CODE OF CONDUCT

INTRODUCTION

RIS is committed to the safety and protection of our students. All RIS employees have a professional and ethical obligation to ensure that our students experience a safe and nurturing environment where they can grow, develop to their full potential, and be protected from harm. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of students includes:

• Protecting children from maltreatment and neglect 

• Preventing impairment of children’s physical and mental health or development 

• Ensuring that children are in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care 

This RIS Child Safeguarding Code of Conduct seeks to establish a set of core principles that apply to anyone who works or volunteers at RIS, regardless of the precise nature of their job. Henceforth, anyone who works or volunteers at RIS will be referred to collectively as “RIS employees.” This includes but is not limited to:

• Redemptorist Fathers and seminarians

• Faculty

• Classified staff

• Security guards

• Janitorial/Custodial staff

• Canteen staff

• Drivers

• Outside vendors, such as athletic coaches or EDP instructors

• Interns

• Volunteers

• Swiss Section faculty/staff

As it is not possible to provide a comprehensive checklist of what is and is not appropriate behavior in all circumstances, there may be occasions when RIS employees need to make decisions based on the best interests and welfare of the school and the children in their charge. These decisions could contravene this guidance or take its place where no such guidance exists. If this happens, transparency should be the default approach, and the incident should be reported to a school administrator as soon as possible. 

CONFIDENTIALITY

RIS employees must maintain appropriate confidentiality and not disclose information of a confidential nature, whether it was shared with them in confidence or acquired through a third party, without the consent of the person authorized to give it—unless they are required by law to do so or if disclosure may affect the safeguarding of a child. RIS employees should ask the relevant section administrator if they have concerns or questions about confidentiality.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH STUDENTS

RIS employees may interact with students in multiple roles, such as teacher, coach, neighbor, family friend, parent of a friend, etc. RIS employees should avoid behaviors in one role that undermine their behaviors in another role. The onus is on each individual to use common sense and avoid interactions that could be construed as misconduct or abuse.

Specifically, RIS employees will:

• Ensure that all of their actions or behaviors place the welfare of students first.

• Take responsibility for their actions and behaviors and avoid conduct that would lead any reasonable person to question their motivations or intentions. 

• Make sure that their interactions with students are appropriate to the developmental age of the students.

• Assure that one-on-one time with a student takes place only when determined to be a necessary strategy to meet teaching, learning, or counseling outcomes.

• Take reasonable steps to ensure visibility to passers-by during one-on-one time with a student. 

• Model positive behavior and intervene when students are not acting or speaking appropriately. 

• Refrain from using inappropriate language in front of students, including language that is harassing, abusive, sexually provocative, demeaning, or culturally insensitive. 

• Avoid acting in ways that may be considered abusive, or that put a child at risk of exploitation, maltreatment, or abuse. 

• Refrain from providing transportation to any RIS student without prior written permission from the student’s parents/guardians. (Acceptable communication platforms include text, email, LINE, etc.) 

• Never provide drugs or alcohol to students. 

• Immediately disclose any charges, convictions, or other outcomes of an offense that relate to child exploitation or abuse that occurred either before or during their association with RIS. 

PHYSICAL TOUCH/CONTACT

At all times, RIS employees will: 

• Use professional judgment about the appropriateness of any physical contact with a student. 

• Be prepared to explain their actions and accept that physical contact with a student is open to scrutiny. 

• Use physical contact with children only if it is appropriate to the RIS employee’s role and ensure that it occurs carefully, sensitively, and respectfully. 

• Not make gratuitous physical contact with students. 

• Avoid attributing touching to their teaching style or as a way of relating to children. 

• Not engage in romantic or sexual relationships in any form with children or current RIS students. 

• Not use physical punishment or humiliation. 

• Not carry out personal care that students can do for themselves (e.g., toileting or helping students change their clothes). 

• Not engage in rough, physical, or sexually provocative games with students, including play wrestling. 

• Not engage in or allow any form of inappropriate or unwanted touching.

