STUDENT CONDUCT | Policy Manual | Southern Local Schools (Perry)

5500 - STUDENT CONDUCT

Respect for law and for those persons in authority shall be expected of all students. This includes conformity to school rules as well as general provisions of law affecting students. Respect for the rights of others, consideration of their privileges, and cooperative citizenship shall also be expected of all members of the school community. The Board of Education has zero tolerance of violent, disruptive, or inappropriate behavior by its students.

Respect for real and personal property; pride in one's work; achievement within the range of one's ability; and exemplary personal standards of courtesy, decency, and honesty shall be maintained in the schools of this District. It is the responsibility of students, teachers, and administrators to maintain a classroom environment that:

allows teachers to communicate effectively with all students in the class;
allows all students in the class the opportunity to learn;
has consequences that are fair, and developmentally appropriate;
considers the student and the circumstances of the situation; and
enforces the Student Code of Conduct/Student Discipline Code accordingly.

Academic Honesty

The Board values honesty and expects integrity in the District’s students. Violating academic honesty expectations erodes the trust between teachers and students as well as compromises the academic standing of other students. So that each student learns the skills being taught and is judged solely on their own merits, the Board prohibits any student from presenting someone else’s work as their own, using artificial intelligence platforms in place of one’s own work, providing unauthorized assistance to another student, and cheating in any manner.

All school work submitted for the purpose of meeting course requirements must be the individual student’s original work or the original work of a group of students for group projects. It is prohibited for any student to unfairly advance their own academic performance or that of any other student. Likewise, no student may intentionally limit or impede the academic performance or intellectual pursuits of other students.

Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to:

plagiarism (of ideas, work, research, speech, art, music, etc.);
forgery of another’s work;
presenting the results that are the product of an artificial intelligence ("AI") platform as one’s own where the use of AI was not specifically allowed by the teacher as part of the assignment;
downloading or copying information from other sources and presenting it as one’s own;
using language translation work of someone else or using technology when the expectation is doing one’s own translation;
copying another person’s work;
allowing another person to copy one’s own work;
stealing another person’s work;
doing another person’s work for them;
distributing copies of one’s work for use by others;
distributing copies of someone else’s work for use by others for academic gain or advantage;
intentionally accessing another’s work for the purpose of presenting it as one’s own for academic gain or advantage;
distributing or receiving answers to assignments, quizzes, tests, assessments, etc.;
distributing or receiving questions from quizzes, tests, assessments, etc.

Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools For School Work

To ensure the integrity of the educational process and to promote fair and equal opportunities for all students, except as outlined below, the use of Artificial Intelligence ("AI") tools is strictly prohibited for the completion of school work. The use of AI/NLP tools, without the express permission/consent of a teacher, undermines the learning and problem-solving skills that are essential to academic success and that the staff is tasked to develop in each student. Students are encouraged to develop their own knowledge, skills, and understanding of course material rather than relying solely on AI tools and they should ask their teachers when they have questions and/or need assistance. Unauthorized use of AI tools is considered a form of plagiarism and any student found using these tools without permission or in a prohibited manner will be disciplined in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct. (See Policy 7540.09 - Artificial Intelligence ("AI"))

Notwithstanding the preceding, students can use AI tools in the school setting if they receive prior permission/consent from their teacher, so long as they use the AI tools in an ethical and responsible manner. Teachers have the discretion to authorize students to use AI tools for the following uses:

Research assistance: AI tools can be used to help students quickly and efficiently identify background information, including locating relevant information and sources for their school projects and assignments, suggesting research questions, providing opposing viewpoints, identifying unseen aspects, and suggesting other perspectives.
Data Analysis: AI tools can be used to help students with pattern identification and to analyze, understand, and interpret large amounts of data, such as text documents or social media posts. This can be particularly useful for research projects or data analysis assignments – e.g., scientific experiments and marketing research.
Language translation: AI tools can be used to translate texts or documents into different languages, which can be helpful for students who are learning a new language or for students who are studying texts written in a different language. AI tools can also remove abstract language from a text, adjust text complexity, and provide background information about a culture to help a student understand texts.
Writing assistance: AI tools can provide grammar and spelling corrections, as well as suggest alternative word choices and sentence structure, to help students improve their writing skills.
Accessibility: AI tools can be used to help students with disabilities access and understand written materials. For example, text-to-speech software can help students with specific learning disabilities or visual impairments to read texts, and AI-powered translation tools can help students with hearing impairments understand spoken language (e.g., create transcripts or provide closed-captioning for spoken material).

When AI tools are used responsibly and effectively, they can help to supplement, not replace, traditional learning methods. If a student has any questions about whether they are permitted to use AI tools for a specific class assignment, they should ask their teacher.

In accordance with their teacher’s direction, students are required to cite/identify work generated/created with the use of AI tools and explain/demonstrate how the AI tools were used in the creation of the work.

Staff and Administration have the responsibility for monitoring students’ work for compliance with this policy.

All teachers, beginning in the elementary grades, will educate students as to what constitutes academic dishonesty and what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior in District schools regarding academic integrity.

Students who violate this policy are subject to disciplinary consequences.

Teachers are authorized, in consultation with their Principal, to apply appropriate consequences for violations of this policy. Disciplinary consequences for significant violations may include removal from the class with a failing grade, removal from student leadership positions, elimination of honors recognition, loss of membership in honor organizations, as well as other disciplinary consequences appropriate to the nature of the violation.

Parents shall be contacted as soon as practicable to report any alleged acts of academic dishonesty by their child.

Repeated violations of this policy will result in additional disciplinary consequences in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.

Student and/or parent appeals of disciplinary consequences resulting from violation of this policy may be made based on the appeals process documented in the student handbook.

Students may be subject to discipline for violation of the Student Code of Conduct/Student Discipline Code even if that conduct occurs on property not owned or controlled by the Board but that is connected to activities or incidents that have occurred on property owned or controlled by the Board, or conduct that, regardless of where it occurs, is directed at a Board official or employee, or the property of such official or employee.

Student conduct shall be governed by the rules and provisions of the Student Code of Conduct/Student Discipline Code. This Student Code of Conduct/Student Discipline Code shall be reviewed annually.

A summary of this policy shall be included in the Student Handbook and the Employee Handbook.