001Open. >> Okay. Good afternoon everybody. it it's a small enough group where I don't think I have to use the mic, but we do since we are live streaming this. Um, and but we're only we're live streaming it just for the reason of this room apparently because we moved everybody that was on two up here. This morning we live streamed um down to two as well in a couple auxiliary buildings. Um, welcome to HR workplace conduct training. You guys are the afternoon session, so we appreciate you being here. Um, like I said, if you have not signed in, please do. Um, if you haven't signed in, you won't get credit for it as this is a mandatory. So, please make sure that you do. Um, we have an outline that we I will be sending
002out after the training that will help you guys out some. My name is Chase Canfield for those of you who don't know me yet. Um, I'm the new executive director for human resources. I say new, but it's been about, I guess, four months already. Um, it's gone by pretty quick, that's for sure. Um, but thanks for coming today. Um, you know, today we're we're here really as kind of a a new phase um of promoting operational excellence uh through trust, commitment, and accountability. Um, you know, we're really focused on reinvigorating that through all leaders, educators, and staff. Um, and really trying to get you guys back. If you're many of you are probably still there, but if you lost it, we want to really kind of reinvigorate that pride with what we do serving our
003students in APS. and it's definitely an organization to be proud of. Um, so we're excited to kind of give you the kind of the start of this. You know, in order to develop that culture of trust and accountability, we really need to make sure we understand how each of us function within the workplace, what's expected of us, how we come every day, um, how we partner with each other, um, in support of our students. That's the mission, right? We're all here to support the students, whether directly or indirectly. and the board policy really sets the stage for that. So board policy 3210 is our staff ethics and we have a mirrored um guideline and policy for the classified staff too. But I want to read this part to you because this is where we start.
004An effective educational program and successful operation of the district requires the services of individuals with integrity, highs and human understanding. To maintain and promote these essentials, the board of education expects all professional staff members and classified staff members to maintain high standards in their working relationships and the performance of their own professional duties. So, today is kind of the start of of how we're going to walk through this this culture journey together. Um, we're here to ensure that number one, you're informed of the policies like anti-harassment, non-discrimination, sexual harassment, um, retaliation and and, uh, whistleblower. Um, these are the policies that govern our leadership and communication and also protect staff, but they really at the heart of it fosters trust, respect, and professionalism. And that's what we all have to get to. You know, we
005spend a lot of time here. Uh we have spent a lot of time in the workplace. So we really want people to come here and work in a safe environment where they feel listened to and they feel protected as well. We want to focus on you coming here to really be your best selves and really be partners to each other in this because we're all in this together. Um so I'm going to keep that short. I'm going to introduce Jackie Walsh Brickman from Pebble and Wagner and that is a law firm that we use every once in a while. She's going to facilitate this training so I can listen to it and learn from it as well. Um, but she's an expert in the field and she's going to help us out a lot today.
006So, Jackie, I'll let you take it away. >> All right. Thank you everybody. Uh, yeah, my name's Jackie Brickman. I am a partner with PEL and Wagner and we represent school districts all over the state of Ohio, including Akran. And one of the things that I do as part of my job is deal with issues like harassment, retaliation, discrimination. When those things happen, I'm often advising school districts on how to respond to them, how to handle them, what they should be doing to make sure they're addressing it appropriately. And really, what I'm going to be walking you through is a lot of what I do when I when I get an issue. It's looking at your board policies and saying, "Okay, if we have a problem, what is the way we're supposed to deal with
007it? As a staff member, who am I supposed to go to? What can I expect the administration to do? As an administrator, what are my responsibilities? What are the things I'm supposed to do?" And part of that also is talking about what falls underneath those policies, right? What are the things we should not be doing at work, which it seems like we shouldn't have to tell people, but I can tell you we do uh based on the things that I see coming across my desk. And then also what are the things that really are just a supervisor should just be handling. You know, not everything rises to the level of a complaint that goes to HR and has a big formal investigation. Most of the things that happen during the day-to-day of any employment situation,
008but school districts, too, are things that should hopefully be dealt with at an earlier stage with the supervisor as opposed to letting it percolate and get worse and worse over time and result in this larger situation that ends up with a complaint before HR. Now, sometimes that's what happens and if that's the situation, then we deal with it, right? The goal is to deal with things and have this be a good place for everybody to work and not have those issues continuing to happen. Um but also part of the idea is hey let's make people aware of things at an earlier stage ideally so that you don't rise to that level hopefully. So we're going to start by talking about if my clicker works. All right. Uh we're going to start by talking about what
009are the laws that require these policies to be in place. And before I get too far I did also want to mention that I welcome questions uh because I want this you know it's an hour of your time today. I'm sure there are other things that you could be doing. So I'll run you like Oprah. >> There are other things that you can be doing. So if you have questions, if there's things that weren't conversation with Mr. Canfield, who uh obviously is, you know, running the HR department here, that's something that I welcome. So in terms of the laws that apply, number one is uh we've talked about Title Six, and this has a non-discrimination requirement in it. This prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national natural origin. I'm sorry, it's my
010second presentation. and sometimes I get a little tongue tied when I do it for the second time. So, any program that receives federal funding, which includes public school districts, is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. We also have Title 7. So, there's many different laws that apply to schools. Title 7 applies to employers and also prohibits discrimination. Uh and that type of discrimination of course includes things like terminating someone, disciplining someone, uh things that might happen during the application process. All of those are prohibited forms of discrimination under title 7. And then the third law that applies is title 9. So title 9 is specific to sex discrimination and applies to educational institutions K through 12 and colleges and universities and prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. For
011whatever reason, there is a very specific way to investigate sexual harassment under Title 9 that is different from all the other investigations that school districts do. So, sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination and there's a specific way that schools are supposed to investigate that under Title 9, which is something that that we'll talk about. So the point is that there are multiple federal laws that protect people in the workplace and that are intended to make sure that no one is being mistreated on the basis of some sort of protected class or characteristic that they might have. Of course, that doesn't cover just general, hey, someone's being unprofessional and not behaving the way that they should be. That's not something that's prohibited by federal law, but it is something that's otherwise prohibited by board
