or school year. (See page 14 for students with disabilities.) A student who is to be suspended will be afforded due process via an informal conference by the principal or other appropriate administrator advising the student of the conduct with which he or she is charged and giving the student the opportunity to explain his or her version of the incident. The duration of a student's suspension, which cannot exceed three school days, will be determined by the principal or other appropriate administrator. The parent or guardian will be notified. In the case of elementary students, parents will have the option of supervising their child at home or having their child assigned to the suspension program at ACES, if space is available. Any restrictions on participation in school-sponsored or school-related extracurricular and noncurricular activities will be determined by the principal or other appropriate administrator.