About St. Peter School

St. Peter School located in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will conduct business honestly and ethically at all times. We strive to improve the quality of our services provided to parishioners, students, and the greater community of the diocese and will maintain a reputation for honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility, integrity, trust, and sound moral and ethical judgment that reflect our faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church in conducting business. Our employees are expected to adhere to high standards of business and personal integrity as a representation of our parish and diocesan business practices, always consistent with their duty of loyalty to St. Peter School and to the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.

Every employee of the Diocese and diocesan agencies shall act in an honest and forthright manner in all workplace concerns; treat co-workers, supervisors, volunteers, parishioners, students, and visitors with respect; and conduct themselves in a moral and ethical manner consistent with Catholic principles. Every employee, as a representative of the Catholic Church to the faithful and to the outside world, has a ministerial calling. For this reason, every position has a ministerial aspect. Personnel must, therefore, conduct themselves in a way that does not contradict the doctrine and moral teaching of the Catholic Church.

We expect that employees of St. Peter School will not knowingly misrepresent St. Peter School and will not speak on behalf of St. Peter school unless specifically authorized to do so. The confidentiality of proprietary information, and similar confidential and sensitive information (i.e. financial records and reports, or business strategies and plans, development, member, or donor lists) about St. Peter School or operations, or that of St. Peter School or members of St. Peter School, is to be treated with discretion and only disseminated on a need-to-know basis.

Violation of the Code of Professional Conduct can result in discipline, up to and including termination of employment. The degree of discipline imposed may be influenced by the existence of voluntary disclosure of any ethical violation and whether or not the violator cooperated in any subsequent investigation.

To better understand the Standards of Conduct, please refer to the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois Policy 503: Standards of Conduct Book.

St. Peter School employees must follow the Illinois Code of Ethics for Illinois Educators. This provides a foundation for the responsibilities and commitments of educators within the State of Illinois. The following are the five core principles:

• Responsibility to Students
• Responsibility to Self
• Responsibility to Colleagues and the Profession
• Responsibility to Parents, Families and Communities
• Responsibility to the Illinois State Board of Education

The success of students in school relies on safe learning environments and healthy relationships with school personnel. It is important for staff to maintain a professional relationship with students at all times and to define staff-student boundaries to protect students from sexual misconduct by staff and staff from the appearance of impropriety. As bystanders, educators may have knowledge of concerning behaviors that no one else is aware of, so they need to understand the definition of "sexual misconduct."

Sexual misconduct means any act, including but not limited to, any verbal, nonverbal, written, or electronic communication or physical activity, by an employee or agent of the Catholic school with direct contact with a student that is directed toward or with a student to establish a romantic or sexual relationship with the student. Such an act includes, but is not limited to, any of the following:

• A sexual or romantic invitation.
• Dating or soliciting a date.
• Engaging in sexualized or romantic dialog.
• Making sexually suggestive comments that are directed toward or with a student.
• Self-disclosure or physical exposure of a sexual, romantic, or erotic nature.
• A sexual, indecent, romantic, or erotic contact with the student.

"Grooming" as now defined in Section 11-25 of the Criminal Code is "when [a person] knowingly uses a computer on-line service, Internet service, local bulletin board service, or any other device capable of electronic data storage or transmission, performs an act in person or by conduct through a third party, or uses written communication to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a child, a child’s guardian, or another person believed to be the person to be a child or a child’s guardian, to commit any sex offense as defined in Section 2 of the Sex Offender Registration Act, to distribute photographs depicting the sex organs of the child, or to otherwise engage in any unlawful sexual conduct with a child or with another person believed by the person to be a child. As used in this Section, 'child’ means a person under 17 years of age."

All employees at St. Peter School must maintain professional relationships with students at all times and follow the expectations for staff-student boundaries. Employees must also follow the guidelines:

• Employees are representatives of the Catholic school at all times and will maintain professional relationships with students at all times, recognizing the age and developmental level of the students served. This includes meeting with a student or contacting a student outside of the employee’s professional role.
• While the Catholic school does not provide transportation on a regular basis, special circumstances (i.e. field trips) create the need for private transportation for students. While it is preferred to utilize volunteer adult chaperones to provide transportation for students, sometimes employees are also needed to provide this service. Employees are to follow the same guidelines as volunteer chaperones when transporting students, and it is recommended that an employee refrains from transporting a single student, and rather has a group of students, unless an emergency arises. In this case, the employee should notify the school office of the transportation needs before leaving.
• In addition, employees will take particular care in taking or possessing a photo or a video of a student. Parents or guardians should first give permission for photos and videos to be taken by employees of the Catholic school. Photos and videos of students should serve an educational purpose, and the employee should only maintain those photos and videos for as long as the educational purpose requires. Once the purpose is met, the employee should no longer maintain the photos and videos.

All employees will receive required employee training that is related to child abuse and educator ethics that are applicable under State and federal law. Mandated reporters must notify DCFS immediately when a mandated reporter has reasonable cause to believe a child is an abused or neglected child under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (325 ILCS 5/3), including reasonable cause to believe that a child was a victim of grooming as defined by 720 ILCS 5/11-25.

The Catholic school will comply with all sexual misconduct allegation notification requirements under Section 22-85 of the School Code. A violation of the employee code of professional conduct may subject an employee to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal from employment. Failure of an employee to report a violation of the employee code of professional conduct policy by another employee may subject that employee to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal from employment. 105 ILCS 5/22-85.5(f).

If the report of sexual abuse involves Church Personnel as described in BK2§100 Clerical Sexual Abuse of Minors: Policies for Education, Prevention, Assistance, and Determination of Fitness for Ministry, the Principal-Minister and/or Teacher-Minister shall also report the incident or suspicion to the Facilitator as described in BK2§107.2 Reporting Requirements of the above-mentioned policy.