012policy and is something that of course the district wants to address. But those things would fall underneath just again that general supervisors supervising employees and making sure things are happening the way that they should be and wouldn't necessarily fall underneath the policies that we're going to go through today. So the first policy I'm going to talk about is the board's prohibition against discrimination. So in keeping with each of those federal laws I just talked about, the board has adopted a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of basically all of the things. The list includes race, color, national origin, sex, which includes sexual orientation or transgender status. Uh it also includes disability, age, religion, military status, ancestry, genetic information. You know, there's a lot of things on that list. So, not allowed to discriminate on
013the basis of any of those things that fall on that list. If there is an issue with discrimination, a concern about that, you're going to see Mr. Canfield's name pop up a lot during this presentation today. He's the one who you're supposed to go to with questions or concerns, right? And certainly, it's okay to ask a question about, hey, is this something that falls underneath a policy? Is this something that warrants an investigation by the district or is this this something that I should go to my supervisor with and have that person deal with it as opposed to it being an HR matter, at least at this point? He's also the complaint coordinator. So, there's multiple policies and regulations that deal with this. So, on the one hand, you know, you're the complaint coordinator. you're
014kind of making sure that okay, if we do have a complaint, are we investigating it appropriately? Are we meeting our timelines? Are we doing the things that we're supposed to be doing as a district to make sure we're being responsive and addressing any situations that we are made aware of in terms of your non-discrimination policy, there's two different ways that a complaint can be addressed should it rise to that level, right? Where okay, this has gone past the point of going to my supervisor, even talking to that person directly, right? That's an appropriate thing to do as an employee. say, "Hey, look, it's not okay with me." You know, and address it with a with a co-orker directly. Uh, beyond that, going to the supervisor. If the situation is to the point where, hey, that's
015not working or maybe it's serious enough that it doesn't that's not really the appropriate way to deal with it, you can, of course, go to your HR department and talk about, hey, look, you know, I'm concerned about discrimination. And there are two options for how that would proceed. The first is an informal process. And you're going to see in a lot of these policies a very similar thing of there being an informal process and a formal process. So the informal process is exactly that. It's meant to be a way to address things without necessarily going through the formal complaint procedure. So it might be a sitdown between the two employees involved. It might be perhaps going back and forth between the person who complained and the alleged wrongdoer saying, "Hey, is there some way we
016can work this out?" or some sort of agreement about what's really kind of the the best way to go about dealing with this to make sure it doesn't continue to be an issue. The informal process is one option. The other option is the formal process. And with all of these policies, you really have the option of which way you want to go. And nothing prevents you from starting in the informal process and then saying, you know what, that didn't work. I want to do the formal complaint. Right? So, it can be either or, or it can also be and it can be both. So, the formal complaint process is going to be done by your district's complaint coordinator or somebody that he designates to do it and it is going to include the filing of
017a written complaint. There is a timeline within which that complaint needs to be filed and it's 30 calendar days. And one of the questions that folks had this morning was, hey, is that 30 calendar days from when the incident occurred? Is that 30 calendar days from that informal process? It's 30 calendar days from when the incident occurred. But in my opinion, if someone filed that and said, "Hey, I want to make you aware this happened, but I'm interested in informal process." I wouldn't then say if that didn't work out and they want to do a formal complaint. Oh, sorry. Your time limit has lapsed because you tried to work it out first and now we're not going to do the formal complaint. I don't that's not going to be the district's approach. I don't anticipate.
018And even in conversations this morning, Mr. Canfield said, "Hey, look, even if the 30 days have lapsed, still make us aware of it. The goal is to resolve things, not to say, oh, you waited too long, so we're going to ignore the problem." Right? We just might be looking at different ways to handle it. The coordinator is going to conduct an investigation and there's which is supposed to be completed within 15 business days. The thing to be aware of with all of these timelines is of course as administrators you absolutely do want to meet them, but there are also times usually in the policies where they will recognize that perhaps something's going to take a little bit longer. If you end up with some mass investigation that has 30 witnesses involved, it's going to be
019very difficult to get that done within 15 uh business days. Um, so you know there are some exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, this is so that staff members have an expectation of when should I be hearing back about the issue that I raised. If the complainant is not satisfied, there is an appeal process. And this is also a theme you'll see throughout all of the policies is there is the ability to sort of challenge that initial initial decision if folks aren't happy with it. uh for this policy that goes to the superintendent and then the superintendent is supposed to have 10 days to make her decision about okay do I agree with what the complaint coordinator decided or is there some different outcome that I think is appropriate. So that's kind of the
020quick rundown of non-discrimination. I went through that a little faster because I don't get as many discrimination complaints as I do harassment complaints. Harassment is really the main to type of complaint that I see come across my desk at least. And harassment is also one of those words that I I compare to bullying by parents sometimes. So parents will say that everything is bullying. My kid has been bullied, right? We hear that all the time. But when you look at the definition of bullying, you say it's not really that's not really bullying. You know, bullying is supposed to be multiple instances, happens more than once. This was a one-time thing or maybe it was something that yeah, it shouldn't have happened, but it's not really serious enough to rise to the level of bullying. The
021same issue exists with harassment. Harassment is something that adults often use and say, "Hey, I've been harassed." And there is an actual meaning for the word. It's not just, "Hey, I'm not happy about this or I don't like somebody or we're not getting along." That's not necessarily harassment. There is a definition. So, we're going to talk about that. And I raise I bring that to your attention because sometimes people and I don't know if it's true in Akran, but I've had other experiences where people get frustrated because they feel like I made this harassment complaint and it's not being dealt with the way that I thought that it would be. And the issue is not the school district isn't dealing with it. It's that it's not really a harassment complaint. And if it's not a
022harassment complaint, that again doesn't mean you don't you ignore it. It just means that's something that's for the supervisor, right? The supervisor is the one who should be dealing with that. >> We actually have this a lot too with the term hostile work environment. >> Generally has a definition, but I think anytime someone feels like they're just not getting along with someone or, >> you know, there's a little extra work, it's hostile work environment. So, it's kind of the same. >> Yeah. which is something we joke about at work like my my you know I had a rough day today was definitely a hostile work environment it's not protected under the law right just because I was stressed it's not you know it's there's no complaint to be filed it has to rise to a
