The Superintendent or designee will oversee the District’s electronic communications system.

The District will provide training in proper use of the system and will provide all users with copies of acceptable use guidelines.  All training in the use of the District’s system will emphasize the ethical and safe use of this resource.

CONSENT REQUIREMENT

Copyrighted software or data may not be placed on any system connected to the District’s system without permission from the holder of the copyright.  Only the copyright owner, or an individual the owner specifically authorizes, may upload copyrighted material to the system.

No original work created by any District student or employee will be posted on a web page under the District’s control unless the District has received written consent from the student (and the student’s parent if the student is a minor) or employee who created the work.

No personally identifiable information about a District student will be posted on a web page under the District’s control unless the District has received written consent from the student’s parent.  An exception may be made for directory information as allowed by the Family educational Rights and Privacy Act and District policy.  [See policies at FL]

FILTERING

The Superintendent or designee will select, implement, and maintain appropriate technology for filtering Internet sites containing material considered inappropriate or harmful to minors.  All Internet access will be filtered for minors and adults on computers with Internet access provided by the school.

The categories of material considered inappropriate and to which access will be blocked will include, but not be limited to: nudity/pornography, weapons, drug use, instructions for performing criminal acts (e.g., bomb making), and on-line gambling.

REQUESTS TO DISABLE FILTER

The Superintendent or designee will consider requests from users who wish to use a blocked site for bona fide research or other lawful purpose. 

SYSTEM ACCESS

Access to the District’s electronic communications system will be governed as follows:

1. Students will be granted access to the District’s system (Internet and campus network).  They will be assigned individual network accounts, which will allow them to access the campus server.

2. With the approval of the campus principal, a student may be assigned an Intranet e-mail account.

3. As appropriate and with the approval of the immediate supervisor, District employees will be granted access to the District’s system.

4. With the approval of the immediate supervisor, a District employee may be assigned a District e-mail account.

5. Any system user identified as a security risk or as having violated District and/or campus computer use guidelines may be denied access to the District’s system

6. All users will be required to sign a user agreement annually to be granted access to the District’s electronic/communications system (Internet, network, and e-mail).

TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR RESPONSIBILITIES

The Technology Director or campus designee will:

1. Be responsible for disseminating and enforcing applicable District policies and acceptable use guidelines for the District’s system.

2. Ensure that all users of the District’s system complete and sign annually an agreement to abide by District policies and administrative regulations regarding such use.  All such agreements will be maintained on file in the principal’s or supervisor’s office.

3. Ensure that employees supervising students who use the District’s system provide training emphasizing the appropriate use of this resource.

4. Ensure that all software loaded on computers in the District is consistent with District standards and is properly licensed.

5. Be authorized to monitor or examine all system activities, including electronic mail transmissions, as deemed appropriate to ensure student safety on-line and proper use of the system.

6. Be authorized to disable a filtering device on the system for bona fide research or another lawful purpose, with approval from the Superintendent.

7. Be authorized to establish a retention schedule for messages on any electronic bulletin board and to remove messages posted locally that are deemed to be inappropriate.

8. Set limits for data storage within the District’s system, as needed.

INDIVIDUAL USER RESPONSIBILITIES

The following standards will apply to all users of the District’s electronic information/communications systems:

1. The individual in whose name a system account is issued will be responsible at all times for its proper use.

2. The system may not be used for illegal purposes, in support of illegal activities, or for any other activity prohibited by District policy or guidelines.

3. System users may not disable, or attempt to disable, a filtering device on the District’s electronic communications system.

4. Communications may not be encrypted so as to avoid security review by system administrators.

5. System users may not use another person’s system account without written permission from the campus administrator or Technology Director, as appropriate.

6. Students may not distribute personal information about themselves or others by means of the electronic communications system; this includes, but is not limited to, personal addresses and telephone numbers.

7. Students should never make appointments to meet people whom they meet on-line and should report to a teacher or administrator if they receive any request for such a meeting.

8. System users must purge electronic mail in accordance with established retention guidelines.

9. System users may not redistribute copyrighted programs or data except with the written permission of the copyright holder or designee.  Such permission must be specified in the document or must be obtained directly from the copyright holder or designee in accordance with applicable copyright laws, District policy, and administrative regulations.

10. System users should avoid actions that are likely to increase the risk of introducing viruses to the system, such as opening e-mail messages from unknown senders and loading data from unprotected computers.

11. System users may upload public domain programs to the system.  System users may also download public domain programs for their own use or may noncommercially redistribute a public domain program.  System users are responsible for determining whether a program is in the public domain.

12. System users may not send or post messages that are abusive, obscene, pornographic, sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, damaging to another’s reputation, or illegal.

13. System users may not purposefully access materials that are abusive, obscene, pornographic, sexually oriented, threatening, harassing, damaging to another’s reputation, or illegal.

14. System users should be mindful that use of school-related electronic mail addresses might cause some recipients or other readers of that mail to assume they represent the District or school, whether or not that was the user’s intention.