SOCIAL MEDIA & ONLINE CONTACT WITH CHILDREN

RIS supports using media and social media as powerful learning tools. However, RIS employees must be conscious of keeping their personal and professional lives separate at all times. Connecting with students socially via their personal social media accounts may confuse students about the role of an RIS employee. Social media includes all means of communicating or posting information or content of any sort on the internet, including to one’s own or someone else’s blog, personal website, email, social network(s), bulletin board, forum, chat room, or any other form of electronic communication, whether associated with RIS or not. 

Therefore, RIS employees should: 

• Connect with students through RIS-approved sites and media platforms (e.g., Google Classroom, RIS email, PowerSchool, RIS Facebook pages, Seesaw, Blogger, school-specific Twitter accounts, approved LINE groups, etc.) to support teaching and learning. 

• Not upload any content regarding RIS students and parents to their social media accounts.

• Make any requests to use personal social media accounts to support a specific learning or counseling context only. In the interest of transparency, such requests should be approved through the appropriate section administrator. 

• Ensure that their social media privacy settings do not allow students to view inappropriate personal content that could blur the line between professional and personal information. 

• Be encouraged to speak up and report to the appropriate section administrator any concerns about a colleague's behavior in relation to contact with children online. 

• Not “friend,” “follow,” “like,” or otherwise interact with current or former students who are still in school through their personal social media accounts. 

USE OF STUDENT IMAGES AND IDENTIFYING INFORMATION 

RIS employees may take or use photographs or other media, including student images, exemplars of students’ work, and/or images of students participating in a school event or activity. These photographs/media may be used only to provide RIS families with information about their child(ren)’s education and/or to inform other parties about RIS. Such images may be published only on RIS-approved platforms, not personal social media accounts. 

RIS employees must take care in selecting such images to avoid potential inappropriate use by others. It is preferable to use images that depict students doing an activity in a group context rather than featuring an individual student. It is understood that special moments that merit capturing often occur unexpectedly and that, therefore, photographs and videos might be taken on a personal device; however, we ask that RIS employees delete such photos and/or videos from their devices and any personal digital/cloud storage after publishing or uploading to RIS-approved platforms. 

When photographing or filming a child or using children’s images for RIS-related purposes, RIS employees must: 

• not take pictures of a child who says he/she does not want to be photographed. 

• not publish images of students in digital or RIS print publications if his or her parents have formally withheld their permission on the RIS “Do Not Publish” list.  

• ensure that photographs, films, and videos present RIS students in a dignified and respectful manner. 

• Ensure that file labels and/or text descriptions of photos do not reveal identifying information about a child (except his or her first name) when sending images electronically or publishing images in any format. Exceptions to this include RIS publications, such as Ad Astra and the official RIS Facebook and Instagram pages.
  
  EXAMPLES OF DO'S & DON'TS (for further clarification)

DO 

• Take a photo of your child winning an award or participating in school events

• Use your RIS email account to communicate with students via their RIS email account

• Use your school-sanctioned social media account to post about school events and off-site trips

DON'T 

• Take a photo of your class in school or on a school trip and post it to your personal social media account(s)

• Take a photo of RIS students and “check-in” or indicate that you are at RIS or elsewhere

• Use social media accounts (such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) or chat platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp, Snapchat, LINE, etc.) to communicate with students for non-professional/school purposes or in ways that conflict with safeguarding best practices.

CONSIDERATION OF SPECIFIC CONTEXTS

PHYSICAL INTERVENTION
RIS employees may legitimately need to intervene to prevent students from injuring themselves or others. Whenever possible, employees should always try to defuse a situation before it escalates and send for another adult if there is a concern that a situation could become physical. In all cases where physical intervention is considered necessary, the incident and subsequent actions should be documented and reported in an email to the section administrator, Child Safeguarding Lead, and relevant section counselor. In the rare case of physical intervention, the restraint aims to keep the student(s) safe. 

STUDENTS IN DISTRESS
RIS employees should consider how they offer comfort to a distressed student. There may be occasions when a distressed student needs comfort and reassurance. This may include age-appropriate physical contact. Employees should always remain self-aware to ensure that the contact is not threatening, intrusive, or subject to misinterpretation. When an employee is concerned about ongoing physical contact of this nature, they should seek further advice from their section administrator. In such cases, a decision must be reached about whether it is appropriate for the employee to continue offering counseling and advice or to refer the child to another employee with acknowledged social and emotional care responsibility for the particular child (i.e., a counselor).

