Basic Understanding of School Discipline
Our understanding of the nature of students and their purpose for being in school is the foundation of our disciplinary policies. Likewise, our rules and regulations facilitate and govern the school environment we want to achieve shaping the social bonds and relationships we develop following the vision and mission of the school. Our disciplinary policies are drawn from such understanding of students and school and how normative rules are established to maintain the order and behavior required so that character may be formed which respects justice tempered with charity.
The school believes in the innate goodness of students and upholds their fundamental dignity. Students are social beings. They live a more meaningful life by accepting and contributing to this interdependence among people. They make choices drawn from their intellect and will using freedom. Freedom does not mean acting what one wants, but rather, choosing what is proper to their nature and purpose. Children and young students are to be cared for in such a way that they may develop and attain a greater sense of responsibility and a right use of freedom and that they may be formed to take an active part in society and the Church.
The focus of school discipline is the integral and total human formation of its students, which refers to the growth and development on the physical, intellectual, emotional, social, cultural, moral, and spiritual aspects of the individual. Parents have the foremost obligation in the education of their children. The school is the principal means of helping parents to fulfill their role in education. Since parents entrust their children to the school, mutual cooperation is essential between parents and teachers. In fulfilling their task, teachers are to collaborate closely with the parents and willingly listen to them. However, it does not follow that parents obtain the authority to direct school activities. Meanwhile, the school acts with "especial parental authority and responsibility over the minor child while under its supervision, instruction, or custody" (Article 218 of the Family Code).
The school also believes the reality of sin which ruptures the relationship of an individual with God and alienates one from another. There are also offenses which refer to any behavior that violates the essential values and norms the school requires so it can carry 2 out its mission of education to prepare students for life. Occasionally, students have attitudes that are contrary to the values the school upholds or behavior that contradicts the norms the school maintains. These attitudes and behaviors disturb the school community and bring such students into conflict, especially with those in authority whose responsibility is to foster the integrity of the mission of the school.
Assuming an offense has been committed, the school exhausts first all possible means of solicitude and care which include listening, advice, counseling, coaching, parental collaboration and others. The disciplinary actions and process need to imbibe what the school wants from the student-offender: to reform and redeem oneself, and to learn.
Recourse to penalties as means of reforming the student, restoring justice, and repairing the harm done has an ultimate and necessary purpose both for the student and the school community. Thus sanctions, imposed by school, have medicinal, punitive and fundamentally educational purposes. However, not every offense warrants a penalty. Certain factors impairing freedom and knowledge may diminish or completely preclude imputability or responsibility for one's apparently unacceptable behavior.
The school believes that it has a significant role in shaping and forming the character of its students. It sees discipline as essential to learning. These rules and regulations on discipline shall govern the behavior and conduct of students inside the school as well as outside the school premises when they are engaged in activities authorized by the school. They shall also be applicable when the misconduct of the student, although committed outside the school premises, involves his/her status as a student or affects the good name and reputation of Saint Jude Catholic School.
Finally, the compliance of school rules and regulations is not the sole responsibility of students but also of their parents. The right of schools to establish and enforce reasonable rules and regulations for discipline extends to parents and parent-teacher associations as they assist and cooperate with schools.
