VII Academy Participant Code of Ethics
VII Academy
Participant Code of Ethics
Responsibility to VII Academy
VII Academy is committed to the highest standards of teaching integrity and ethics. We recognize an obligation to comply with professional standards, legal and regulatory requirements, and our own policies and procedures.
In all activities, members of the VII Academy community are expected to conduct themselves honestly and with the utmost integrity. Nowhere is this more important than in a teaching or learning environment.
When attending a VII Academy educational activity, the VII Academy student assumes all responsibilities laid out in this document on behalf of themselves, colleagues they learn with and any guests they invite to participate in any activity with the VII Academy or any VII Academy-related teaching environment.
Failure to comply with certain laws and regulations can result in significant adverse consequences for VII Academy. Accordingly, all members of the VII Academy community are expected to comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern their activities.
Responsibility to fellow students
VII Academy respects individual rights. It seeks to uphold these rights through respect, equal treatment and honest dealing. It expects equal treatment and tolerance for differing viewpoints regardless of an individual’s race, color, national and/or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and expression (including a transgender identity), genetics, and any other characteristic protected under applicable international and national laws.
Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated whether it is sexual, racial, or based on religious or political beliefs.
A VII Academy student’s obligation is to be part of a learning environment that treats everyone with dignity and respect. This includes establishing and maintaining appropriate verbal, physical, emotional and social boundaries.
A VII Academy student will never knowingly appropriate another person’s images, photographs, work, nor ideas in any context.
A VII Academy trainer will establish and maintain a teaching environment that promotes the emotional, intellectual, physical, and sexual safety of all students.
Contact and relationships
VII Academy trainers will consider the implication of accepting gifts from or giving gifts to individual students; will never engage in physical contact with students unless there is a clearly defined purpose that benefits the student such as a medical or safety emergency; will avoid relationships with students which might impair objectivity and increase the risk of harm to student learning or well-being or decrease educator effectiveness; acknowledges that there are no circumstances that allow for educators to engage in romantic or sexual relationships with students; and consider the ramifications of entering into an adult relationship of any kind with a former student, including but not limited to, any potential harm to the former student, public perception, and the possible impact on VII Academy. The VII Academy trainer ensures that the adult relationship was not started while the former student was enrolled in a VII Academy education program.
Data Protection and Communication
VII Academy students will
• interact with other students and trainers with transparency and in appropriate settings;
• communicate with others in a clear, respectful, and culturally sensitive manner;
• respect the privacy of students
• understand the need to hold in confidence certain forms of student communication, documents, or information obtained in the course of attending a program.
VII Academy students undertake to use social media responsibly; will consider the ramifications of using social media and direct communication via technology on his/her interactions with students, colleagues, and the general public; and understand that electronic communication may put the student at risk which must be avoided at all times.
Reporting violations
The VII Academy student acknowledges that lack of awareness, knowledge, or understanding of this Code of Ethics is not, in itself, a defense to a charge of unethical conduct; alleged violations will be investigated by the VII Academy Directors, the Board of The VII Foundation, and outside experts. If there are complaints against the Directors or the Board they will be investigated by elected members and outside experts.
The VII Academy student undertakes to:
• Take proactive steps when having reason to believe that another VII Academy student, trainer or invited guest may be approaching or involved in an ethically compromising situation;
• Neither discriminate nor retaliate against a person on the basis of having made an ethical complaint;
• Neither file nor encourage frivolous ethical complaints solely to harm or retaliate.
• Cooperate fully during ethics investigations and proceedings.
