Palmer Trinity School

{ 36 } THE HONOR SYSTEM PREAMBLE We learn the most about each other and ourselves as active members of a supportive and mutually trusting community, dedicated to upholding high standards based on honor and truth. HONOR CODE "As a member of the Palmer Trinity School community, I acknowledge and affirm my duty to act with honesty, integrity, and respect in all aspects of school life, and I expect all others to do the same." COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY e success of any honor system is determined by its followers' willingness to abide by the system and to help enforce it. e Palmer Trinity School Honor System is administered and enforced by the members of its student body, faculty, and administration in their everyday affirmation of integrity and in the pursuit of truth. As part of the expectations of the community to uphold the Honor Code and greater Honor System, any individual who witnesses a dishonorable act is required to do one of the following: 1. Confront the individual who committed the dishonorable act. 2. Notify a teacher or administrator that a dishonorable act has been committed. At the beginning of each school year, students and faculty will sign an acknowledgment of the Honor System and vow to uphold the integrity of the Palmer Trinity School community. Shortly thereafter, the School community will gather and each class's pledges, as well as the pledges of the staff and faculty, will be presented to the Head of School at an all-school convocation. Students are not required to reaffirm their honor on individual assignments, though they may be instructed to do so by their teachers or they may do so of their own accord. HONOR COUNCIL e Honor Council will be composed of four (4) seniors and three (3) juniors. In addition, three (3) members of the School's faculty, (one of whom will serve as Council Director), chosen by the Head of School, will sit as members of the Honor Council. In the spring of each year, nominations to the Council will be voted upon by the rising tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grades. e Head of School shall review the vote and holds ultimate discretion in all Honor Council appointments. Each year the Honor Council is responsible for implementing the Honor System in the Upper School. Yet the Honor System is not the Council; it is the sum of each student and teacher's willingness to act honorably and to insist upon honorable conduct from their respective peers. e individuals who live under the Honor System and enjoy its benefits must be willing to accept responsibility without compromise or exception. Reports of concerns/violations and investigations pertaining thereto, shall be kept confidential to the extent possible. However, consistent with the need to conduct adequate investigation, complete confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. e Council is bound by a Code of Ethics to maintain the highest degree of confidentiality and sensitivity possible to the proceedings of the Council.

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