St.Vincent Ferrer
High School Technology Acceptable Usage Policy
INTRODUCTION:
To ensure that students
receive a quality education and that employees are able to work in a
professional and intellectually stimulating environment, it is the policy of
the St.Vincent Ferrer High
School to provide all students and employees with access to a variety of
technology resources.
The creation of a large and
varied technology environment demands that technology usage be conducted in
legally and ethically appropriate ways, consistent with the Mission Statement
and instructional goals of the St.Vincent Ferrer High School.
Thus, it is the intention
of the St.Vincent Ferrer
High School that all technology resources will be used in accordance with all
school system policies and procedures as well as local, state, and federal laws
and/or guidelines governing the usage of technology and its component parts.
Additionally, it is implied that all students and employees of the St.Vincent Ferrer High School
will use the provided technology resources so as not to waste them, abuse them,
interfere with or cause harm to other individuals, institutions, or companies.
The administrator of the
school will be responsible for establishing specific practices to enforce this
policy at St.Vincent Ferrer
High School.
All St.Vincent
Ferrer High School technology resources, regardless
of purchase date, location, or fund, are subject to this policy.
Any questions about this
policy, its interpretation, or specific circumstance shall be directed to the
Principal and Network Administrator, before proceeding.
Violators of this policy
will be handled in a manner consistent with comparable situations requiring
disciplinary and/or legal action.
POLICY
STATEMENT:
The primary goal of the
technology environment is to support the educational and instructional
endeavors of students and employees of St.Vincent Ferrer High School. Use of any and all technology resources
is a privilege and not a right.
I. ACCESS:
A. The use of all St.Vincent Ferrer High School
technology resources is a privilege, not a right, and inappropriate or
suspected inappropriate use will result in a cancellation of those privileges
pending investigation.
B. Individuals may use only
accounts, files, software, and technology resources that are assigned to
him/her.
C. Individuals may not
attempt to log in to the network by using another person's account and/or
password or allow someone to use his/her password to access the network, e-mail, or
the Internet.
D. Individuals must take
all reasonable precautions to prevent unauthorized access to accounts and data
or any other unauthorized usage within and outside the St.Vincent
Ferrer High School.
E. Individuals identified
as a security risk may be denied access.
F. Any use of technology
resources that reduces the efficiency of use for other will be considered a
violation of this policy.
G. Individuals must not
attempt to disrupt any computer services or data by spreading viruses, spamming
or by any other means.
H. Individuals must not
attempt to modify technology resources, utilities, and configurations, or
change the restrictions associated with his/her accounts, or attempts to breach
any technology resources security system, either with or without malicious intent.
I. School administrators
and Network Administrator will determine when inappropriate use has occurred
and they have the right to deny, revoke, or suspend specific user accounts.
II.
PRIVACY:
A. To maintain network
integrity and to insure that the network is being used responsibly, the Network
Administrator reserves the
right to review files and network communications.
B. Users should not expect
that files stored on the St.Vincent Ferrer High School’s network will always be private.
C. Because communications
on the Internet are, often, public in nature, all users should be careful to
maintain appropriate and responsible communications.
D. St.Vincent
Ferrer High School cannot guarantee the privacy,
security, or confidentiality of any information sent or received via the
Internet.
E. Users should be aware
that the technology staff routinely monitors and performs maintenance on
fileservers, e-mail, workstations, the Internet, user accounts, telephones, and
telephone systems. During these procedures, it may be necessary to review
e-mail and/or files stored on the network.
F. Users are encouraged to
avoid storing personal and/or private information/data on the schools
technology resources.
G. The
Network Administrator staff does perform routine backups. However, all users
are responsible for storage of any critical files and/or data.
H. Student records, media
center collections, and accounting information should be backed up to disk.
III.
COPYRIGHT:
A. Illegal copies of
software may not be created or used on school equipment.
B. Any questions about
copyright provisions should be directed to the Network Administrator.