SHOWERS & CHANGING
Young people are entitled to respect and privacy when changing clothes or showering. However, there needs to be an appropriate level of supervision to safeguard students, satisfy health and safety considerations, and ensure that bullying, teasing, or injury does not occur. This supervision should be appropriate to the needs and ages of the students concerned and sensitive to the potential for embarrassment or harm. RIS employees, therefore, need to be vigilant about their behavior, ensure they follow agreed guidelines, and be mindful of the needs of the students. The following should always be considered:

• RIS employees should avoid any physical contact when students are in a state of undress.

• RIS employees should avoid any visually intrusive behavior when they are in changing room areas.

• It is acceptable for same-sex RIS employees to remain in the room when groups are changing to ensure indirect supervision.

• Students should be offered the opportunity to change privately.

• RIS employees should not change in the same place as students.

• RIS employees should shower only in staff-designated changing rooms.

• In settings with younger (pre-kindergarten/kindergarten) students or students with special needs where supervision must be closer, it is understood that modifications to some of the above may be required, which will be documented in specific guidelines for those employees. 

BATHROOMS
RIS has separate toilets designated specifically for students and adults. RIS employees are expected to use the “adult-only” toilets.

PRE-KINDERGARTEN BATHROOM PROCEDURES
While our pre-kindergarten program fosters independence and a love of learning, the reality is that younger children often still need adult assistance at this stage. Therefore, adults will likely need to change Pre-K 2 students’ diapers. If a Pre-K 2 student is being toilet trained, an adult will accompany the child to the bathroom on all feasible occasions (when there is more than one adult with the group). An RIS employee assisting a child with toileting needs should be visible to another adult whenever possible. 

The expectation is that all students entering our Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 programs should be able to use the toilet with minimal adult assistance and will be encouraged to go to the bathroom by themselves. All children need to be in regular underpants and not reliant on diapers, pull-ups, or absorbent training pants. They should be gaining independence with their ability to use toilet paper or the sprayer to clean themselves when finished. Students should be able to pull up their pants independently and then wash their hands with soap. 

Any Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 students who go to the bathroom independently will be checked on by an adult after two or three minutes to ensure they do not require assistance. As is expected with children of this age, occasional accidents will occur. We acknowledge that there will be instances when special circumstances arise, and a student requires additional assistance. In such cases, RIS employees will support students by giving verbal instructions or stepping in to help them. This will happen only if there is a risk of a hygiene issue or if a student has become distressed. In these situations, the employee will act in loco parentis (act in the place of a parent in their absence). 

ONE-TO-ONE SITUATIONS
RIS employees must recognize that private meetings with individual students may raise safeguarding concerns. While the aim is to never be alone with a child, there will be occasions when a confidential interview or one-to-one meeting is necessary. When possible, such interviews should be conducted in a room with visual access, with an open door, or in a room or area that is likely to be frequented by other people. When such conditions cannot apply, RIS employees should ensure that another adult knows that the meeting is taking place. Due to the nature of their roles, the exceptions to this are school administrators, school counselors, school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, and school nurses. Scheduled meetings with students away from the school premises are not advised. In the unlikely event that such a meeting is scheduled, it must be arranged only with the specific approval of the appropriate section administrator. RIS employees should also be mindful of this guidance while tutoring off campus. Adults working in one-to-one situations with children and young people are more vulnerable to allegations. RIS employees should recognize this possibility and plan and conduct such meetings accordingly. Every attempt should be made to ensure that RIS employees' and students' safety and security needs are met.

CURRICULUM
At times, areas of the curriculum may include or cover subject matter that is sexually explicit or of an otherwise sensitive nature. Care should be taken to ensure that resource materials cannot be misinterpreted and relate to the learning outcomes identified by the lesson or unit plan. The curriculum can sometimes include or lead to unplanned discussions about the subject matter of a sexually explicit or otherwise sensitive nature. Responding to students’ questions is a matter of professional judgment, but discussions should always be kept within the context of the intended learning. RIS employees should avoid introducing or encouraging debate among students in class or elsewhere that could be construed as having a sexual connotation that is unnecessary, given the context of the lesson or the circumstances. 