023certain level so part of my goal here is help people understand that because I think it avoids frustration and miscommunication on on everybody's part to all be on the same page about hey what is it that is a supervisor it's an issue between employees or someone unhappy about something versus something that truly is potentially harassment we have to be dealing live in a different way. >> Yeah. And and just to add on to um if if there are complaints that come up and they don't constitute whether it's harassment or hostile work environment in our eyes, it doesn't mean that we're not going to help you out and look into it >> because we want the same thing. We don't want a battling of personalities. We want people to get along well and work well together
024towards the mission. So, we're always going to kind of help facilitate that through. It may be more of a conversation directed to the supervisor. Um but if it's not appropriate and the supervisor may be the issue then we would get more involved with that. So >> all right so let's talk about harassment. So the board has a policy prohibiting harassment. Right? This is not something that should be happening in the school district or in any workplace for that matter. But uh the board does say that hey we're going to look into it and in situations where it's substantiated. We're going to take steps to deal with it. So that is part of the board policy. This is something we're going to take seriously. It's something we're going to look into and make sure uh is
025ended if we do find that it's something that is happening. What does that mean? So, there's going to be immediate steps potentially to take disciplinary action against someone who is found to have engaged in harassment, right? So, it's it is considered to be a serious thing. There also some other parts of the policy to be aware of. There is a prohibition against brutality against someone who is making a report of harassment or who has participated in investigation. And you'll hear me talking about that a lot as well because one of the concerns that people sometimes have with either coming forward or even participating as a witness in investigation is well is there going to be a negative impact on me because I participated. There's a prohibition against retaliation. So that means as people who are
026working with those that person we can't have negative consequences for them and they have an expectation that there shouldn't be adverse consequences for the fact that they were part of one of these types of complaints. There's also prohibition against maliciously filing or knowingly filing a false report. So this is really protection against the idea of hey look, someone knowingly files something about somebody that is just completely false and they know it's false when they file it. It's different than filing something that is determined not to be harassment but we had reason to believe made had good faith belief there were actual factual things that had happened where we felt like we were harassed and we made that report in good faith. What I'm talking about is we knowingly make a report that is just absolutely
027fabricated. Uh this isn't something I see a lot, but I have had it happen. I had a case um years ago with a teacher who was mad at some colleagues who had been involved in a disciplinary action against him. And lo and behold, he filed a complaint alleging they had uh that they had cheated together on state tests, that there was kind of this conspiracy on some state tests and reported to DEW. It was a really serious situation because these state tests take place on computers. We were able to prove pretty quickly that it was not not even possible what he had alleged they had engaged in. Right? He had no firsthand knowledge. This was sort of speculation. I believe that this is what they should have enga that what they did. That's knowingly filing
028a false report, right? That you did not actually observe anything. There's no way that this could have happened. You were mad at somebody because they were involved in something. That's not protected. that's not not what I'm talking about in terms of retaliation, right? So, there is an obligation to make sure we're engaging in good faith when we are a part of these processes. And then finally, um the board will also take steps to make sure that we're not delaying or failing to investigate things. So, the policy does put, you know, it's incumbent upon administrators, on the HR department, on those involved that when something is brought to our attention to make sure that we are dealing with it and that we're being responsive. So, let's talk about sexual harassment under Title 7. Basically, to make
029things as confusing as possible, there's two different definitions of sexual harassment depending on which law you're looking at. There's sexual harassment under title 7. There's also sexual harassment under title 9, and they have two slightly different definitions. The definition under sexual under sexual under title 7 is broader than that under title 9. So, for the most part, in talking to Mr. Canfield, it's my understanding that the district will generally follow this process that we're going to talk about over the title 9 process because this one offers more protections. That being said, I am going to share the title nine process with you today because it is one that exists and as part of this training, it's important that you're aware of all of the policies and the things that exist uh for the school district
030both to follow and to be aware of in terms of your own rights. But for them, but probably this is the one that should you end up in this situation, the district would look at following. So sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal conduct of a sexual nature when and there's a few different categories that this might fall into. Submission is made uh either implicitly or explicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment. So the idea of hey you have to engage in this in order to maintain your employment. There's going to be repercussions for you if you don't engage in that conduct. Submission is used as the basis for making decisions about that person, right? Okay, you you engage in this, so you're going to
031get that promotion, that day off, there's going to be something positive for you. Or on the flip side, you refuse to engage in it, so therefore there's going to be something negative that happens to you. I don't get a lot of those types of complaints. The one that I get the most often is this last one, which is the conduct has the purpose of interfering with the individ individual's work or educational performance, creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working and or learning environment, or of interfering with one's ability to participate in or benefit from the educational program or activity. So that's the idea that whatever is happening is significant enough that it is interfering with as employees our ability to do our job. Right? if this is bad enough that it really is impacting my
032experience at work and my ability to do the job. So what that means is there are things that happen that shouldn't happen that are unprofessional that you know are not okay but they don't really rise to that level. Those are the types of things that hey if I got the complaint say this isn't really sexual harassment it still needs to be dealt with. You still need to look into it and that person needs to be dealt with appropriately depending on what's happening. It can't continue but we're not going to say it rise to this level of sexual harassment. and it has to reach a certain degree of severity as as strange as that sounds for it to actually qualify as sexual harassment as defined by the law. So, what are some of those things? The
033the types of things this is where I go through the list of things that you would think people would know not to do. Uh but nonetheless, people sometimes engage in these things. Unwelcome sexual propositions, invitations, solicitations, and flirtations. I have had those types of cases before. What it usually looks like, I'll give you an example, is someone is interested in having a romantic relationship with someone. They broach that person with, hey, you know, invitation to go out, whatever it might be. It's not wellreceived, but instead of saying, okay, you know, I understand and moving on, they don't let it go, and they continue to persist in wanting that person to engage in a relationship with them. That can become sexual harassment, right? Someone says no, no means no. It's that that kind of philosophy. And