C. Copyright is implied for
all information (text, data, and graphics) published on the Internet. Web page
authors will be held responsible for the contents of their pages. Do not
"borrow" icons or graphics from other pages without documented
permission.
D. Duplication of any
copyrighted software is prohibited unless specifically allowed for in the
License agreement and then,
should occur only under the supervision and direction of the appropriate
administrator.
E. A backup copy of all
purchased software programs should be made and, thus, become the working copy.
F. All original copies of
software programs, including those purchased with departmental funds, will be stored in a secure place.
G. For security and
insurance purposes, the Network Administrator should be the only person with
access to original software disks at a given school location with the exception
of CD-ROMs. System-wide software originals should be housed at the Network
Administrator’s office.
H. If a single copy of
given software package is purchased, it may only be used on one computer at a
time.
Multiple loading or
"loading the contents of one disk onto multiple computers," is NOT
allowed.
I. If more than one copy of
a software package is needed, a site license, lab pack, or network version must
be purchased. The Network Administrator and the person requesting the Software
will be responsible for determining how many copies should be purchased.
J. Either the Network
Administrator or Principal in each school is authorized to sign license
agreements for a school within the system. Copies of any system-wide license
agreements must be signed by the Network
Administrator and
distributed to all schools that will use the software.
K. The
Technology staff is responsible for installation and approval of all software
in use on the local area network and/or individual workstations within the St.Vincent Ferrer High School.
L. Users should not
purchase/download software/data without consulting the administrator.
IV.
ELECTRONIC MAIL:
A. St.Vincent
Ferrer High School provides access to electronic mail
for all employees, class accounts upon request, and, on a limited basis, for
students.
B. Access to e-mail is for
employee, class, and/or student use in any educational and instructional
business that they may conduct.
C. Personal use of
electronic mail is permitted as long as it does not violate St.Vincent
Ferrer High School policy and/or adversely affect
others or the speed of the network.
D. Electronic mail should
reflect professional standards at all time.
E. St.Vincent
Ferrer High School e-mail accounts may not be used
for political or personal gain.
F. St.Vincent
Ferrer High School e-mail accounts may not be used to
attempt or send anonymous messages.
G. St.Vincent
Ferrer High School e-mail accounts may not be used
for sending mass e-mails.
H. In most circumstances, St.Vincent Ferrer High School
e-mail accounts should not be used for posting or forwarding other user's
personal communication without the author's consent.
V.
INTERNET:
A. The intent of the St.Vincent Ferrer High School is
to provide access to resources available via the Internet with the
understanding that faculty, staff, and students will access and use information
that is appropriate for his/her various curricula.
B. All school rules and
guidelines for appropriate technology usage shall apply to usage of the
Internet.
C. Teachers should screen
all Internet resources that will be used in the classroom prior to their introduction.
D. Students will gain
access to the Internet by agreeing to conduct themselves in a considerate and
responsible manner and by providing written permission from their parents.
E. Students will be allowed
to conduct independent research on the Internet upon the receipt of the
appropriate permission forms.
F. Students that are
allowed independent access to the Internet will have the capability of
accessing material that has not been screened.
VI.
INTERNET FILTERING:
A. Internet access for all
users is filtered, through one central point, by URL and IP address.
B. Internet searches are
filtered by keyword.
C. URLs and IP addresses
may be added to or deleted from the filtered list by the Network office.
VII. WEB
PUBLISHING:
A. St.Vincent
Ferrer High School server cannot be used for profit
or commercial purposes.
B. All home pages will be
reviewed by the Network Administrator before being added to the St.Vincent
Ferrer High
School World Wide Web Server.
C. Home pages may only be
placed on the Web server by the Network Administrator.
D. All pages posted on the St.Vincent Ferrer High School web
server must be written with an approved editor.
E. Each posted page must
include: the school location, date of last update, and an e-mail address.