FIELD TRIPS
Understandably, both RIS employees and students might feel that less formality is appropriate during school visits and trips. However, the same child safeguarding expectations apply to RIS employees and external providers during field and residential trips. Any RIS employee working directly with students in a field trip or residential setting must receive training about the expectations before the visit and understand and apply these key guidelines:

• RIS employees should always have another adult present for out-of-school activities unless otherwise agreed with the section administrator and Head of School.

• RIS employees should be aware of the risks in any activity and the recommended steps to manage them.

• All students must have parental consent to the activity, and, in the case of field trips, all requirements from both RIS and the Ministry of Education must be fulfilled.

• A designated RIS employee must review and approve the location and facilities to be visited.

• Students must be fully prepared for the trip’s expectations and expectations for specific activities.

• Emergency arrangements and no-go areas must be explained clearly.

• There should be re-group points, times, and contact numbers for RIS employees’ mobile devices (or relay arrangements via the school phone number).

• Non-RIS employees must understand how to respond to difficult situations, emphasizing informing RIS employees immediately.

• When using a center or organization, an agreement must be established in advance about the school’s guidelines on behavior, health and safety, and child protection. 

• The roles and responsibilities of RIS employees and providers must be agreed concerning all aspects of the trip.

• Students must not be permitted to wander alone in unfamiliar places.

• RIS employees must ensure that they have a system in place to monitor students, even during time allocated for recreation or not directly supervised.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS ON OVERNIGHT TRIPS
When out-of-school activities include overnight stays, careful consideration must be given to sleeping arrangements. Students, RIS employees, and parents should be informed of these before the start of the trip. While it is impossible to cover every scenario, many of the guidelines already mentioned apply, particularly those for changing, showering, and one-to-one situations. For younger students, adults may need to sleep in the same room as the students (such as in a dormitory or smaller rooms in a center). In these cases, the arrangements should be managed so that:

• The adult is not alone in the room with an individual student.

• The adult and the students have privacy for changing and toileting needs and that these are in separate locations or at a separate time.

• The proximity between the adult’s sleeping area and the students’ is as wide as possible.

• The sleeping arrangements and the rationale behind them are clearly explained to parents in the briefings and information prior to departure.

• Non-RIS staff do not come into contact with students in bathrooms, changing, or showering spaces, and, where this is not possible, RIS employees supervise this and aim to reduce safeguarding risks as much as possible.

REPORTING: RAISING A CONCERN ABOUT SUSPECTED ABUSE

RIS has a duty-to-report expectation of all RIS employees. This expectation allows any RIS employee to report a concern, in good faith, without fear of reprisal, victimization, or disadvantage. If any RIS employee has a concern about a student’s welfare, or if a student discloses that they are suffering abuse or reveals information that gives grounds for concern, the RIS employee should speak to his or her section counselor immediately about the concern. If the section counselor is not available or not on campus, the employee should speak to the section administrator. This is particularly important when the welfare of the student may be at risk. It is important that RIS employees raise an issue when it is a concern rather than waiting until the concern might become more serious. 

REPORTING: RAISING A CONCERN ABOUT THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS

Just as RIS employees are expected to take reasonable steps to voice and/or report a concern about the welfare or safety of a child, RIS employees also have an ethical obligation to report on the conduct of others if they perceive potential harm to a child. RIS will take all reasonable steps to protect any RIS employee who, in good faith: 

• reports a concern about misconduct 

• is the victim of misconduct 

• witnesses suspected misconduct 

This includes protection from retaliation, threats of retaliation, discharge, or discrimination directly related to the disclosure of such information. Concerns may be raised with the person directly, with a principal, or with a counselor. A report of misconduct should be made to a section principal or supervisor. All reports of misconduct must reach the section administrator and the Head of School. If a principal/supervisor is suspected of misconduct, the report should be made to the Head of School. If the Head of School is suspected of misconduct, the report should be made to the designated School Board representative. 

Parents will be notified as soon as possible by an administrator about any concerns regarding the welfare and safety of their child.