Post by title1parent on Feb 20, 2009 6:30:54 GMT -5
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1440870,6_1_NA20_SCHOOLRULE_S1.article
Districts OK 'Safe Harbor' for student victims
February 20, 2009
By DENISE LINKE For The Sun
BATAVIA -- A new pact between the Batavia and Geneva school districts could keep assault victims in high schools and middle schools from having to share classes with their alleged attackers.
The Batavia school board this month approved a "Safe Harbor" agreement, which allows each district to temporarily transfer students into the other district's high school or middle school if that student cannot be adequately protected from attack or harassment at his own school.
The school districts negotiated the agreement as a precautionary measure, said Batavia Superintendent Jack Barshinger.
"As far as I know, we have never had a situation in the district in which we would need to use this," Barshinger said. "It's something we want to have in place in case we ever do need it."
District officials said they weren't reacting to a controversy in the nearby Indian Prairie School District, where a student at Gregory Middle School in Naperville was attending classes with two students charged with sexually assaulting him.
If a similar situation ever happened in Batavia, the district would not be able to separate victim and attackers without transferring one of them out of the district, noted board President Ron Link. Batavia has only one middle school and one high school.
"The rationale (behind the agreement between Geneva and Batavia) is that our districts have one high school. We each need to have some place where threatened students can feel safe."
The agreement also includes middle school students, even though Geneva has two middle schools, because the schools share a campus and students from both ride the same buses, added Geneva Superintendent Kent Mutchler.
Districts OK 'Safe Harbor' for student victims
February 20, 2009
By DENISE LINKE For The Sun
BATAVIA -- A new pact between the Batavia and Geneva school districts could keep assault victims in high schools and middle schools from having to share classes with their alleged attackers.
The Batavia school board this month approved a "Safe Harbor" agreement, which allows each district to temporarily transfer students into the other district's high school or middle school if that student cannot be adequately protected from attack or harassment at his own school.
The school districts negotiated the agreement as a precautionary measure, said Batavia Superintendent Jack Barshinger.
"As far as I know, we have never had a situation in the district in which we would need to use this," Barshinger said. "It's something we want to have in place in case we ever do need it."
District officials said they weren't reacting to a controversy in the nearby Indian Prairie School District, where a student at Gregory Middle School in Naperville was attending classes with two students charged with sexually assaulting him.
If a similar situation ever happened in Batavia, the district would not be able to separate victim and attackers without transferring one of them out of the district, noted board President Ron Link. Batavia has only one middle school and one high school.
"The rationale (behind the agreement between Geneva and Batavia) is that our districts have one high school. We each need to have some place where threatened students can feel safe."
The agreement also includes middle school students, even though Geneva has two middle schools, because the schools share a campus and students from both ride the same buses, added Geneva Superintendent Kent Mutchler.