15. System users may not waste District resources related to electronic communications system.

16. System users may not gain unauthorized access to resources or information.

VANDALISM PROHIBITED

Any malicious attempt to harm or destroy District equipment or data or the data of another user of the District’s system or of any of the agencies or other networks that are connected to the Internet is prohibited.  Deliberate attempts to degrade or disrupt system performance are violations of District policy and administrative regulations and may constitute criminal activity under applicable state and federal laws.  Such prohibited activity includes, but is not limited to, the uploading or creating of computer viruses.

Vandalism as defined above will result in the cancellation of system use privileges and will require restitution for costs associated with system restoration, as well as other appropriate consequences [See DH, FN series, FO series, and the Student Code of Conduct]

FORGERY PROHIBITED

Forgery or attempted forgery of electronic mail messages is prohibited.  Attempts to read, delete, copy or modify the electronic mail of other system users, deliberate interference with the ability of other system users to send/receive electronic mail, or the use of another person’s user ID and/or password is prohibited.

INFORMATION CONTENT/THIRD PARTY SUPPLIED INFORMATION

System users and parents of students with access to the District’s system should be aware that, despite the District’s use of technology protection measures as required by law, use of the system may provide access to other electronic communications systems in the global electronic network that may contain inaccurate and /or objectionable material.

A student who gains access to such material is expected to discontinue the access as quickly as possible and to report the incident to the supervising teacher.

A student knowingly bringing prohibited materials into the school’s electronic environment will be subject to suspension of access and/or revocation of privileges on the District’s system and will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct.

An employee knowingly bringing prohibited materials into the school’s electronic environment will be subject to disciplinary action in accordance with District policies. [See DH]

PARTICIPATION IN CHAT ROOMS AND NEWS GROUPS

Participation in chat rooms and newsgroups accessed on the Internet is permissible only for students in grades 7th-12th, under appropriate supervision, and for employees.

DISTRICT WEB SITE

The District will maintain a District web site for the purpose of informing employees, students, parents, and members of the community of District programs, policies, and practices.  Requests for publication of information on the District web site must be directed to the Technology Director.  The Technology Director will establish guidelines for the development and format of web pages controlled by the District.

No personally identifiable information regarding a student will be published on a web site controlled by the District without written permission from the student’s parent.

No commercial advertising will be permitted on a web site controlled by the District.

SCHOOL OR CLASS WEB PAGES

Schools or classes may publish and link to the District’s site web pages that present information about the school or class activities, subject to approval from the Technology Director.  The campus principal will designate the staff member responsible for managing the campus’s web page under the supervision of the District’s Technology Director.  Teachers will be responsible for compliance with District rules in maintaining their class web pages.  Any links from a school or class web page to sites outside the District’s computer system must receive approval from the Technology Director.

STUDENT WEB PAGES

With the approval of the District Technology Director, students may establish individual web pages linked to a campus or District web site; however, all material presented on a student’s web page must be related to the student’s educational activities.  Student web pages must include the following notice:  “This is a student web page.  Opinions expressed on this page shall not be attributed to the District. Any links from a student’s web page to sites outside the District’s computer system must receive approval from the District Technology Director.”

EXTRACURRICULAR ORGANIZATION WEB PAGES

With the approval of the Technology Director, extracurricular organizations may establish web pages linked to a campus or District web site; however, all material presented on the web page must relate specifically to organization activities and include only student-produced material.  The sponsor of the organization will be responsible for compliance with District rules for maintaining the web page.  Web pages of extracurricular organizations must include the following notice:  “This is a student extracurricular organization web page.  Opinions expressed on this page shall not be attributed to the District. Any links from the web page of an extracurricular organization to sites outside the District’s computer system must receive approval from the District Technology Director.”

PERSONAL WEB PAGES

District employees, Trustees, and members of the public will not be permitted to publish personal web pages using District resources.

NETWORK ETIQUETTE

System users are expected to observe the following network etiquette:

1. Be polite; messages typed in capital letters are the computer equivalent of shouting and are considered rude.

2. Use appropriate language; swearing, vulgarity, ethnic or racial slurs, and any other inflammatory language are prohibited.

3. Pretending to be someone else when sending/receiving messages is considered inappropriate.

            4. Transmitting obscene messages or pictures is prohibited.

5. Be considerate when sending attachments with e-mail by considering whether a file may be too large to be accommodated by the recipient’s system or may be in a format unreadable by the recipient.

6. Using the network in such a way that would disrupt the use of the network by other users is prohibited.

TERMINATION/REVOCATION OF SYSTEM USER ACCOUNT

Termination of an employee’s or a student’s access for violation of District policies or regulations will be effective on the date the principal or Technology Director receives notice of the violation, or on a future date if so specified in the notice.

DISCLAIMER

The District’s system is provided on an as is, as available basis.  The District does not make any warranties, whether express or implied, including, without limitation, those of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to any services provided by the system and any information or software contained therein.  The District does not warrant that the functions or services performed by or that the information or software contained on the system will meet the system user’s requirements, or that the system will be uninterrupted or error free, or that defects will be corrected.

Opinions, advice, services, and all other information expressed by system users, information providers, service providers, or other third party individuals in the system are those of the providers and not the District.

The District will cooperate fully with local, state, or federal officials in any investigation concerning or relating to misuse of the District’s electronic communication system.