If you are reporting an emergency, please dial 911.

Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (Text, Call, Chat 24/7): Dial 988 

SpeakUp for Safety Email Address: speakup@sweetwaterisd.net

SpeakUp for Safety Phone # (Voicemail and Text): (325) 200-0883

Visit StopBullying.gov for more information about what you can do to stop bullying.

Bullying occurs when a student or group of students engages in written or verbal expression or physical conduct against another student and the behavior:

• results in harm to the student or the student’s property,

• places a student in fear of physical harm or of damage to the student’s property, or

• is so severe, persistent, and pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational environment.

Bullying is prohibited by the district and could include hazing, threats, taunting, teasing, assault, demands for money, confinement, destruction of property, theft of valued possessions, name-calling, rumor-spreading, and ostracism. In some cases, bullying can occur through electronic methods, called “cyberbullying.”

If a student believes that he or she has experienced bullying or has witnessed bullying of another student, it is important for the student or parent to notify a teacher, counselor, principal, or another district employee as soon as possible. The administration will investigate any allegations of bullying and will take appropriate disciplinary action if an investigation indicates that bullying has occurred. Disciplinary or other action may be taken even if the conduct did not rise to the level of bullying. Any retaliation against a student who reports an incident of bullying is prohibited.

As a parent, you have a right:

• To request the transfer of your child to another classroom or campus if your child has been determined by the campus administration to have been a victim of bullying as the term is defined by Education Code 25.0341. Transportation is not provided for a transfer to another campus. Contact the superintendent for information at (325) 235-8601.

• To request the transfer of your child to attend a safe public school in the district if your child attends school at a campus identified by TEA as persistently dangerous or if your child has been a victim of a violent criminal offense while at school or on school grounds.

• To request the transfer of your child to another campus or a neighboring district if your child has been the victim of a sexual assault by another student assigned to the same campus, whether that assault occurred on or off campus, and that student has been convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for that assault.

• Committing extortion, coercion, or blackmail (obtaining money or another object of value from an unwilling person), or forcing an individual to act through the use of force or threat of force

• Making ethnic, racial, or religious slurs or any other harassment based on race, color, national origin, religion, or disability

• Verbal abuse or derogatory or offensive remarks addressed to others

• Damaging or vandalizing property of other students

• Conduct that constitutes sexual harassment or sexual abuse whether the conduct is by word, gesture, or any other sexual conduct, including without limit, requests for sexual favors

• Dating violence, meaning the intentional use of physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse to harm, threaten, intimidate, or control another person in, or who has been in the past in, a dating relationship with a person with whom the perpetrator is or has been in a dating relationship or marriage.