6.25 USE OF COMPUTERS, THE INTERNET, AND ELECTRONIC MAIL (Approved by
Board action 10-12-99)
- Acceptable Use of the Internet
The Elida
Municipal School
District has available to students and teachers
in the District resources to access electronic information services, and is in
the process of expanding those resources.
The District strongly supports the belief in the educational value of
such electronic services and recognizes the potential of such to support our
curricula and student learning in any form of misuses or abuses as a result of
their experiences with an information services.
All users must be continuously on guard to avoid inappropriate and
illegal interaction with the information services.
- Student Acceptable Use Policy
The Elida
Municipal School
District is offering Internet access for student
use. The District adopts this Acceptable
Use Policy to govern use of the internet (which includes e-mail) by students.
- Educational Purpose
a. The Elida Municipal
School District has been
established for a limited educational purpose.
The term “educational purpose” includes classroom, career development,
and limited high-quality self-discovery activities.
b. Elida Schools has not been
established as a public access service or a public forum. The District has the right to place
reasonable restrictions on the material you access or post through the system. You are also expected to follow the rules set
forth in the District’s discipline policies and the laws of the state of New Mexico in your use
of internet access.
c. You may not use the internet for
commercial purposes. This means you may
not offer, provide, or purchase products or services through the schools’
internet.
d. You may not use the internet for
political lobbying. But you may use the
system to communicate with elected representatives and to express your opinion
on political issues.
- Student Internet Access
a. All students will have access to
Internet World Wide Web information resources through their classroom, library,
or school computer lab.
b. Elementary students will have e-mail
access only under their teacher’s direct supervision using a classroom
account. Elementary students may be
provided with individual e-mail accounts on internet under special
circumstances, at the request of their teacher and with approval of their
parent.
c. Secondary students may obtain an
individual e-mail account with the approval of their parent.
d. You and your parent must sign an
Account Agreement to be granted an individual e-mail account on the school
internet system. This Agreement must be
renewed on an annual basis. Your parent
can withdraw their approval at any time.
e. If approved by a teacher, you may
create a personal Web page on the School’s internet system. All material placed on your Web page must be
prepared in a manner specified by the school.
Material placed on your Web page must relate to your school and career
preparation activities.
- Unacceptable Use of the
Internet
The following uses of school’s internet system are
considered unacceptable:
- Personal Safety
a. You will not post personal contact
information about yourself or other people.
Personal contact information includes your address, telephone, school address,
work address, etc.
b. You will not agree to meet someone
you have met on-line without your parent’s approval. Your parent should accompany you to this
meeting.
c. You promptly disclose to your
teacher or other school employee any message you receive that is inappropriate
or makes you feel uncomfortable.
- Illegal Activities
a. You will not attempt to gain
unauthorized access to Elida
School District computer
system through internet access or go beyond your authorized access. This includes attempting to log in through
another person’s account or access another person’s files. These actions are illegal, even if only for
the purposes of “browsing.”
b. You will not make deliberate
attempts to disrupt the computer system or destroy data by spreading computer
viruses or by any other means. The
actions are illegal.
c. You will not use the school’s
computer system to engage in any other illegal act, such as arranging for a
drug sale or the purchase of alcohol, engaging in criminal gang activity,
threatening the safety of a person, etc.
d. Harassment of another person through
the internet is a crime and violators will be subject to school disciplinary
and legal action.
- System Security
a. You are responsible for your
individual account and should take all reasonable precautions to prevent others
from being able to use your account.
Under no conditions should you provide your password to another person.
b. You will immediately notify a
teacher or principal if you have identified a possible security problem. Do not go looking for security problems,
because this may be construed as an illegal attempt to gain access.
c. You will avoid the inadvertent
spread of computer viruses following the District virus protection procedures
in you download software.
- Inappropriate Language
a. Restrictions against inappropriate
Language apply to public messages, private messages, and material posted on Web
pages.
b. You will not use obscene, profane,
lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, threatening, or disrespectful language.
c. You will not post information that could
cause damage or a danger of disruption.
d. You will not engage in personal
attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks.
e. You will not harass another
person. Harassment is persistently
acting in a manner that distresses or annoys another person. If you are told by a person to stop sending
them messages, you must stop.
f.
You
will not knowingly or recklessly post false or defamatory information about a
person or organization.
- Respect for Privacy
a. You will not re-post a message that
was sent to you privately without permission of the person who sent you the
message.
b. You will not post private
information about another person.
- Respecting Resource Limits
a. You will use the system only for educational
and career development activities and limited, high-quality, self-discovery
activities. There is not limit on use
for education and career development activities. The limit on self-discovery activities is no
more than one (1) hour per week.
b. You will not download large files
unless absolutely necessary. If
necessary, you will download the file at a time when the system is not being
heavily used and immediately remove the file from the system computer to your
personal computer.
c. You will not post chain letters or
engage in spamming. Spamming is sending
an annoying or unnecessary message to a large number of people.
d. You will check your e-mail
frequently, delete unwanted messages promptly, and stay within your e-mail
quota.
e. You will subscribe only to high
quality discussion group mail lists that are relevant to your education or
career development.