F. All posted work must be
of publishable quality with regard to spelling, usage, and mechanics.
G. All web page authors are
responsible for the maintenance of their own pages.
H. All links should be
checked regularly to make sure they are current and working.
I. Pages that are not
updated in a timely fashion; that contain inaccurate or inappropriate
information; or contain links that do not work should be removed
J. Unfinished pages will
not be posted until they are fully functional.
K. Pictures and other
personally identifiable information should only be used with permission in
writing from the parent/guardian of the student involved. No full names should
be used-only first name, last initial. No written permission is required for
in-school broadcasts (i.e. morning news, announcements, class profiles, etc.)
L. Student posting of
personal information of any kind is prohibited. Personal information includes:
home
and/or school address, work
address, home and/or school phone numbers, full name, social security number,
etc.
M. No written permission is
required to list faculty/staff and their school contact information (phone
extension, e-mail address, etc.)
N. Infringement of
copyright laws, obscene, harassing or threatening materials on web sites are
against the law and are subject to prosecution.
VIII.
PARENTAL PERMISSIONS:
It is the responsibility of
the staff posting information on the web, requesting videos, or designing
publicity or public relations information to obtain written parental
permission.
IX.
EXAMPLES OF INAPPROPRIATE USE OF RESOURCES:
The
following activities are examples of inappropriate activities for St.Vincent Ferrer High School’
network, e-mail system, or the Internet. This list is not
all-inclusive. Anything that would be considered inappropriate in "paper
form" is also considered inappropriate in electronic form.
A. Using another user's
password or attempting to find out what another user's password is.
B. Sharing your own
password
C. Trespassing in another
user's files, folders, home directory, or work
D. Saving information on
ANY network drive or directory other than your Personal home directory OR a
teacher specified and approved location. E. Downloading, installing, or copying
software of any kind onto a workstation, your home directory, or any network
drive.
F. Harassing, insulting, or
attacking others via technology resources G. Damaging computers, computer
systems, or computer networks (this includes changing workstation
configurations such as screen savers, backgrounds, printers, BIOS information,
preset passwords, etc.).
H. Intentionally wasting
limited resources such as disk space and printing capacity.
I. Accessing inappropriate
web sites (sites containing information that is violent, illegal, satanic,
sexual, etc.)
J. Sending, displaying, or
downloading offensive messages or pictures
K. Using obscene, racist,
profane, discriminatory, threatening, or inflammatory language. Participating
in online chat rooms without the permission/supervision of an adult staff
member is prohibited.
M. Posting any false or
damaging information about other people, the school system, or other
organizations
N. Posting of any personal
information about another person without his/her written consent.
O. Broadcasting network
messages and/or participating in sending/perpetuating chain letters
P. Violating copyright laws
Q. Plagiarism of materials
that are found on the Internet
R. Use of technology
resources to create illegal.
S. Use of any St.Vincent Ferrer High School
Technology resource for personal gain, commercial or political purpose.
To Parents:
The Internet also
contains pornographic material, Web sites run by hate groups, and information
on how to commit crimes. To prevent this information from entering our schools,
we use an Internet filtering program. This program has a database of
pornographic and other objectionable Web sites. We have configured the
filtering program to block access to these Web sites. Although the filtering
program’s database is updated frequently, there is always the possibility that
a new pornographic or hate site will appear that has not been picked up by the
program. For that reason, our teachers, librarians, and other staff members
also monitor and supervise students’ Internet access.
Records of Internet
access are also stored in computer log files, which we monitor periodically.
These efforts help students learn how to use the Internet responsibly and avoid
unsuitable sites. Students who deliberately attempt to access pornographic
and other blocked sites are subject to disciplinary procedures.
Although our filtering
software and monitoring efforts are designed to make the Internet an
educational and safe experience, they cannot completely eliminate the risk that
students will be able to access inappropriate material. Therefore, parents may choose to opt their children out of accessing the Internet at school.