Tam District adopts updated sexual abuse policies

Marin Independent Journal - 9/7/2021

Sep. 8—Tamalpais Union High School District trustees have adopted an update on policies and regulations for preventing and reporting sexual abuse of district students.

The update, approved unanimously by the board at their Aug. 31 meeting, is designed to align the district with model policies set up by the California School Boards Association, said Wes Cedros, the district's assistant superintendent for human resources.

"The updates really have more to do with mandated reporting when it is suspected that a child might be undergoing abuse or neglect, that we report it to the proper person," Cedros said. "We're just bringing it up to what CSBA says should be in the policy."

Cedros said some of the changes involve wording or syntax.

For example, the update clarifies that the district is "authorized but not required" to conduct abuse prevention trainings and to post notices around the campuses with telephone numbers to report sexual abuse. Also, all students from seventh through 12th grades are given identification cars with a domestic abuse hotline telephone number on the back of the cards.

Cedros said those preventative actions have been in place for several years, even though the district was not "required" to offer them, as the district policy had previously stated.

"It's a revision, an update of our policy, just to be in alignment with current law," Tara Taupier district superintendent, said at the board meeting.

The district also deleted a section of the regulations explaining the definition of sexual exploitation as "knowingly downloading, streaming or accessing through any electronic or digital media a film, photograph, videotape, video recording, negative, or slide in which a child is engaged in an act of obscene sexual conduct,"

Instead, the district regulation now simply refers to the definition of sexual exploitation under California Penal Code 11165.1, which is much more comprehensive, Cedros said.

"We're expanding the definition so there is more protection for students," he said.

Cedros said the updates were being done at the recommendation of the California School Boards Association. They were not related or in response to allegations in May by a group of Tamalpais High School students that the district was not paying enough attention to the issue, he said.

In addition, Cedros said the changes to the definition of sexual exploitation are unrelated to an anonymous blog thread on Instagram, @MeTooAtTam, where several hundred people who claim to be Tamalpais High School students have posted about their experiences of sexual harassment or abuse. Cedros said the district could not act on anonymous complaints.

To access the revised policies and regulations, go to tamdistrict.org.

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