034the case that I had where where this happened was it was a teacher and there was a male employee who asked her out. However he did that, she said no thank you. He kept texting her. He wouldn't let it go. And when that didn't work, he started visiting her classroom, you know, outside of work hours or she's working late and no one else is necessarily in the building near her, following her out to her car and she started to feel really not comfortable with the situation. Um, so those types of things can rise level of sexual harassment. So being respectful basically of other people's boundaries and hey if they're not okay with something then that should be the end of it. Physical assault obviously right you know that's certainly going to be sexual harassment. Any
035threats or insinuations that other you know that any condition of employee uh any condition of employment is going to be impacted by whether or not someone engages in that romantic activity. I don't get a lot of those types of cases but what I do get is the unwelcome verbal expressions of a sexual nature. So there we're talking about jokes and comments about the way that someone looks, right? So people making comments that sometimes they think are flattering about someone's body or someone's clothing. Well, you know, it's really inappropriate in the workplace and that person might be made uncomfortable by it. And even if they aren't, the people around you who are hearing might be made uncomfortable by it. So it's really, you know, professional comments. This is this is the no fun presentation is what
036I what I give here. Um, but really being mindful of, you know what, be a professional in the workplace. There's really no reason to comment on the way people look. Now, certainly you might say, "Hey, you look nice today." You know, that's that's not necessarily going to be sexual harassment. But I will say I have had cases where women come forward and say, "They're always commenting the way I look. They're always touching me. They're there's sort of this litany of things that all start to add up to say they're paying a lot of attention to this one particular person, and other people are not being treated in that same way." Does that start to look like sexual harassment? If one person is getting commentary on how they appear, well, they start to feel like, hey,
037someone's really paying a lot of attention to me and my physical appearance. I don't see that happening with everybody else. Um, so being mindful of those things can really avoid a lot of trouble for everybody involved. Sexually suggestive pictures, objects, videos, and recordings. I also do see this come up. Uh, where does this come up? People showing pictures of things, right, that they shouldn't be. Uh maybe it might not be pornography, but it might be something provocative. There's really no reason to be sharing those types of pictures in the workplace. Uh even videos. I had a case with someone who was watching WWE videos uh involving women who were scantily clad engaging in wrestling moves and there was commentary about that, right? Shouldn't be happening in school. So, you know, anything that really is crossing
038the lines or even questionable. I said just keep it to yourself can happen outside of work with your friends shouldn't be happening in the workplace. unwelcome and inappropriate touching, patting or pinching and obscene gestures. Also get this one as well. Uh the version of this one I get is usually people who are in in getting in other people's physical space too much. Um sometimes it is truly inappropriate touching of body parts, but often it is someone is physically very in my space hugging me a lot, touching me a lot and I'm not comfortable with that and I don't like that. And what we sometimes run into is people don't always express very well to the person who's engaging in this conduct that they don't like it. Um so it is one of those I think
039difficult things sometimes for the purpose who the person who's alleged to have engaged in the sexual harassment that well I didn't necessarily understand that that person didn't like that. I thought we both liked it but you know that's not necessarily the case. So you know being mindful of how we're physically interacting with people and whether it's something that they are truly comfortable with. And then finally, any other pattern of conduct. So, I mentioned that sometimes I get those cases where it's not just one thing. It's a variety of things. It's comments on my appearance. It's, you know, being in my space and physically touching me. It's maybe asking questions about my romantic relationships. Maybe it's, you know, saying they'd be interested in dating me. You know, kind of this sequence of things that start to
040add up to create a picture of potentially sexual harassment. So it can also be that combination of all of the above in some version. >> So those are those are great examples um that happen a lot and I know in in my time in HR I've I've seen a lot of that. >> Um does anybody have any questions as it pertains to those examples or anything? >> Okay, we'll move on. >> All right, so the last two are um comments speculating about someone's sexual activities or sexual history. Again, this is something that I do see where people are inquiring about people's romantic relationships, what's going on with them, or they're having those conversations. Maybe they're conversations that both people are happy to engage in, but it's happening in a space with other employees who are
041made uncomfortable with perhaps the level of detail that they're going into about their activities outside of work, right? That can become a problem. And then the final one, of course, is any sort of consensual sexual relationship where that's starting to impact things in the workplace leading to favoritism and all of that. I don't see that as much as some of the other ones on the list. So I mentioned that not all behavior is going to constitute sexual harassment. It does need to be s sufficiently severe, pervasive, and pers persistent that it's impacting our employ, you know, what's happening at work, right? So just someone making one comment or someone hugging us once that maybe we didn't love, that's not going to rise to that level. It's when this really is kind of a persistent ongoing
042issue with people which is why I say it's important to address these things earlier ideally either with that person saying hey you know that's not really okay with me or with the supervisor so ideally it is addressed earlier with that person it can stop before it reaches that point where hey this has been something that's been going on for a long time and now we're looking at sexual harassment and whether that's something that has been happening. Any questions about sexual harassment before we talk about race color harassment? What you're going to see is really that all of the types of harassment are related to a protected class. So, usually legally speaking, harassment means you're being targeted or subject to it based on one of those protected characteristics. There's other ways that people can be not
043okay in the workplace and that's just not going to fall underneath harassment. It might be unprofessional conduct. It might be disrespectful. It might meet the definition of threatening behavior, for example, which is another policy or the staff conduct policy that Mr. Canfield referenced at the beginning doesn't mean it's okay. It just means we won't be following this process when the district looks into it and deals with it. Brace color harassment is the same thing, right? It's prohibited. It uh exists again when it rises to level of creating an intimidative, hostile, or uh offensive working environment or interfering with someone's ability to do their job. So, it does need to meet a certain level. The types of things that are examples of, you know, what might this look like are anything that's directed at the characteristics
