Proverbs 10:17 tells us, “He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.” It is our desire for Westgate students to be salt and light in the world, showing others the way to live and not leading others astray!

Children cannot become self-disciplined unless adults teach them right from wrong. At Westgate, children will be taught the expectations for “right” behavior and encouraged to live and act accordingly. When children know something is wrong, and choose to do it anyway, negative consequences will follow to communicate that there is a price to be paid for sin. This is in line with God’s relationship to us. He has given us His Word so that we may know how to live, and He has promised to discipline us if we belong to Him. (Proverbs 3:11-12 - My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.)

In order to help children learn what is right and avoid what is wrong, the following steps will be taken. Please understand that this list is intended to give the spectrum of responses from least to greatest. Staff members will respond to misbehavior at a level commensurate with the nature of the wrong doing.

Staff members will:

1. Explain the expectations for good behavior in various school settings.
2. Keep children engaged in meaningful learning and activity to prevent misbehavior.
3. Use proximity to communicate misbehaviors should stop.
4. Call the student’s name.
5. Conference with the student privately.
6. Deny privileges.
7. Conference with parents.
8. Send student to principal for guidance/consequences.
9. Principal holds conference with parents, student, and teacher.
10. Principal assigns in-school suspension time.
11. Principal assigns out-of-school suspension time.
12. Principal expels student.

While severe discipline (expulsion) is possible, it should be understood that a student will have many opportunities to receive guidance and instruction from both parents and teachers before this results.

Also note that consistent, disruptive behavior is the one reason students will be expelled from WCA. It is not fair to our students or parents to allow one student to hinder the learning opportunity of others.

Respect For School Property
It is assumed that our students will come to school understanding they must take good care of school property. If students mar or destroy school property - including textbooks - they will be asked to replace the damaged item.

Scholastic Cheating
The Westgate staff considers scholastic cheating to be a serious mistake because it is a reflection of character development. Cheating would be defined as any action that produces an unearned grade for another person or for self. Examples of actions that would trigger consequences related to cheating include but are not limited to:

• A student who copies another student’s work (applies to any assignment, test, project, etc.)
• A student who allows another student to copy his work.
• A student who presents past work or someone else’s work as their own.
• A student who engages in plagiarism

Consequences for cheating include but are not limited to:

• A score of 0 on the assignment in question
• Automatically must do the assignment for no credit
• Possible In-School suspension or Out-of-School suspension if the situation warrants it.