Dear Parent/caregivers,
Further to my letter last week, and in light of recent attention, I just wanted to make it absolutely clear that sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour is not acceptable at Port Lincoln High School.
As a school community, we work very hard through our curriculum offerings and the use of additional wellbeing programs to create a safe and supportive environment for all students, where harassment of any kind is not tolerated on any level.
As you are aware from my previous letter, we have partnered with Headspace to provide a targeted education program to specifically address the issue of respectful relationships and behaviours. Our aim is always to educate our students about respectful and healthy relationships not only at school, but for their role in the community as well. This is in addition to the wellbeing support available to all of our students if issues arise.
Headspace has already supported us with very positive sessions involving female students which allowed for specific issues to be identified and discussed in a safe and open environment. These sessions were only one aspect of a larger program, with similar sessions involving male students to be held next week; we will also be conducting year-level activities over coming weeks.
I want to reinforce that if your child has experienced any issue of harassment or inappropriate behaviour, we want to hear about it so that it can be appropriately addressed.
Allegations are taken seriously and we have robust structures in place to support reporting and responding to inappropriate behaviour, whether it relates to students, staff or members of the wider school community.
As you may be aware, we are currently in the process of reviewing our Student Behaviour Management Policy, which will include clear rights, responsibilities and consequences for inappropriate behaviour.
This is a whole of community, whole of school issue, and we are approaching it as such.
It is positive that our students are actively engaging and this is a great opportunity for us to move forward as a school community to ensure our school is an environment of safety and respect.
We ask that you support us as we reinforce the importance of respectful behaviour.
If you have any questions about our approach, please do not hesitate to raise them with me.
Regards,
Todd George, Principal