044of someone based on their race, racial slurs, nicknames, stereotypes, um, or any other negative references. And one of the the types of complaints that I get are certainly sometimes we have that just straight up, right? Someone's doing that, they shouldn't be, and that's a problem. I also sometimes get the defense from someone, well, I was joking, right? I hear a lot of I was joking in response to a lot of these allegations. And the problem with that is that just because you thought it was funny didn't mean that it was acceptable. And the other issue that we run into is sometimes people laugh at things that they actually don't think are okay. Right? Sometimes people are just uncomfortable in the situation and they might be going along with it. When in fact they're not happy
045and you can still get that complaint and say, "Hey, look, this has been going on." And sometimes the person says, "Well, they were laughing. I thought it was okay." It might not be. Uh so generally let's just not do it is is my rule of thumb. Same thing with religious harassment. I see fewer of these complaints than sexual harassment and racial harassment. Those are probably the top two types of complaints that I see. Um, but the religious harassment, the criteria is the same in terms of, hey, it has to reach that level where it's an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment that impacts our ability to do our jobs. Uh this again is similar I think to racial harassment in that you when you're looking at any characteristics of someone's clothing, their traditions, um religious
046slurs, of course, those are all the sorts of things that could constitute religious harassment. National origin harassment, same standard. In terms of what we're talking about there, it's a little bit different because we're really looking at customs, manners of speaking, language. I'll tell you, making fun of people's names is one of the ones that I see people run into. You know, someone might have a name that is consistent with their national origin and it might be something that people aren't used to. Making fun of it, refusing to say it correctly, coming up with some other version of it. Those are all things that can eventually amount to national origin harassment if it's sort of ongoing intentional behavior that someone might think is funny but really is very disrespectful to the person involved. Disability harassment, which
047we haven't mentioned yet. Um, again, disability is a protected class. So that type of type of harassment often is negative comments about someone's whether they how they walk, how they talk, you know, different things about them that might really be the result of a disability for criticizing them for saying negative things about them. That can um that can rise to the level of harassment. Mimicking them is something that we've sometimes seen. And then this is another one where sometimes people say, "Oh, I was joking. I thought we all thought that it was funny." And the person involved actually may not have thought that it was so funny. So once again, Mr. Canfield, you'll hear his name again. He is the complaint coordinator for harassment complaints as well. So, he will be responsible for initiating that
048complaint, for overseeing the process should it rise to that level. Confidentiality is one of the things that comes up all the time with any type of complaint. People want to know, can I participate in this process confidential confidentially? Whether it's as a complainant that no one will know that I'm the one who came forward or whether it's as a witness, can I tell you what I saw or what what's been going on without anybody knowing that I was involved? I know the district is looking into, hey, is there a way that we can facilitate this? Is there a way that we can help people come forward with things anonymous anonymously or in some confidential way? because the goal really is to address issues and it's difficult to address issues that you don't know about or
049that people aren't going to come forward and share. The problem that you run into with confidentiality is that as public school districts, you're subject to a lot of laws that require the disclosure of information. So, public records laws, for example, you're required to disclose anything that's a public record. And there are specific exceptions for things that are not public records. I will tell you right now that promising confidentiality as part of investigation is not one of those exceptions. There's also furpa right that deals with students. So parents have the right to educational records related to their students. So if anything involves students, we can't promise confidentiality because the parent has the right to that record. On top of that, what you will also see through this process is there are various points of time which
050during which the parties have the right to know certain things. So, we can't necessarily promise confidentiality when part of the process is that the person who's alleged to engaged in the conduct is supposed to know who who is the alleged victim. The idea being how can this person respond to the allegations if he or she doesn't know who you allegedly were harassing or discriminating against or whatever it might be. Um, so I just flagged that for you as I know it's something the district is looking into, but I I and and hopefully they can find some things that might work, but there's inevitably going to be limits to it based on the various laws that the school district has to follow. Um, so I usually will not promise confidentiality to anybody because I worry that
051there might be a situation where, hey, look, someone asked for a document that was part of this investigation, they have the right to that information. or at some point in this investigation, is the other party entitled to know some of this information so that they can respond to it and defend themselves? Any questions about that? All right. All right. So, once again, there is an informal process and a formal process as part of the harassment regulations. The informal complaints once again are going to go to the complaint coordinator. The informal process can really look like a variety of things just like all the other ones. Um, it can be as simple as, hey, after this wonderful presentation, everyone's behaving perfectly at work, but things start to deteriorate over time and maybe we need to remind
052everybody of what our expectations are. Right? Sometimes that that's enough. Send out the email, send out the memo, have a meeting with a group and say, "Hey, I've been hearing some things that we need to knock it off." The other thing that can happen is maybe something more specific. So, the example I gave you of the case I had with the teacher where there was the persistent male employee, it was the teacher said, "I'm not I'm not really interested in getting this person in trouble. I don't want him disciplined. I just want him to stop. And so a sit down with an administrator who said, "Hey, this has come to our attention. You need to cut it out was enough to put an end to it." So sometimes the informal process works very well for
053people if that's really all they're looking for. The Oh, before I move on, the complaint coordinator is supposed to try to resolve any informal complaints within 2 weeks. Um the idea there being that there should be some you know timeliness to this so that hopefully you can reach a resolution or if not move into the formal process if that's what the complainant wants to do. So from a staff perspective that's the expectation is is about two weeks to kind of have that process work it out see if there's some agreement then can be reached. So the formal process is where we file that formal complaint and the complaint coordinator is then supposed to inform the respondent who is the person who's alleged to have engaged in the conduct of the complaint and that person has
054the right to file a written response. Right? So they do have the right to know what is it that I allegedly have done so that they can respond to it within two business days. We're going to start that investigation and that is supposed to be completed within 14 calendar days. So about 2 weeks. Again, that's going to depend on the scope of the investigation. A huge investigation is probably going to take more than two weeks, but your standard sort of situation, hopefully the district can get to the bottom of it within about two weeks. There are a variety of things that the school district is going to consider when deciding whether or not a violation actually has occurred. The first is the nature of the behavior, right? So there's different levels of bad behavior, right?
