Dr. Hugh Gigante, Western Suffolk BOCES Compliance Officer, 631-549-4900
The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) was established by New York State to protect all students from harassment, bullying and discrimination. DASA prohibits bullying, harassment, discrimination, or cyberbullying against students in school based on the following: race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender (including gender identity and expression), sex or other.
Bullying is described as an unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.
- Bullying can occur before and after school hours, in a school building, on a playground, on a school bus while a student is traveling to or from school, or on the Internet.
- Bullying can take many forms, including: physical abuse (pushing or hitting); verbal taunting (teasing, name calling or offensive jokes); social exclusion/isolation; written harassment (graffiti, notes and drawings); and cyberbullying (texts, social media posts, etc.)
Harassment is defined as the creation of a hostile environment by conduct or verbal threats, intimidation, or abuse that has or would have the following effect:
- reasonably and substantially interfering with a student鈥檚 educational performance, opportunities or benefits; or
- would reasonably be expected to cause a student to fear for his or her physical safety
Discrimination is the act of denying rights, benefits, justice, equitable treatment or access to facilities available to all others, to an individual or group of people because of the group, class or category to which that person belongs.
If you believe you, or someone else, has been the target of harassment, bullying, cyber-bullying, and/or discrimination, please聽complete a Western Suffolk BOCES DASA Incident Reporting Form and return it to a school administrator or Dignity Act Coordinator. All complaints will be treated in a confidential manner. Anonymous reports may limit the agency鈥檚 ability to respond to the complaint. A prompt and thorough investigation will be conducted for all incident reports.
For additional information about the Dignity for All Students Act, visit
For more information, contact the Dignity Act Coordinator in your child鈥檚 school.聽The names, designated school and contact information for each school building鈥檚 Dignity Act Coordinators聽are provided below:
Western Suffolk BOCES Dignity Act Coordinators
Special Education Division Alison Quinlan 631-549-4920 x280
JEA Elementary Kim Alvarado 631-254-0094
Lincoln Elementary Staci Governa 631-254-7820
Chestnut Hill Elementary Theresa Popofsky 631-242-5560
JEA Jr/Sr High School Karen Walsh聽 631-549-5580
Brennan Middle/High School-Aspire Academy Anthony Letterel 631-491-4149
JEA Alternative & ALC Program Thomas Logatto 631-586-1300
Manor Plains HS聽Robert Caravello 631-754-2900
Itinerant Program Maryann Sullivan 631-595-6914
Wilson Tech Huntington Jennifer Paterson 631-754-2900
Wilson Tech Dix Hills Karen Bowden 631-667-6000 x383
Wilson Tech Northport Stephanie Engelmann 631-261-3600 x200
Wilson Tech Republic Diana Santiago 631-752-1957