Several changes to the Discipline Management Plan and Student Code of Conduct for the 2010-11 school years were recently approved by the Texas Katy Independent School District board of trustees.

New sections in the code of conduct include paragraphs outlining cyber-bullying, sexting, and dating violence. According to the new code bus probation is an available punishment for level three offenses in high school. The code also includes guidelines for parents on dealing with social networking sites.

Cyberbullying and sexting fall outside of KISD jurisdiction unless a school’s computer or district Web site was involved, but the code of conduct encourages parents to monitor their student’s activity on the web, and talk to their child about cyber-bullying.

The paragraph on sexting reminds students and parents that possessing, or distributing, lewd photos of someone under the age of 17 can mean prosecution as a sex offender under Texas law.

Source: KISD approves code of conduct, The Katy Times, June 23, 2010

Tags: Texas, cyberbullying, sexting