055So some things are kind of bad, some things are really bad. So, where are we on sort of that level of how bad is this behavior? How often this has occurred? And again, that one-time thing is going to be looked at very differently than someone who has been doing something every day for two years, right? So, you know, how what are we talking about in terms of frequency? Whether there are past incidents, is this someone who this is the first time that they have done something like this or is this someone where hey, you know what, last year, two years ago, we had a similar conversation with this person and they're continuing to engage in this type of conduct. Well, now that's a more serious situation than someone who perhaps didn't understand that they were
056crossing some boundaries with folks. The relation uh the relationship between the parties, you know, was there a reason why this person believed that the other person would be receptive to what was happening versus no, we're just work colleagues. We have no other relationship here. I don't know why they were talking to me in this way. And then uh whether any of those protected classes apply, right? because all of the definitions of harassment are really related to a protected class. Does that person fall within one of those protected classes that they would then be protected by those policies or is this really a different type of situation that still should be dealt with but isn't really a harassment as defined by the law type situation. We're also going to look at things like the number of
057alleged harassers. So, we do have sometimes people who are an equal opportunity offender where it's not just one person where there's, you know, treatment towards a variety of people. Um, I had a situation where it was an administrator and all the bus drivers, right, were being subjected to certain types of conduct which the district didn't know about until they started asking questions and it was like, "Oh, it happened to you. It happened to you. It happened to you." That's going to again be different than opposed as than a one-off with one person only happened once or twice. the age of the harassers. When I do this presentation where we're talking about students as well, anytime a student is going is involved, we're automatically kind of at a higher level of taking it seriously and wanting
058to make sure that there are no issues with how a student is being treated at school where the harassment occurred. You know, was this at school? Was this during the workday? That's something that the school district has control over. Sometimes things happen outside of the workday that folks report to the district and want us to deal with, but it's not really something that's under the control of the district. and then whether there have been other incidents in the school building or in that particular group of people um involving the same or other individuals. And that sometimes can be more of a cultural problem, right? Okay, maybe this person wasn't involved in that last incident, but it was the same building or the same kind of group of people where something else was going on. Maybe
059there's something that we need to be dealing with in this particular cohort that we might have a little bit of a cultural is issue with those folks and how they're engaging with each other in the workplace. And then finally we get into whether there was an adverse effect on the person's uh work. You know, are you able to come to work and do your job? Is there some reason why this rises to a level where it really is causing a problem in the workplace? And we also take into account things like first amendment rights, which I'll just touch on briefly. Obviously, everyone has the right to first amendment rights. You have the right to free speech. And sometimes we don't agree with people's viewpoints. So, we do take that into account, right? I do occasionally
060get someone who comes forward and is really upset about something. I have to say, "Hey, look. I understand that you disagree with that person, but they didn't violate any rule or law with what they said. They just said something that you don't like." Now, there are times when people are expressing their thoughts in ways that are unprofessional, disrespectful, right? None of that is protected just because we have free speech rights, right? You know, you have to be expressing yourself in a certain way and it has to be a workplace appropriate conversation. But, you know, there are those times when people are saying things I say, "Look, that's really just not something that we can deal with, right? You I understand that you don't like it, but you need to just disengage that conversation. We just
061don't engage in it if that's something that you don't appreciate." All right. So, at the conclusion of the investigation under the under the harassment policy, there is a report that is required to go to the superintendent. So, this is an example where we're creating a public record as part of this process. The superintendent is the one who ultimately ends up issuing the decision and provides a copy of that report both to the complainant and to the respondant who is the alleged wrongdoer. So both people get the same information at the end of the process. As with the other policies, there is the ability to appeal that decision to the board and the board will make that final determination about, you know, whether to affirm or change the superintendent's decision. Any questions about that? No. All
062right. So, I'm briefly going to talk about Title 9. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because Title 7, which we spent more time on, is the one that the district mostly will follow. Title 9 has very similar definitions. It's the quidd proquo where there's that kind of exchange, you know, hey, you engage in this and then you'll get that. That's sexual harassment. There's again that unwelcome conduct that is sufficiently severe, pervasive, or and objectively offensive that it impacts your ability to do your job. Very similar to Title 7, but it's a little bit more restrictive if you really look at those ter those words. And then the last one are certain criminal conduct, right? If there's a sexual assault, if there's dating violence, if there's a domestic violence or stalking,
063those are all going to be sexual harassment. The Title N process uh goes through Dr. Wanda Lash. So, Mr. Canfield's off the hook for this one. You go to Dr. Lash. If there's a title, >> not exactly. Okay, never mind. There's it's kind of a parallel run. Anytime it's involving a student, um the title N coordinator is Dr. lash and then uh HR will handle the administrative investigation alongside it and then she'll abide by the the rules of Title 9. >> All right, never mind. You're not off the hook. Uh but Dr. Lash to help. Uh so sexual harassment under Title 9, there's something called supportive measures that are supposed to be offered, which basically is okay, while we're going through this process. Are there things we need to put in place to make sure
064there aren't further incidences while we're trying to get to the bottom of what happens? The sexual harassment process under Title 9, that investigation is longer than under Title 7. The district is supposed to try and get it done within 60 days. It's two months for, you know, those of us who can do math that high, which that's about as high as I go. Um, but that's a long time, right? Two months is a long time as compared to a lot of the other things that happen in the district. There is also an informal resolution process, very similar to what we've talked about under the other policies, and then the option of doing that formal complaint. Now, you don't have to do the informal and then go to the formal complaint. You can go straight to
065the formal complaint. If it's serious enough that you feel like, I don't want to talk to this person about this, right? I just want to go straight to the investigation. That's something that you're allowed to do under any of the policies. The formal complaint says, "Hey, look, this is going to be a full investigation. We're going to we're going to have witnesses. We're allowed to have people help us with the process. Uh, and there's going to be an a disclosure of evidence part of this." Again, getting back to the idea of confidentiality. So the title N process is unique and that both parties get to review the evidence that the investigator has collected and submit a a response in writing. Hey, this is my view of the evidence. Here's how I feel that either proves
066or disproves the allegations that have been brought forth. And then ultimately there is an investigative report. Now that's not the end of it because that's why this process goes on for so long. There's then the opportunity for the parties to ask questions of each other in writing and then finally there's a decision maker who issues a final determination. Parties then have the ability to appeal just like under the other policies and uh there's kind of a back and forth about hey here's why we think that an original decision was correct or incorrect and then ultimately a final decision on appeal is made. That was a very quick overview of title 9. The really the takeaway is hey there's two different forms of sexual harassment. Hopefully no one ever ends up in that situation, but if
