Student Services / Well-Being & Safety
Bullying
All students should feel physically and emotionally safe at school. Bullying behavior is completely unacceptable. Bullying prevention starts with the knowledge of what it means to engage in or become a victim of bullying.
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Both kids who are bullied and who bully others may have serious, lasting problems.
In order to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive and include:
- An Imbalance of Power: Kids who bully use their power—such as physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity—to control or harm others. Power imbalances can change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people.
- Repetition: Bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to happen more than once.
Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Examples include:
- Teasing
- Name-calling
- Inappropriate sexual comments
- Taunting
- Threatening to cause harm
Social bullying involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Examples include:
- Leaving someone out on purpose
- Telling other children not to be friends with someone
- Spreading rumors about someone
- Embarrassing someone in public
Physical bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Examples include:
- Hitting/kicking/pinching
- Spitting
- Tripping/pushing
- Taking or breaking someone’s things
- Making mean or rude hand gestures
Cyberbullying takes place through text messages, apps, or online social media, forums, or gaming platforms where people can view, participate, or share content. Examples include:
- Sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else
- Sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation
The most common places where cyberbullying occurs are:
- Social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok
- Text messaging and messaging apps on mobile or tablet devices
- Instant messaging, direct messaging, and online chatting over the internet
- Online forums, chat rooms, and message boards, such as Reddit
- Online gaming communities
Education Code 234.6 cites the following possible forums for social media bullying:
- Internet websites with free registration and ease of registration
- Internet websites offering peer-to-peer instant messaging
- Internet websites offering comment forums or sections
- Internet websites offering image or video posting platforms
Additional information regarding bullying can be found at stopbullying.gov.
Incidents of bullying may be reported anonymously through a link on each school’s website.
Board Policy 5131.2 Bullying
Administrative Regulation 5131.2 Bullying
Incidents of bullying may be reported anonymously through a link on each school’s website.
Board Policy 5131.2 Bullying
Administrative Regulation 5131.2 Bullying
Hate-Motivated Behavior
The district is committed to providing a respectful, inclusive, and safe learning environment that protects students from discrimination, harassment, intimidation, bullying, or any other type of behavior that is motivated by hate. Hate-motivated behavior is any behavior intended to cause emotional suffering, physical injury, or property damage through intimidation, harassment, bigoted slurs or epithets, force or threat of force, or vandalism motivated in part or in whole by bias or hostility toward the victim's real or perceived race, color, ancestry, nationality, national origin, immigration status, ethnic group identification, ethnicity, age, religion, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, or genetic information, or any other characteristic identified in Education Code 200 or 220, Government Code 11135, or Penal Code 422.55.
Board Policy 5145.9 Hate-Motivated Behavior
Board Policy 5145.9 Hate-Motivated Behavior
Safe and Drug-Free Schools
The use of alcohol or other drugs adversely affects a student's ability to achieve academic success, is physically and emotionally harmful, and has serious social and legal consequences.
Local law enforcement agencies sponsor character development programs for all sixth-grade students in the Cypress School District. These partnerships help support student safety across our district by educating students about topics such as peer pressure, bullying, and drug abuse. Students develop critical thinking skills that enable them to effectively solve problems and make good choices.
- PACE – Positive Actions thru Character Education: The Cypress Police Department sponsors the PACE program at Arnold, King, Landell, Morris, and Vessels.
- PIY – Police Interaction with Youth: The La Palma Police Department sponsors the Police Interaction with Youth (PIY) program at Luther.
Student Homelessness
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines homelessness as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.
Homeless students have the right to:
- Go to school, no matter where they live now or how long they have lived there.
- Start school immediately, even if they are missing records and documents normally required for enrollment.
- Attend the neighborhood school closest to where they currently live, or attend their school of origin. School of origin is the school the child last attended when permanently housed or where he/she was last enrolled.
- Receive transportation to and from their school of origin, whenever feasible.
- Participate fully in all school activities while their new school arranges for records transfer.
- Receive the same programs and services as their peers and be treated with the same respect and attention.
Please note that in all cases of residency other than “fixed permanent” status, including homeless, the District shall re-verify residency at least annually in accordance with Board Policy. It is the parent’s responsibility to immediately inform the District of address changes or changes to residency status.
District Homeless Liaison
Tandy Taylor
Executive Director, Educational Services
5816 Corporate Avenue, Suite 100
Cypress, CA 90630
(714) 220-6922
[email protected]
Executive Director, Educational Services
5816 Corporate Avenue, Suite 100
Cypress, CA 90630
(714) 220-6922
[email protected]
Community Resources
County of Orange
2.1.1 Orange County
Student Mental Health Support
The district recognizes that students' emotional well-being and mental health are critical to their ability to perform to their full academic and personal potential. Students experiencing mental health disorders that impact their academic performance or school attendance are eligible for services with a referral from the school psychologist and/or principal.
Information about how to identify student mental health issues and ways to get help is provided below.
Suicide Prevention
The district recognizes that suicide is a leading cause of death among youth, prevention is a collective effort that requires stakeholder engagement, and school personnel who regularly interact with students are often in a position to recognize the warning signs of suicide and to offer appropriate referral and/or assistance.
Board Policy 5141.52 Suicide Prevention
Administrative Regulation 5141.52 Suicide Prevention
Board Policy 5141.52 Suicide Prevention
Administrative Regulation 5141.52 Suicide Prevention
Statewide Support Organizations
The California Department of Education (CDE) provides a regional list of California organizations providing support to youth and their families who have been subjected to school-related discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
List of California Organizations Providing Support to Youth and Their Families - Region 9
List of California Organizations Providing Support to Youth and Their Families - Region 9