|
The School District of Auburndale offers students access to school computer networks and the Internet. The Internet gives students access to educational resources around the world. Many classes incorporate the Internet as a primary research resource. The district includes Internet safety instruction within the K-12 curriculum to educate students about appropriate online behavior including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and building awareness and response to cyber bullying.
Students and parents/guardians are advised that a student’s use of a school computer network – including which computers they use, which Internet sites they visit, what e-mail they send and receive and what material they save on the network – shall be monitored and sometimes accessed. Students should not expect privacy in any work they do, any communication they make or any material they save.
Students are responsible for good behavior while using school computer networks just as they are in the classroom or school hallway. In general, school rules for behavior and communications apply to computer uses as well.
Cyber bullying involves the use of information and communication technologies such as email, cell phone, and pager text messages, instant messaging, defamatory personal web sites, and defamatory online personal polling web sites, to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm others. Any form of cyber bullying is unacceptable and a violation of board policies regarding student conduct and acceptable internet usage.
The use of school computer networks is a privilege, not a right. Failure to abide by the rules governing student computer use may result in a forfeiture of that privilege. The rules listed below address specific examples of inappropriate and prohibited conduct, but are not intended to exclude other activities that may result in a forfeiture of computer use privileges.
1. All use of a school computer network must support learning appropriate for school.
2. No student may use a school computer network unless a supervising adult is present or the student has prior written permission from a staff member.
3. No student without an active user account may use a school computer network and no student may log onto the system using someone else’s account, even with his/her permission.
4. A student should primarily use e-mail as part of curricular-based classroom activities under the supervision of a staff member or authorized adult.
5. No student may agree to meet with someone he/she has “met” online without parent/guardian approval.
6. No student may share personal information about himself/herself or others on the Internet, including pictures or video, personal passwords, full names, addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers, or credit card information.
7. Students may access high-quality Web 2.0 services (such as social networking sites, wikis, podcasts, Rss feeds and blogs) that are approved by a teacher or other professional staff member, meet specific curriculum objectives and are consistent with district curriculum guides.
8. No student may access or attempt to access any material stored in another user’s designated network storage space. No student may access or attempt to access material that is not available using his/her system name and password. No student may access or attempt to access unauthorized areas of the system. No student may access or attempt to access any other user’s password.
9. No student may use a school computer network in such a way as to disrupt or threaten to disrupt the ability of others to use the system. Disruption may but need not include damage to equipment or stored data.
10. No student may use a school computer network to bully, send threatening, hateful, harassing, insulting, defamatory, or offensive communications.
11. No student may use a school computer network to obtain or transmit any material that advocates illegal acts or is defamatory, inaccurate, obscene, child pornography, harmful to minors or otherwise inappropriate.
12. No student may waste limited network resources, including bandwidth and storage space.
13. No student may download software.
14. No student may use a school computer network for illegal or commercial purpose.
15. No student may engage in off-campus misconduct through the use of technology or electronic devices that endangers the health and safety of students or staff on school premises or under school supervision, or substantially disrupts the educational process.
16. No student may use technology resources to bully, threaten, or attack another student or staff member or to access and/or set up unauthorized blogs, social networking, or other Web 2.0 sites, including but not limited to My Space.com, Facebook.com or Xanga.com.
Students suspected of inappropriate or prohibited computer use shall be investigated. Students found to have violated the rules above or other school rules governing behavior or communication may lose computer privileges, even if this leaves them unable to complete required assignments. They might also be subject to other discipline including suspension and/or expulsion and/or criminal prosecution. Decisions about punishment and whether to involve the police shall be made by the Principal and District Administrator.
Although there is a national consensus among educators that the benefits of Internet access outweigh the risks, parent/guardians need to know that because anyone can publish on the Internet, many Internet sites contain material that is illegal, defamatory, inaccurate, offensive, obscene, child pornography, harmful to minors or otherwise inappropriate. Although it is impossible to eliminate the risk that students might be exposed to such material, the district attempts to reduce a student’s risk of exposure to such material by enforcing rules #2 and #11 above, electronically monitoring student computer network use so that students can be held accountable for Internet sites they have visited and filtering Internet traffic coming into its network to restrict access to inappropriate sites.
Despite these risk reducing practices and procedures, determined students might still be able to access inappropriate sites and the School District of Auburndale does not guarantee that such access will be impossible on a school computer network. Ultimately, students are responsible for where they choose to go on the Internet. Parents/guardians who are concerned about risk to their child because of Internet access should contact the child’s Principal.
Approved: January 26, 2005
Revised: February 18, 2009
| 
