Petition Against Proposed Derry Township School Board Policy No. 824 Until Changes Are Made

Let us not forget that for some of our students, teachers are the ONLY positive adult role models in their lives. By stripping kids of these bonds and relationships, our students future's could be changed forever. A counselor serves many wonderful roles, but for those students who require time to warm up and build trust with adults, the counselor won't be the best person to discuss personal issues. I cannot imagine how heartless and disconnected classrooms will become when teachers and students are forced to form robot-like respect rather than expressing interest in one another.

I was not the most popular kid when I went to High School. I was never very social and did not really get along with any of my peers (that is what happens when you embrace cynicism and pessimism as a defining feature). Even though I was terrible to be around, my teachers at HHS took time to help me learn and grow. They had the drive to be my friend even when I did not want them to be. Putting a policy in place that could block this experience would be incredibly detrimental to future students. Instead of punishing student teach friendships, we should be encouraging and nurturing them. Please reconsider this alienating policy and sign this petition.

I recognize that my perspective sound jaded, but this is nothing more than an ill-disguised attempt to deflect liability for a bad outcome with one student. Too bad the rest of the student body gets hurt in the district's CYA policy.

My sons, all graduates of Hershey High School, found their personal relationships with their teachers to be essential to their very positive high school experience. Let's not get caught in the web of trying to legislate proper behavior/relationships.

Students NEED a relationship with teachers!

I'm signing this because I can

Personal connections with teachers enhance the learning process. Learning does not only include "book learning" but also includes learning how to build relationships with others. Some students may only feel comfortable discussing certain matters with teachers and do not feel guidance knows them well enough to understand their issues. While I understand there may be some concerns regarding the possibility of inappropriate relationships being formed, there are already mandates in place that are followed if any issue should be reported to guidance or the principal. This overreaction to the possible problems that may result will irreparably damage the learning process.

This policy #824 is pure hogwash as it stands now!

Personal interractions and connections are what make highschool worth it. If I didn't need them, I would have just done all of my schooling online

As a former exchange student of HHS, I experienced the important value of stablishing personal bound with teachers specially for youth who are brought to a compleatly new environment.

students need to be able to tell teachers things if they need to. sometimes a teacher is the only person they trust. if teachers know when to refer certain students to a higher authority then there should be no problem.

Although this petition is a move in the right direction in some ways, other elements go too far and are too restrictive.

Students naturally develop positive and trusting relationships with some of their teachers and may feel more comfortable sharing with these teachers who they know well and truly trust more than they may know and trust their guidance counselor. To totally disallow such relationship may put dangerous barriers between students and teachers. Teachers should be trained to recognize the types of information that may be shared with them by a student that must be reported to the counselor and school administrators as appropriate.

Whomever is organizing this petition, please contact me. Would like to do story.

Relationships between tach Era and students creates mutual trust and respect.

This is a dumb thing to put in place. Nothing has ever happened and you need student teacher interaction to make school bearable

Nice try DRSF

HHS Class of 2004

Reposted from my Facebook: I entered the DTSD as a Freshman. It is no secret that almost immediately on my first day of school I was dubbed Class of 2010's Weirdo. (We know what the "Most Unique" superlative *really* means, y'all.) The first year would have been a lot harder if it weren't for two things: the marching band and the friendships I had with my teachers. When someone is bullied, they typically have many defense mechanisms. One of the most common is to befriend the nearest figure of authority. Having an older friend, especially one that has a word over the people bullying you, makes you feel safer and more relaxed in your environment. I had a history teacher I shared war books with. I had a biology teacher that would talk movies and comic books with me. I had two theater teachers that encouraged my talents (one of which I call my "Other Mother" to this day!) I had an English teacher that fed me when I forgot to ask my dad for lunch money. They were there for me when my peers weren't. I can understand why in this day and age we would consider a different discourse for intervention. Every day we seem to hear of a new illicit affair between educators and their students. However, responding to fear by completely restricting relationships will only cause greater distress between the student-teacher relationship. It should also be noted that during my years at Hershey High School that the guidance counselors were of very little help to me and numerous other students. They put our future before our present. Whenever we visited with them it wasn't to check in on us and see how we were doing, but whether or not we had been picking out schools already. When I finally did come to them with an issue, they encouraged me to out my gay friend who had been going through a tough time. I wanted to find out how to be a better friend to them while they go through it, but they told me they were going to call his parents and out him so they could solve it thems

The First Amendment has some restrictions on what you can say, but it doesn't say who you can and cannot talk to. Students rely on their teachers for help and by putting this policy into place you never know what might happen if a student cannot get the help they seek.