What is Abuse or Assault of a Student in Arizona? | Arizona Teacher Child Abuse
What is considered either abuse or assault of a student in Arizona?
First, we’ll start with abuse. Arizona statutes define abuse as anything that can affect a child’s safety, health, or well-being. Abuse is a broad term. It can mean verbal, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Anything that’s going to affect, as I said, their health, safety, or well-being.
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Arizona State Board Procedures
And so, school districts, if they find any credible allegations, will investigate. They will likely speak to the victim involved, students, parents, or other staff. Furthermore, they may hand out discipline at the school level, which can be administrative leave—paid or unpaid.
They can ask you to resign, or they can terminate your contract. Schools are mandated reporters if there are credible allegations of abuse involving a student victim. So they will report you to the State Board of Education. Then there will be an investigation into your license.
They’ll also notify local authorities. So the police department will investigate, and child protective services will conduct an additional investigation. Any allegations of abuse are severe, and it’s a broad term.
What Counts as Assault and Abuse?
Assault is any physical harm or causing bodily harm to a student. And this is defined in the Arizona state statutes as well. So, it’s causing damage or causing an apprehension of immediate harm to the student. You don’t have to cause the injury physically, but if the student believes that it’s immediate, in that situation, that also could be considered assault.
Now, the assault would also potentially be looped in with a student’s abuse. Again, we’re talking about health, safety, and well-being. Likewise, schools are mandated reporters. If there are any credible allegations of assault, the school will report you to the State Board of Education. And local authorities, police, and child protective services would likely investigate. These are all very serious.
Find a Lawyer Who Can Represent You
If accused of any of this, I recommend consulting, if not having an attorney represent you. If it goes to the State Board of Education, there’s an investigation against your license. There are guidelines for the type of discipline that they would hand down.
It’s likely that if you come to a negotiated settlement or it’s contested, you have a hearing before the Professional Practices Advisory Committee. They have a finding of facts and conclusions of law where they find that there was abuse or assault of a student. It’s dire.
They would either suspend you for some time or revoke your teaching license.
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