Call it the new sex ed.
For the past 15 years, the Delaware County District Attorney's Office has run what they call a Safe Schools Summit.
It was started in the wake of the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Most years, it has focused on violence and other threats to students well-being, for the main part zeroing in on school security.
The focus was even more intense after the nation was again stunned when a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and opened fire on innocent kids and teachers.
This year the Safe Schools Summit is taking a different twist.
Titled "Students and Teachers; the Bounds of Propriety," the session at the Drexelbrook in Drexel Hill will take a look at the increasingly problematic issue of relationships between teachers and students that cross the line.
Delaware County has not been immune to stories of teachers becoming sexually involved with students. The summit will gather school administrators, teachers and public safety professionals to talk about the limits of communication between teachers and students, and the dangers of crossing the line.
The focus of the session will be on electronic communications and social media, reviewing the boundaries for communication and just how easily they can be crossed.
The D.A.'s office hopes to lay out for teachers and school leaders how they can "set, maintain and enforce appropriate communication boundaries that protect both students and educators from harm.
Among the items that will be covered are:
* The rise of inappropriate communication and physical relationships between students and school authorities.
* Policies, standards, regulations and criminal laws regarding codes of conduct.
* Understanding why this happens and how inappropriate relationships occur.
* How schools and districts are addressing the problem through prevention.
* What do do when improper student-teacher conduct is suspected and the tools available to authorities to investigate.
We'll be there to offer full coverage on an issue that is increasingly on the radar of law enforcement officials, school administrators and parents.
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