New DCPS safety initiative offers students and parents a way to report employee misconduct

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – Duval County Public Schools is taking additional steps to continue its efforts to protect students and create a safe environment for staff.

The school district announced the “Know the Line” initiative as a safe place for students and parents to report staff misconduct.

DCPS Superintendent Dr. Chris Bernier launched the initiative to “ensure that students and families know to recognize and report any behavior that crosses the healthy boundaries that should exist between students and staff.”

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DCPS explains healthy boundaries as follows:

• communication – There should be no interaction between students and staff via phone calls, text messages, or social media. The only appropriate out-of-school communication between staff and students should be through the following district-approved and monitored platforms: Teams, Rooms (on the district’s new app), or via email from duvalschools.org accounts. Even with these platforms, one-on-one communication is discouraged.

• Physical contact – Both staff and students are prohibited from any physical contact beyond a handshake, high five or fist bump.

• Conferences – We encourage staff to plan ahead so they are not alone with students. There are certain instances where this may be unavoidable. For example, when providing school counseling, mental health, or physical health services. In these cases, we encourage staff to balance students’ need for privacy while ensuring they remain within another person’s line of sight.

READ: ‘There are some challenges’: New DCPS superintendent answers questions about the start of the school year

“You can’t separate student safety from student success,” Bernier said in a video launching the initiative. “‘Know the Line’ is an initiative focused on reinforcing safe and healthy boundaries, interactions and communication between staff and students.”

This new system allows the district to intervene quickly in potentially dangerous situations.

In June, the school district also released a new student safety plan following multiple allegations of abuse at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

Bernier addressed this appeal to parents:

“Please talk to your student about this initiative and work with us to ensure a safe learning environment for all of our students,” he said.

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