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Taken from the Polk County School Board Code of Conduct: "Consistent with the requirement of Florida Statute 1006.147, it is the policy of the Polk County School District that all of its students and employees have a school environment that is safe, secure, and free from harassment and bullying of any kind. Bullying and harassment of any type will not be tolerated. Prohibition against

bullying and harassment of students and employees is as follows:

Bullying must include the following three criteria:

1. Any behavior that is unwanted, offensive, threatening, insulting, causes discomfort or humiliation, or interferes with the individual’s school performance which results in the victim feeling stressed, injured, or threatened.
2. The behaviors are repeated
3. There is an imbalance of power between the bully and the victim.

Bullying behavior can take the form of:

• Physical aggression including but not limited to: hitting; pushing; spitting, or stalking
• Verbal aggression including, but not limited to: name calling, teasing, making remarks that are insulting, threatening, disrespecting or demeaning a person’s race, disability, appearance, or sexual orientation
• Emotional (relational) aggression including but not limited to: spreading rumors, isolating from a peer group through hurtful gossip,
• Sexual aggression including but not limited to: any unwanted sexual advances or actions intended to make the other person uncomfortable, embarrassed, or humiliated, and might include obscenities, or gestures, exposure, or physical contact
• Cyber bullying includes, but is not limited to: using the internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones to communicate words, images, or language, directed at specific persons that has the harmful effects described above (1)

Harassment is any threatening, insulting, or dehumanizing gesture, use of data, or written, verbal or physical conduct directed against a student that:

1. Places a student in reasonable fear of harm to his or her person or damage to his or her property.
2. Has the effect of substantially interfering with a student’s educational performance, opportunities or benefits.
3. Has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of a school.

Note: The School Board has no duty to regulate or review off-campus Internet messages, statements, postings, or acts. However, the School Board reserves the right to regulate, review, investigate, and discipline students for cyber bullying or other disciplinary violations when such Internet statements, postings, or acts are made while on school campus, or made off-campus and such statements threaten violence against another student or otherwise disrupt the learning environment or orderly conduct of the school, school business, or school activities."