Concord School Board reviews major rewrite of Policy 4-15 on sexual and gender-based harassment

Concord School Board members and district staff spent a working session reviewing a new draft of Policy 4-15, the district's policy addressing sexual- and gender-based harassment, and agreed to several substantive changes and follow-up steps.

The board's discussion focused on whether to keep or remove the 2020 language requiring harassment to be “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive,” how to treat Title IX versus non-Title IX harassment, and clarifying consent when an employee and a student are involved. Kara (School board member) described the redlined draft as “language that is inserted from the go by from the New Hampshire School Board Association” and said she had added color-coded comments to make proposed changes visible.

Board members said the policy must be clear about process and definitions and must protect both complainants and respondents while avoiding overly strict thresholds that would discourage…