Unacceptable Uses

The school district information technology system, including access to the Internet and WiFi, is to be a controlled, secured environment. Unacceptable use of the school district system or the Internet may result in one or more of the following consequences. These consequences will depend on the nature and degree of the violation and the number of previous violations.

• Suspension or cancellation of use of access privileges

• Payments for damages and repairs

• Discipline under other appropriate school district policies including suspension, exclusion or expulsion

• Civil or criminal liability under other applicable laws

The following uses of the school district information technology systems including Internet and WiFi resources, network accounts, and email accounts are considered unacceptable:

1. Users will not use the school district system to access, review, upload, download, store, print, post, or distribute:

a. Pornographic, obscene or sexually explicit material.

b. Materials that use language or images that are inappropriate to the educational setting or disruptive to the educational process and will not post information or materials that could cause damage or danger of disruption.

c. Materials that use language or images that advocate violence or discrimination toward other people (hate literature) or that may constitute harassment or discrimination.

2. Users will not use the school district system to transmit or receive obscene, abusive, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, threatening, disrespectful, or sexually explicit language.

3. Users will not use the school district system to knowingly or recklessly post false or defamatory information about a person or organization, or to harass another person, or to engage in personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks.

4. Users will not use the school district system to engage in any illegal act or violate any local, state or federal statute or law.

5. Users will not use the school district system to vandalize, damage or disable the property of another person or organization, will not make deliberate attempts to degrade or disrupt equipment, software or system performance by spreading computer viruses or by any other means, will not tamper with, modify or change the school district system software, hardware or wiring or take any action to violate the school district system’s security, and will not use the school district system in such a way as to disrupt the use of the system by the users.

6. Users will not use the school district system to gain unauthorized access to information resources or to access another person's materials, information or files without the implied or direct permission of that person.

7. Users will not use the school district system to post private information about another person or to post personal contact information about other persons including, but not limited to, addresses, telephone numbers, school addresses, work addresses, identification numbers, account numbers, access codes or passwords, and will not repost a message that was sent to the user privately without permission of the person who sent the message.

8. Users will not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the school district system or any other system through the school district system, attempt to log in through another person’s account, or use computer accounts, access codes or network identification other than those assigned to the user.

9. Users will not use the school district system to violate copyright laws, or usage licensing agreements, or otherwise to use another person’s property without the person’s prior approval or proper citation, including the downloading or exchanging of pirated software or copying software to or from any school computer, and will not plagiarize works they find on the system.

10. Users will not use the school district system for the conduct of a business, for unauthorized commercial purposes or for financial gain unrelated to the mission of the school district.

11. Users will not use the school district system to offer or provide goods or services or for product advertisement.

12. Users will not use the school district system to purchase goods or services for personal use without authorization from the appropriate school district officials.

If a user inadvertently accesses unacceptable materials or an unacceptable Internet site, the user shall immediately disclose the inadvertent access to appropriate school district officials. This disclosure may serve as a defense against an allegation that the user has intentionally violated this policy. A user may also in certain rare instances access otherwise unacceptable materials if necessary to complete an assignment and if done with the prior approval of and with appropriate guidance from the appropriate supervisor.