Reporting a student who is extremely rude or inappropriate
A student’s account will be temporarily suspended, preventing them from requesting tutoring sessions while we investigate their behavior. In severe cases, we will permanently ban the student. You should never feel uncomfortable or disrespected on UPchieve and we encourage you to report bad behavior.
Keep intent in mind when deciding whether to report a student, remember to give them the benefit of the doubt and think about their intent. For example, you should not report a student when they leave a session abruptly, as it could be due to technical issues. If you encounter a behavior that could be due to reluctance to learn or a subpar learning environment, please let us know in the post-session form instead.
Asking for help is hard for students, so we want to be sure we only suspend students behaving badly and not those who lack motivation.
Examples of situations you should report:
The student is using or sharing inappropriate or offensive language or content.
The student is harassing or threatening you.
The student keeps asking personal questions after you've informed them it's against UPchieve's guidelines.
The student is requesting to meet in person or through external platforms like Zoom or Google Hangouts.
Examples of situations to tell us about in the post-session survey instead:
The student is slow to respond, doesn’t respond at all, or abruptly ends the session.
The student is not engaging in the questions you ask or you perceive a lack of effort.
The student is attempting to cheat or asking you to do the work for them
Reporting a student whose immediate safety you are worried about
UPchieve is only qualified to provide academic support to students—we are not qualified to support a student in a crisis. In rare cases, a student may open up to you about a situation you deem to be unsafe for the student or those around them. If this happens, you should take these steps:
Report the student to UPchieve. Please note: Reporting a student whose immediate safety concerns you will not prevent them from requesting more tutoring but will alert staff to take steps immediately.
Validate their experience: “I hear you, it sounds like you’re going through a lot.”
Explain your role: “I'm not the right person to help you with what you need. I'm a tutor and UPchieve is only for academic support.”
Offer resources: “It sounds like you need to talk to someone who can help you beyond your academic needs. There are really supportive people that you can reach [choose a resource from below] and they’ll know how to help you because this is what they do.”
Resources to point them to:
Mental health crisis: www.crisistextline.org
Emotional support (not a crisis): https://need2text.com/
Child abuse: https://childhelphotline.org/
Homelessness: https://www.1800runaway.org/youth-teens/get-help
LGBTQ support: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
Sexual assault: https://hotline.rainn.org/online
Unhealthy romantic relationship: https://www.loveisrespect.org/
After these steps, you can continue to be present and validate their experience or you can end the session by saying, “I’m glad you’re looking for help today and I hope the resources were helpful! Please reach out to them, and I will be rooting for you.”