- Plagiarism and Copyright
Infringement
a. You will not plagiarize works that
you find on the Internet, Plagiarism is taking the ideas or writings of others
and representing them as if they were yours.
b. You will respect the rights of
copyright owners. Copyright infringement
occurs when you inappropriately reproduce a work that is protected by a
copyright. If a work contains language
that specifies appropriate us of that work, you should follow the expressed
requirements. If you are unsure whether or not you can use a work, you should
request permission from the copyright owner.
Copyright law can be very confusing.
If you have questions ask a teacher.
- Inappropriate Access to
Material
a. You will not use the school’s
internet system to access material that is profane or obscene (pornography),
that advocates illegal acts, or that advocates violence or discrimination
towards other people (hate literature). A special exception may be made for
hate literature if the purpose of your access is to conduct research and both
your teacher and parent have approved.
b. If you mistakenly access
inappropriate information, you should immediately tell your teacher or another
District employee. This will protect you
against a claim that you have intentionally violated this Policy.
c. Your parents should instruct you if
there is additional material that they think would be inappropriate for you to
access. The district fully expects that
you follow your parent’s instructions in this matter.
- Your Rights
- Free Speech
a. Your right to free speech, as set
forth in the Elida
School District’s
discipline policy, applies also to your communication on the Internet. The school’s internet system is considered a
limited forum, similar to a newspaper, and therefore the District may restrict
your speech for valid educational reasons.
The District will not restrict your speech on the basis of a
disagreement with the opinions you are expressing.
- Search and Seizure
a. You should expect only limited
privacy in contents of your personal files on the District internet
system. The situation is similar to the
rights you have in the privacy of your locker: the District has the right to
inspect the content of your files.
b. Routine maintenance and monitoring
of the district’s internet system may lead to discovery that you have violated
this policy, the district discipline policy or the law. The investigation will be reasonable and related
to suspected violation.
c. Your parents have the right at any
time to request to see the contents of your e-mail files.
- Due Process
a. The District will cooperate fully
with local, state, or federal officials in any investigation related to any illegal
activities conducted through the District internet system.
b. In the event there is a claim that
you have violated this policy or the district’s discipline policy in your use
of the internet system, you will be provided with a written notice of the suspected
violation and an opportunity to present an explanation before a neutral
administrator.
c. If the violation also involves a
violation of other provisions of the discipline policy, it will be handled in a
manner described in the discipline policy.
Additional restrictions may be placed on your use of the internet.
- Limitations of Liability
The District makes no guarantee that the functions or the
services provided by or through the District system will be error-free or
without defect. The District will not be
responsible for any damage you may suffer, including but not limited to, loss
of data or interruptions of service. The
District is not responsible for the accuracy or quality of the information
obtained through or stored on the system.
The District will not be responsible for financial obligations arising
through the unauthorized use of the system.
- Personal Liability
When you are using the District’s internet system, it may
feel like you can more easily bread a rule and not get caught. This is not really true because whenever you
do something on a network you leave little “electronic footprints,” so the odds
of getting caught are really about the same as they are in the real world.
But the fact
that you can do something or think you can do something without being caught
does not make it right to do so. Even if you don’t
get caught, there is always one person who will know whether you have done
wrong—and that person is you. Your use
of the Internet can be a mirror that will show you what kind of person you are.
Required Signatures -
Please Read, Sign, and Return to Building Principal
STAFF or STUDENT
I understand and will
abide by the provisions and conditions of this contract. I understand that any violations of the
above provisions may result in disciplinary action, the revoking of my user
account, and appropriate legal action. I also agree to report any misuse of the
information system to the Elida Municipal School District System Administrator.
Misuse can come in many forms, but can be viewed as any message(s) is sent or
received that indicates or suggests pornography, unethical or illegal
solicitation, racism, sexism, inappropriate language, and other issues
described above. All the rules of conduct described in the District publication
entitled "Guidelines on the Acceptable Use of Electronic Information"
apply when I am on the network.
Staff or Student Name (Please Print)
________________________________________________
Staff or Student Signature_________________________________________Date________________
PARENT OR
GUARDIAN
Students under the age
of 18 must also have the signature of a parent or guardian who has read this
contract
As the parent or guardian
of this student, I have read this contract and understand that it is designed
for educational purposes. I understand that it is impossible for the Elida Municipal
School District to
restrict access to all controversial materials, and I will not hold the
District responsible for materials acquired on the network. I also agree to
report any misuse of the information system to the Elida Municipal School
District System Administrator. Misuse can come in many forms, but can be viewed
as any message(s) is sent or received that indicates or suggests pornography,
unethical or illegal solicitation, racism, sexism, inappropriate language, and
other issues described above.
If the student
violates these provisions, access to the information service may be denied and
I may be subject to legal and disciplinary action.
Parent or Guardian Name (Please
Print) ______________________________________________
Signature Date______________
SPONSORING
TEACHER
I have read this contract and agree to
promote this agreement with the student. As the sponsoring teacher, I agree
to instruct the student on acceptable use of the network and proper network
etiquette. I also agree to report any misuse of the information system to the
Elida Municipal School District System Administrator. Misuse can come in many
forms, but can be viewed as any message(s) is sent or received that indicates
or suggests pornography, unethical or illegal solicitation, racism, sexism,
inappropriate language, and other issues described above.
Teacher's Name (Please Print)
____________________________________________________
Signature__________________________________________Date________________________
ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF
EDUCATION: October 12, 1999