A staff member's comment makes you uncomfortable, or a student asks for your phone number — and you are new to this building.
This is EverTeach's own company training for everyone we place in schools: substitutes, paraprofessionals, SPED aides and tutors. It is general information, not legal advice. It does not replace any training a district or school requires of its own staff or contractors — if a school asks you to complete its course too, do both.
Harassment is unwelcome conduct because of who someone is — their sex (including pregnancy), race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or partnership status, or another protected characteristic. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 et seq.) and federal Title VII of the Civil Rights Act both prohibit it. It can be words, jokes, images, messages, gestures or touching, and it can come from a supervisor, a co-worker, a school employee, a parent or a visitor.
Quid pro quo: someone with power over your work makes a job benefit — an assignment, a good report, a request to come back — depend on going along with sexual advances or conduct. One instance is enough. Hostile environment: conduct tied to a protected characteristic that is severe or pervasive enough that a reasonable person would find the workplace intimidating, hostile or abusive. One very serious incident can be enough; so can a pattern of smaller ones. You do not have to decide which label fits before you report.
Tell EverTeach — through Support in your dashboard or by calling 973-293-4575 — and/or the school's principal or administrator. You may go to either first, and you do not need to confront the person yourself. Write down what happened, when, where and who saw it, as soon as you can. EverTeach will take the report seriously, look into it promptly, and work with the school on next steps. Information is shared only with the people who need it to look into and address the report; we cannot promise complete secrecy, because acting on a report means telling someone.
Take me thereEverTeach does not permit retaliation against anyone who reports harassment in good faith or takes part in looking into a report — no loss of assignments, no worse treatment, no pressure to drop it. Retaliation is prohibited by law (including N.J.S.A. 10:5-12(d)) and is itself a separate violation. If you think you are being treated worse because you reported, report that too, the same way.
Title IX is the federal law against sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, in schools. In a K-12 school, when any school employee — and that includes you while you are placed there — learns of possible sexual harassment of a student, the school is treated as knowing about it. EverTeach's rule: tell the school's Title IX coordinator or an administrator the same day, and let EverTeach know that you did. It does not matter whether the conduct is by a student or an adult, or whether you saw it or were told. Do not investigate or decide whether it "counts" — that is the school's job.
Keep every contact with students professional, visible and about school. No private or one-to-one texting, messaging, calls or social-media contact — no friending or following, and no personal phone numbers. No rides in your car. No gifts to or from individual students. Avoid being alone with a student behind a closed door; keep the door open or move where others can see, and follow the school's rules for one-to-one support. Touch only as the role requires and the school allows — a high-five, or care set out in a student's plan — never touch that could be seen as romantic or sexual. No dating, romantic or sexual relationship with any student, of any age, ever, and no personal friendships that move outside school.
Grooming is how an adult builds trust and secrecy with a child in order to abuse them. It usually looks like a pattern rather than one act: singling out one student for special attention or favors, gifts, private messages, asking the student to keep secrets, finding reasons to be alone together, testing boundaries with touch or talk, and slowly isolating the student from others. You do not have to be sure. If you notice this pattern around any adult, tell the administrator and EverTeach the same day — and if you have reasonable cause to believe a child is being abused, call DCP&P as well.
Listen calmly and let the student talk. Do not question them in detail or try to investigate, do not contact the family, and never promise to keep it a secret — say you have to tell people whose job is to help. Write down their own words, the date and the time. Then report right away: call the NJ Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCP&P) at 1-877-NJ ABUSE (1-877-652-2873), open 24 hours — New Jersey law (N.J.S.A. 9:6-8.10) puts that duty on you personally — then tell the principal and EverTeach the same day. If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 first. The short card "How to report suspected abuse" has the same steps on one page.
Take me thereYou are a guest in someone else's workplace, and the same rules apply to how you treat the school's staff and other EverTeach workers: no sexual comments or jokes, no unwanted advances, no slurs or comments about someone's background, and no comments about how people look. Keep disagreements professional and take them to the administrator or EverTeach, not the staff room. If a school employee harasses you, you are protected too — report it to EverTeach.
A friendly eighth-grader asks for your Instagram so they can follow you. What do you do? Answer: say kindly that you do not connect with students on social media or phones — it is a rule for everyone. Do not accept a request later, even after the assignment ends. If a student messages you anyway, do not reply privately; tell the administrator and EverTeach.
It is raining, the late bus has left, and a student asks you for a ride home. What do you do? Answer: do not drive the student. Walk them to the main office so the school can reach a parent or arrange transport, and stay with them where others can see until staff take over.
A school employee makes repeated comments about your body and asks if you will "come back if you're nice to me." What do you do? Answer: you do not have to respond or confront them. Write down what was said and when, and report it to EverTeach (973-293-4575) and/or the principal. Tying your return to going along with advances is the quid pro quo pattern. EverTeach does not permit retaliation for reporting.
During lunch duty you overhear a student telling friends that an older student keeps grabbing her in the hallway. What do you do? Answer: this is possible sexual harassment of a student. Make sure the student is safe right now, then tell the Title IX coordinator or an administrator the same day, and let EverTeach know you did. Do not question the students yourself.
You notice an aide regularly keeps one student in at recess alone, gives them small gifts and texts them. What do you do? Answer: this matches the grooming pattern. You do not need proof. Tell the principal and EverTeach the same day; if you have reasonable cause to believe the student is being abused, call DCP&P at 1-877-NJ ABUSE (1-877-652-2873) yourself.
True or false: harassment only counts if it comes from your boss. Answer: false. It can come from a supervisor, a co-worker, a school employee, a parent or a visitor, and the law still applies.
You reported harassment and the next week you stop being offered assignments at that school. What is this, and what should you do? Answer: it may be retaliation, which is prohibited by law and by EverTeach policy. Report it to EverTeach the same way you made the first report.
A student tells you another student has been sending them sexual messages. When do you tell the school, and whom? Answer: the same day, to the school's Title IX coordinator or an administrator — then let EverTeach know you did.
Which of these is fine: (a) texting a student about homework from your personal phone, (b) meeting a student alone in a closed classroom, (c) a high-five in the hallway, (d) a ride home in bad weather? Answer: (c). Private texting, closed-door one-to-one time and rides all cross professional boundaries.
A student tells you something about abuse and begs you not to tell anyone. What do you do? Answer: do not promise secrecy. Listen, write down their words, call DCP&P (1-877-NJ ABUSE) right away, then tell the principal and EverTeach the same day. The duty to report is yours personally.
Marking this lesson done records that you have read it and agree to follow it: you understand what harassment and retaliation are, you know how to report to EverTeach (973-293-4575) or the school, you will tell the school's Title IX coordinator or an administrator the same day you learn of possible sexual harassment of a student, you will keep professional boundaries with students, and you will report suspected abuse to DCP&P right away. Questions? Ask EverTeach support before your next assignment.
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