General User Policy



Donna ISD

108902

 

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        CQ

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                (REGULATION)

 

 

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 use of this resource.

 

CONSENT                            Copyrighted software or data may not be placed on any system

REQUIREMENTS               connected to the District’s system without permission from the holder of the copyright. Only the owner(s) or individual(s) 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) or employee who created the work. [See CQ(EXHIBIT)]

 

                                                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 Education Records Privacy Act and District policy.  [See CQ (EXHIBIT) and policies at FL]

 

FILTERING                           The Superintendent will appoint a committee, to be chaired by the technology coordinator, to 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; images or descriptions of sexual acts; promotion of violence, illegal use of weapons, drug use, discrimination, or participation in hate groups; instructions for performing criminal acts (e.g. bomb making); and online gambling.

 

REQUESTS TO

DISABLE FILTER                 The committee will consider requests from users who wish to use a blocked site for bona fide research or other lawful purposes. The committee will make recommendation to the Superintendent regarding approval or disapproval of disabling the filter for requested use.

 

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

 

1.      Students in all grades will be granted access to the District’s system by their teachers, as appropriate. No student will be assigned an individual account or password.

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

3.      A teacher may apply for a class account and in doing so will be ultimately responsible for use of the account.

4.      The District will require that all passwords issued be changed periodically.

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 for issuance or renewal of an account.

 

TECHNOLOGY            

COORDINATOR          

RESPONSIBILITIES       The technology coordinator for the District’s electronic communications   system (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 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 all users of the District’s system complete and sign  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.

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 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.

9.       

 

INDIVIDUAL USE         

RESPONSIBILITIES       The following standards will apply to all users of the District’s electronic

information/communications systems:

 

 

ONLINE CONDUCT   

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.

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

2.      System users may not use another person’s system account without written permission from the campus administrator or District coordinator, as appropriate.

3.      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.

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

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

6.      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.

7.      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.

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

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

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

11.  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.

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

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

14.  Users shall not develop or use programs that harass other users or infiltrate a computer, computing system or network and/or damage or alter the hardware or software components or a computer, computing system, or network.

15.  Sending “chain letters” or “broadcast” messages to lists or individuals, and other types of use that would cause network congestion or otherwise interfere with the work of others are not allowed.

 

VANDALISIM              

PROHIBITED                Any malicious attempt to harm or destroy District equipment or data or another user of the District’s system, or 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                 System users and parents of students with access to the District’s system -

CONTENT / THIRD            should be aware that use of the system may provide access to other electronic

PARTY SUPPLIED              communications systems in the global electronic network that may contain

INFORMATION                 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 brining 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 newsgroups accessed on the Internet is permissible only for students in grades 5-12, 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 We site must be directed to the designated Webmaster. The technology coordinator and the District Webmaster 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 Web pages that present information about

 the school or class activities, subject to approval from the Webmaster. The campus principal will

designate the staff responsible for managing the campus’s Web page under the supervision of the

District’s Webmaster. 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 of the District’s

computer system must receive approval from the District Webmaster

 

STUDENT WEB                   With the approval of the District technology coordinator, students may establish individual Web

PAGES                                  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 education 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 Webmaster

 

EXTRACURRICULAR         With the approval of the District Webmaster, extracurricular organizations may

ORGANIZATION               establish Web pages linked to a campus or District Web site; however, all

WEB PAGES                        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 Webmaster.

 

PERSONAL WEB                District employees, Trustees, and members of the public will not be permitted

PAGES                                  to publish personal Web pages using District resources.

 

NETWORK                           System Users are expected to observe the following network etiquette:

ETTIQUITE

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 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 is prohibited.

 

TERMINATION  /              Termination of an employee’s or students’ access for violation of District

REVOCATION OF              policies or regulations will be effective on the date the principal or District

SYSTEM USER                    coordinator receives notice of student withdrawal or of revocation of system

ACCOUNT                           privileges, 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 of 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 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 communications system.

 

 

DATE ISSUED: 9/17/2001

LDU-38-01

CQ (REGUALTION)-X