Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors recently adopted a policy outlining the expected professional boundaries between adults and students.

“All adults shall be expected to maintain professional, moral and ethical relationships with district students that are conducive to an effective, safe learning environment,” the policy states. “This policy addresses a range of behaviors that include not only obviously unlawful or improper interactions with students, but also precursor grooming and other boundary-blurring behaviors that can lead to more egregious misconduct.”

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association drafted the basic language for the policy in October 2015 in “response to increased incidents of inappropriate adult-student relationships arising in school settings.”

Barbara Bowes, an LASD director, said many districts adopted the policy when PSBA initially released it, but Lehighton was not among them. Normally policies go through two readings before they are implemented, but Lehighton voted on April 25 to bypass the second reading and get it on the books immediately.

“This is a policy many other districts have had in place for at least five years,” Bowes said. “We are way behind on this. There have been issues here in the past, one 30 years ago and another eight years ago, so we need to have this in place sooner rather than later.”

The more recent of the incidents Bowes referred to happened in 2014, when police said Matthew Fisher, who was then a teacher in the district, sent inappropriate text messages to a 16-year-old boy over the summer. Fisher pleaded guilty to corruption of minors and received two years of probation, 100 hours of community service, a mental health evaluation, and was ordered to avoid contact with the victim.

“I’m really shocked this district did not have this policy in place before this,” director Jeremy Glaush said.

The policy states that adults are prohibited from dating, courting, or entering into or attempting to form a romantic or sexual relationship with any student enrolled in the district, regardless of the student’s age. It also outlines how social interaction and electronic communications should be conducted professionally.

Any person, including a student, who has concerns about or is uncomfortable with a relationship or interaction should notify the building principal or Title IX coordinator, according to the policy. Reports may be made using a report form or by making a general report verbally or in writing.

A district employee who violates this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Common policy

Other districts around the area do have similar policies on the books. Palmerton Area School District, for example, first adopted the policy on March 17, 2020, and updated it last month at its April 19 meeting.

When many schools moved into a digital learning environment due to the closures from COVID-19, PSBA issued an update on maintaining a positive school climate and appropriate relationships in a different environment.