Policy AC: Nondiscrimination

Public Schools have the responsibility to overcome, insofar as possible, any barriers that prevent children from achieving their potential. This commitment to the community is affirmed in the following statements of School Committees’ intent to:

1. Promote the rights and responsibilities of all individuals as set forth in the state and federal constitutions, pertinent legislation, and applicable judicial interpretations.
2. Encourage positive experiences in human values for children and youth and adults, all of whom have differing personal and family characteristics and who come from various socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups.
3. Work toward a more integrated society and to enlist the support of individuals as well as groups and agencies, both private and governmental, in such an effort.
4. Use appropriate communication procedures to resolve the grievances of individuals and groups.
5. Carefully consider, in all the decisions made within the school system, the potential benefits or adverse consequences that those decisions might have on the human relations aspects of all segments of society.
6. Regularly review the policies and practices of this school system in order to achieve to the greatest extent possible the objectives of this statement.

The Committees’ policy of nondiscrimination extends to students, staff, and the general public with whom it does business. The Amherst-Pelham Regional District, the Amherst Public Schools, and the Pelham Elementary School do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, political party, and disability in admission to, access to, employment in, or treatment by its programs and activities.