When using digital technology, students/users:

1. 1. Will be responsible for all their actions.

   2. Will be respectful towards other students, staff, and the school.

   3. Will self-regulate their language and comments refraining from any wording that could be considered harassing, demeaning, or derogatory.

   4. While at school, will limit their technology use to educational purposes only.

   5. Will keep all cyber activity to productive academic work and refrain from engaging in illegal or inappropriate conduct (i.e. plagiarism, hacking, illegal downloads, sexting, pornography).

Students and Central Catholic are responsible for maintaining a positive educational atmosphere. Misuse of social media, and other digital platforms, can significantly disrupt the academic setting, possibly creating a hostile environment for staff and students. The school will investigate, intervene, discipline, and educate all students involved.

Students will not like, follow, transmit, or share materials or social media accounts that disparage any member of the Central Catholic community or misuse the Central Catholic name, logo, mascot, or other trademarked and copyrighted materials. This includes creating accounts intended to mock, harass, or impersonate another student or community member.

Students, and student groups, will not use the Central Catholic name, logo, brand imagery, or other trademarked and copyrighted materials at any time on any social media, web, or blog account without express permission from the Central Catholic administration.  Please see this link for more information on how to establish a social media account for any Central Catholic group/club/entity.

Students are not permitted to follow any member of Central Catholic's faculty or staff on any social media platform (only exception is public TikTok accounts) unless the account is explicitly for the promotion of Central Catholic activities (i.e., a Coach account that is used only to promote team and player activity). Likewise no faculty or staff member is permitted to follow any student on any social media platform, including Tik Tok.

Students will not post inappropriate content or messages, including and not limited to the following:

1. Posting pictures or videos of another student or staff member without their permission.

2. Posting inappropriate comments regarding another student or staff member.

3. Posting inappropriate comments regarding Central Catholic.

4. Sending texts, Instagram posts, Snapchats, emails, or any other forms of electronic communication that is of a threatening, harassing, or derogatory nature.

5. Any other digital activity that Central Catholic deems inappropriate.

For their own safety, students should keep the following in mind as they participate in social media websites:

• Set security settings so that only parents and friends can view profiles.

• Do not post email, home address, local address, school, telephone number(s), or other personal information as they may lead to unwanted attention, stalking, identity theft, etc.

• Be aware of whom to add as a “friend”– some may seek to take advantage of students with leadership positions. 

If in doubt about the appropriateness of online public material, consider whether it upholds and positively reflects the student’s own values and ethics as well as the values of Central Catholic High School. 

Sexting includes but is not limited to the following:

1. Soliciting pictures of a sexual nature.

2. Sending pictures of a sexual nature.

3. Copying or photographing pictures of a sexual nature.

4. Transmitting, forwarding, posting pictures of a sexual nature.

5. Saving or storing pictures of a sexual nature.

Any student found to be engaged in any of the above activities will face the consequences outlined in Section 7 of this Handbook.

Definitions:

1. Sextortion: This can start on any site, app, messaging platform, or game where people meet and communicate. In some cases, the first contact with the criminal will be a threat. The person may claim to already have a revealing picture or video of a child that will be shared if the victim does not send more pictures. More often, however, this crime starts when young people believe they are communicating with someone their own age who is interested in a relationship or with someone who is offering something of value. 

After the criminals have one or more videos or pictures, they threaten to publish that content, or they threaten violence to get the victim to produce more images. The shame, fear, and confusion children feel when they are caught in this cycle often prevents them from asking for help or reporting the abuse.

2. Financial Sextortion: In these cases, the offender receives sexually explicit material from the child and then threatens to release the compromising material unless the victim sends money and/or gift cards. The amount requested varies, and the offender often releases the victim’s sexually explicit material regardless of whether or not they receive payment. This increasing threat has resulted in an alarming number of deaths by suicide.

What to do:

Unfortunately, sextortion happens to our students and their families. It is often a traumatic experience for our students. These online crimes are becoming more and more prevalent.  The perpetrators of these crimes are often rings operating from overseas locations. The FBI does work on child exploitation cases, but due to limited resources, tends to focus on the organized fraud rings.

When these incidents are more local, with kids or young adults victimizing others known to them, the local police are generally the appropriate agency. Reporting to the school administration can be helpful.

If your case was initiated online with someone unknown to you, file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov. The FBI collates information from hundreds of thousands of complaints on this website to target international organized crime rings conducting frauds and exploitations. It is recommended to report to the local field office to file a complaint if there were additional factors, such as hands-on abuse or interstate travel for a direct meeting.

If the incident was initiated by someone you know, please contact the local police in your county of residence. Police Bureaus have talented investigators who care, but they are often overloaded and the case may move slowly.

If no active investigation is ongoing, it is recommended to change the cell number, email, and social media accounts for two reasons. One is for security to reduce the likelihood of recontact and re-victimization. The other is just to restart engagement with all these tools with a clean slate and a new awareness of the dangers that are out there and how to avoid them. Starting new accounts can help break with the past and start new habits.

We strongly recommend you report this incident to the social media companies whose sites were involved. Meta has investigative teams working to kick crime groups off the platform.

Any student found to be engaged in any of the above activities will face the consequences outlined in Section 7 of this Handbook.

Holding a leadership role and/or playing and competing for Central Catholic High School is a privilege. Student-athletes and student leaders at Central Catholic are held in the highest regard and are role models in the community. Student-athletes and student leaders have the responsibility to portray their team and/or leadership group, school, and selves in a positive manner at all times. This means putting teammates above self.

Student leaders and student-athletes should be aware that third parties, including members of the media, college admissions officers, faculty and staff, future employers, OSAA officials, and others may access their profiles or view personal information, even if the student believes they have made it “private.” Such access includes photos, videos, comments and posts. Inappropriate material found by third parties affects the perception of the student, the team/group, and the school. This perception may be a detriment to a student's future. No Central Catholic student activities or sports social media pages (e.g., Twitter, Instagram, TikTok) shall be created without the written permission of Central Catholic's Office of Communications and Marketing.

Examples of inappropriate and offensive behaviors in online communities may include, but are not limited to, depictions or presentations of the following:

• Photos, videos, comments or posts showing or suggesting the personal use of alcohol, drugs or tobacco/nicotine, e.g., holding cups, bottles, cans, shot glasses etc.

• Photos, videos, and comments that are sexual in nature. This includes links to websites of a pornographic nature and other inappropriate material.

• Pictures, videos, comments, or posts that condone drug-related activity, including vaping.

• Content online that is unsportsmanlike, derogatory, demeaning or threatening toward any other individual or entity, aimed at a student, coach/advisor, or team/group at another institution and derogatory comments regarding sexual identity, religion, race and/or gender). No posts should depict or encourage unacceptable, violent or illegal activities (e.g., hazing, sexual harassment/assault, gambling, discrimination, fighting, vandalism, academic dishonesty, underage drinking, illegal drug use).

• Content online that would constitute a violation of team, school, and league rules (e.g., commenting publicly about a coach, teammate, opponent, official, staff member, and school employees.)

• Information that is sensitive or personal in nature or is proprietary to the team/group, or the school, including things like tentative or future schedules, injuries and eligibility status, travel plans/ itineraries or information.

• The Head Coach and the Athletic Director and/or Advisor/Moderator and the Dean of Student Life and Athletics may suspend or remove a student from the team/group on the first violation of these rules governing the use of social media.