067you do, there's two different types of complaints you potentially can file. There's some differences between the definitions. So there are things that could be sexual harassment under title 7 that might not meet the definition under title 9 because it's a little bit of a higher bar and there's a different process that's followed depending on if you're investigating uh depending on which process we're following. So really that's something to kind of have a conversation probably with HR or with a union rep if you're a union person about you know what what do I want to do? How do I want to address this should there be something that you feel like you need to report. There also is a board policy related to threatening behavior and the board does say hey this is an environment that
068everyone should be free of threatening behavior. No one should be subjected to that in the workplace. Threatening behavior consists of words or deeds that intimidate a staff member or cause anxiety concerning physical well-being. And that's strictly forbidden. There is not a unlike the other ones, there's not a specific process for investigating. This is just the sort of thing that you report and say, "Hey, there's something threatening going on at work. That's not something that should be happening in the workplace, and it's something that needs to be dealt with." And the board policy specifically says that they're not going to tolerate it. Whistleblower protection. So, one of the concerns people sometimes have is, hey, look, you know, if I come forward and I'm am I protected or sometimes people think that they have whistleblower protection when
069in fact they don't. I had a family member who I had to disabuse her of the idea that she was protected forever and ever because she had one time filed a complaint. She filed a complaint. She basically told me, "Well, now I've, you know, I'm I've got tenure essentially for the job. It wasn't teaching job. No one no one can touch me." And I say, "Well, that's not really true, right? When we're talking about things like retaliation, whistleblower protection, we're meaning you can't be disciplined. There can't be adverse consequences because you filed the complaint. But if you engage in other types of misconduct, right? That can still be addressed if you steal from your job. Doesn't matter that you filed a complaint about something else, you're not allowed to steal, right? You know, so there's
070there are this is not an umbrella that means there's no nothing negative that can ever happen to somebody, but they are protected from the idea that there's going to be something bad that happens because you filed the complaint. So whistle, what does whistleblower protection include? There's different types of reports that can be made, right? You can report something that you think is happening by the district. you can report something that you think an employee is engaging in or there's just other violations that you might be aware of. The district's board policy specifically says that board policy and administrative guidelines are covered by their whistleblower policy. So, if anyone reports something that's a violation and the board has the authority to correct it and the employee reasonably believes that the violation is a criminal offense that
071is likely to cause imminent harm, right? So this whistleblower protection really applies to offenses that rise to a certain level. It's not just kind of every single violation of a board policy. Minor things, hey look, someone didn't meet this particular deadline by two days or there was some other minor violation. You don't get whistleblower protection just for that. It's a violation that rises to a certain level. Then that whistleblower protection will will uh start to attach. that report is supposed to go to the employees immediate supervisor and then there's an opportunity to work it up the chain if the supervisor is not responsive. And this is, you know, the idea of, hey, look, the supervisor is really the person who should be addressing most things to begin with. And I think a really good point
072that Mr. Canfield made this morning is the idea of this is also a way for supervisors to to develop trust with their employees, right? For the employees to have trust the supervisor, the supervisor to show the employees, hey, look, I'm going to handle things. I'm going to take it seriously. I'm going to be responsive to the things that you are telling me are happening and get to the bottom of problems if they exist. If the supervisor doesn't address the violation, it can go up to the superintendent and then ultimately uh to the board president or district's legal counsel depending on the situation. Also, if the district doesn't deal with it at that point, the employee has the right to go to an outside agency. So the example that I gave you of the employee who
073made the con the allegation the false allegation report of violations of testing protocols he went straight to DEW with that and did not do any of the internal reporting and so he tried to claim whistleblower protection said well no right you didn't follow the process you're supposed to let the district try and fix things before you go to that outside agency about it if the district does not correct the violation then there's a variety of people under the policy that employees can go to they certainly they can refer to that if you know that comes up which hopefully it won't. There is a similar process for reporting violations by other employees. Again, the the violations need to reach a certain level of severity. It's not just anyone, hey, they showed up for work today uh
074and you weren't on time. Well, that's not whistleblower protection, right? That's maybe a violation of a policy, but it's not a crime. It's not a safety risk. It doesn't reach that level of, hey, this is something really serious that the district needs to deal with immediately. Maybe it's something that they should address, but it's not a a you know time critical issue. Same process there in terms of going to the supervisor and then it can go up to the superintendent and potentially the um board president or district legal legal counsel and then um same thing in sure in terms of there is supposed to be sort of a written report from the employee about hey here is what I saw and that's something the supervisor would ask for say okay put it in writing to
075me what it is that you're reporting to make sure we have that information correct. An important part of all these protections is this idea of making sure that what we're reporting is accurate and that we've made a good faith effort to get to collect our information and to make sure that we're reporting things that um are true right to the to the extent that we're able to get that information. So in order for anyone to have whistleblower protection they have to have made a good faith effort to determine the accuracy of what they are reporting. So again, that example I gave you of the person who reported those uh supposed testing protocol violations, he clearly had not made a good faith effort to determine the accuracy of what he was reporting because if he had,
076he would have discovered that what he was reporting could not possibly have happened. So as a result, there's no whistleblower protection and you can say, "Hey, look, that was a false report." So making sure that yes, of course we want to come forward, we want to resolve things, but also making sure that we're reporting things that we have a good faith belief about that aren't kind of rumors or speculation or or those sorts of things that you know really at the end of the day when you look into it say hey wait a minute you know there's really no basis for anyone to think that this happened. The final item in our last couple of minutes is retaliation which I've sort of alluded to uh throughout and retaliation is prohibited under multiple board policies. So
077the first is that non-discrimination policy that I talked about at the beginning. So that uh prohibits any kind of um retaliation and notes that that's a prohibition under federal law. So there is federal pro protection for retaliation for anyone who reports discrimination. Similarly, the whistleblower protection also has that prohibition against retaliation provided the person made that good faith effort to deter to determine the reasonleness and accuracy of their allegations before they made that report. And then the whistleblower protection also goes on a little further to talk about what constitutes retaliation because sometimes people feel like they've been retaliated against and it's not really something that legally speaking constitutes retaliation. So, you know, if someone makes a report, let's say someone makes a report against me and uh maybe it's found hopefully that I didn't engage
078in the conduct and we're all continue to work together, I don't have to be best friends with that person, right? You made a report against me. You know, I I need to be civil to you. I need to be professional to you. But if our relationship is different after we made the report, well, that's just kind of a consequence of the fact that you said something about me that I don't appreciate and maybe I don't want to have lunch with you anymore when we used to have lunch before. That's not retaliation. That's just relationships in the workplace. Retaliation is are things like terminating or suspending an employee, right? That's pretty serious discipline. Um, anything that impacts someone's pay, right? We're not we're not giving you your raise that you were supposed to get. Transferring or
079reassigning the employee, you have a less favorable position than you did before. denying the employee a promotion. I'm qualified for this. I should have been the one to get a job, but because I made this report, it's going to somebody else or otherwise reducing the employees pay or position. You used to be, you know, the principal and now I'm reducing you down to a lesser position because you made this report, right? That's retaliation. So, retaliation is conduct that rises to a certain level in terms of there being an employment impact on you. um beyond just hey maybe someone and I aren't getting along as well as be before perhaps that report was made. All right, that brings us to the end. I wanted to leave a few minutes for questions for anyone who might have
080them. >> So I have questions. >> All right, >> I have a question about the um reassignment that you just mentioned. So if no boss is going to say, "Yeah, I reassigned you because you complained." They're not going to say that. they're going to say, "We downsized. We're revamping the district." And so, you know, >> how do you how can you go about, you know, showing that this was not just something that was already going to happen >> when you sort of feel like like these are based on feelings almost all the time anyway. So, how can I say, hey, >> I have proof, if you will, that my boss reassigned me as a result of the complaint. All right. So, the way that looks is it's something called I'm going to get a little
081legal ease here. It's something called burden shifting. Right? So, you come forward and you say, "Hey, I made this complaint and then shortly after that, I was reassigned to this other position that I feel is less favorable." On paper, that looks like, all right, that looks like it's probably retaliation, right? So, then the burden shifts to the employer. And this isn't just schools, this is any type of employment situation. Shift the burden shifts to the employer to explain why that wasn't retaliation. Well, yes, that complaint was made, but a year ago, we came up with this plan, and here was what we were going to do. So, we were implementing a plan that predated that report, for example. Well, then it's not retaliation. But then the burden shifts back to the employee says, "Well, wait
082a minute. I wasn't on that list a year ago. Someone else's name was on that list. So, actually, it was retaliation." So, there's a bit of a back and forth that goes on between the sides. And ultimately, it's up for a a court or a hearing officer, somebody else to decide who they believe at the end of the day. But it's different sides presenting that evidence of yes, it appears to be retaliation. No, it isn't. Here's how we can prove it. Well, wait a minute. I have that trump card that says yes, it is. >> And we attempt to, you know, do our due diligence during this time, the initial piece to avoid getting to the spot of of that burden shifting because that's far down the line. >> So, we try to make it
083as objective opinion as we can with all the evidence that's there. Um, and then obviously if if someone's making the allegations, keep them informed as to when we're doing that and attempting to fix it. Yeah. Other questions that you guys have? >> Very, >> I think I might have two questions. One is how do you address um the duties as assigned? Um formerly before I came to APS, I was a long-term supervisor at Sterling. Anytime you had additional assignments, there was a conversation and there was financial compensation. As you know, um a lot of you know, I took over. I was given I was not asked the badges and the background checks. >> I had three days of training. >> That's it. >> For the district. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. In in terms of
084So, it depends on your job description. A lot of job descriptions do have that language other duties as assigned which does enable you know the employer to add other duties. >> It's a job description. It's not a duty. Mhm. That's the way a lot of jobs are are listed, right, where hey, you're able to assign additional jobs. So, it's something employers are permitted to do. >> So, when I sit and watch other people get big raises who do not have degrees, I have to conduct myself as the adult I am. >> I don't want to say it's not fair. >> Yeah. >> And then we have a training on it's not a hostile work environment. Mhm. >> When I have other supervisors from other places at in this building >> coming and asking me questions
085>> because of a confidentiality, I said I can't answer that. >> I was asked to do this job, so I'm doing it. >> It just don't look good for the district. >> So, as we're making some positive changes since Mr. Canfield in his short time he's been here, >> he's a good fit for us. He's a very good fit. >> An extremely good fit. I remember the first I have to say this. I remember the first day when he came for his interview. I knew they were going to hire him just the way he conducted himself. >> So our district has to give him a chance over these 12 months to put some things in place cuz this training when I was at Sterling, you did not hit the floor >> for two weeks until
086you hit training. >> And we're so thirsty to get people in positions. We're not equipping them on our vision for APS. >> So these type of things are needed. That's really good feedback. Thank you. I'm sure Mr. Canfield appreciates that. >> I do appreciate I appreciate the 12 months grace there, Bene. I don't feel like I'm getting that. >> No, I mean all serious concerns. Um, you know, that's something that, you know, we can we can take offline and talk to more, but that's also, um, some conversations that we had during negotiations with your union, um, is about job analysis really and taking a look at what constitute those duties, what fit, what doesn't fit. Um, you know, obviously should have more than three days of training. So, we'll try not to make that mistake
087moving forward. Um, so yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Okay, this is my last question. So, I want to know um what if my boss is the problem. >> Do I and that's not my situation, but I my question is um you said that people can file formal complaints directly to you. Is that only for discrimination? One, and then two, in that situation, am I protected by whistleblower since whistleblower dictates I'm supposed to let my supervisor know? So, generally speaking, yes, you can. And and that's kind something I kind of glazed over when we were going over the whistleblower. But if you look at the actual policy, it says, "Hey, if this person is the problem, you can go to this other person." Because it doesn't make any sense to say, "Hey, supervisor, will you please
088investigate your own misconduct?" And say, "Oh, yes, you're right. I absolutely have been engaging in that." Right? So, generally speaking, there is. And and even when I'm advising school districts, you know, if the superintendent's the problem, for example, I'm saying, "Well, they're not investigating this, right? We're taking them out of that position. We're putting somebody else in." Um, same thing with the HR director or any other supervisor, right? If someone has a conflict where there's a reason why they shouldn't be part of it, then obviously it doesn't make any sense for them to be involved. >> Yeah. General chain of command principles apply there. If the supervisor is the person, then you'd go to the person above them. Um, I generally keep an open door to any of that. Um, if you want to avoid
089that piece of it, again, I think that there's some parameters around what constitutes something you can whistleblow on. But either way, it's still something that again, it's the bigger picture here. We're more concerned with the workplace and how we're getting along with each other. So, you know, if it's something to be addressed and your supervisors refusing to address that or change their behavior and they are violating policy, which is often a big piece, right? So, one of the things with supervisors, um, you know, not everybody loves their boss. Um, and sometimes it's a personality conflict and you really have to figure out is this person violating policy in their managerial style. Um, and sometimes, you know, they're not the greatest people in the world. I do believe that that our supervisors and managers need to
090go through professional development on a lot of different areas just from my assessment in the first four months that I've been here. So, um, that's going to be forthcoming cuz this this, like I said, this is a continued conversation. It's not just about these laws. Um, it's about how we conduct ourselves. This is the first phase of putting everyone on notice in terms of these are the elements that you have and everybody has access to these and the board policies and the administrative guidelines, but we're going to do a much better job of onboarding to Rene's point of when someone comes in um and you know, do they have the right uh toolkit, you know, to be a manager or to be an employee with APS. >> Well, thank you all. I appreciate you all
091seeing the 502. Uh, and uh, you know, good luck and thanks for sticking around today. >> Thank you all. Great questions. Thank you.