Rattan Public Schools

Internet Usage Policy

(UPDATED 6/29/2010)

Student Name (Print)__________________________________

This policy is designed to ensure that staff, employees, visitors and students utilize the school’s Internet in an appropriate manner that is educationally sound and consistent with school policy, state and federal law, and community values.

Teaching and learning are rapidly changing as technology evolves. The internet, email and other telecommunication technologies are enabling students and teachers to access information in ways that were undreamed of just a few years ago. The world is literally at the tips of our fingers; information about any subject is readily available if we can develop the proper electronic research skills.

Rattan Public Schools will actively support students and staff in the development of proper skills that will enable them to make the best use of today’s research and communications technologies. Thousands of useful libraries, educational institutions, databases, magazines, newspapers, news sites and other internet resources will enable students to retrieve information useful for extending their education far beyond the conventional methods of previous generations of students.

Access to the internet is a privilege and not a right. This entails that students and employees be responsible in their use of the internet. There are dangers on the internet in a very real and personal sense. Also, irresponsible use of the internet, email, messaging and other communication technologies can quickly damage or have adverse effects on software functionality and can result in permanent loss of essential information necessary for school administration and educational software functionality. Furthermore viruses, spyware, malware and adware can quickly spread throughout the local network and beyond.

The faculty and staff at Rattan will provide information to students to assist them in the proper use of the Internet and associated technologies. Online safety is discussed and lessons are presented to students on how to safely use the Internet and avoid cyberbullying and become good cybercitizens. Teachers and adult staff members will always provide supervision for students and monitor their activities to prevent access to material that may be deemed improper for students and to prevent access to or disclosures of unauthorized information.

Classroom use of the Internet will be encouraged whenever possible and where it is appropriate to student learning.

Software will always be installed and functioning that will block access to information that is morally or educationally inappropriate. Time-wasting activities that have no educational value and are deemed an improper use of school equipment may also be blocked as this interferes with legitimate educational use of school equipment and school resources. We will always attempt to leave open search activities that have legitimate educational value.

Blocking categories include but are not limited to the following: ads, adult material, spyware, drugs, gambling, intolerance, file sharing, p2p, pornography, sports, violence, aggressive, audio-video, dating, forums, image-search, kids-time-wasting, multimedia, movies and TV, online games, proxies, redirector, virus-infected, non regulated web-mail, chat, social networking, bad-words-in-foreign-languages, illegal drugs, hacking, gore, personals and personal web pages, academic fraud, sexuality, tasteless, criminal behavior and certain file types. Our primary goal is to provide a safe and effective Internet for our students.

Effective 10/30/2007  our firewall is a Fortigate. It has content filtering capabilities. The primary content filtering however will be provided by Newnet66.org. It updates regularly as new web sites appear or are discovered that are not suitable for educational and research purposes. OpenDNS may also be used for filtering as a backup to the main filter at Newnet66. All internet traffic goes through the filter at all times and is filtered for content. All internet activity is recorded but may not maintained at this time. Computers cannot be exempted from filtering except for bona fide research purposes and must be approved by the school board. Pornography is always filtered on all machines. Only the Superintendent and the School Technology Director have the ability to alter settings on the Firewall.

The school has the right to examine any disks, storage devices or personal computers or other electronic devices that may be in the possession of staff or students that have the capability of interacting with the school network or that may store or copy unacceptable or privileged material.

The school has the right to examine any emails, documents, pictures and films or other materials that are produced, edited or accessed by school equipment and facilities. All school email is archived by Newnet66 on their servers.  Email is only provided to High School students, faculty and staff.

When at school students will be expected to be in compliance with all school policies as well as being in compliance with laws and community standards. During non-instructional hours (before and after school) the internet may be accessed on campus by the public for personal use. The school Internet shall not be used by businesses for business use at any time. Content is filtered at all times.

Students:

Legitimate use of the internet is specifically for educational purposes only. These include:

ü Research activities that relate to learning activities that are a part of the school curriculum or research that would be deemed appropriate for other legitimate academic public school purposes.

ü The use of email for exchanging appropriate information and engaging in collaborative educational projects.

ü The authoring of internet pages that will be a part of the school web page. These pages must always be reflective of school policies and be appropriate according to community standards.

Examples of unacceptable use include:

ü Sending or displaying offensive and anti-social material.

ü Using obscene language.

ü Harassing, insulting or attacking others.

ü Damaging computers, computer systems or computer networks (for example, by the creation, introduction or spreading of computer viruses, downloading and installing software that interferes with the performance of school computers and network equipment, physically abusing hardware, altering source codes or software settings, etc.)

ü Violating copyright laws. The legal rights of software producers, network providers, and copyright and license agreements must be honored.

ü Using other users’ email addresses and passwords.

ü Trespassing in others’ folders, work or files.

ü Intentionally wasting resources.

ü Downloading and installing games and other software that have no educational purpose.

ü Employing the network for commercial purposes or activities by for-profit institutions or organizations, product advertisement or political lobbying.

ü Using the network to disrupt its use by other individuals or by connecting networks.

ü Disrespect of others’ privacy and intellectual property.

ü Using any means to avoid scrutiny by teachers of work in progress.

Agreement:

Students will be allowed the use of the internet as well as other aspects of the school network when this document is signed by the student and the legal parent or guardian. E-mail privileges will be given to students in grades 9 and above.

Inappropriate use of the internet or other school technology will be dealt with by the normal disciplinary procedures in the school. In addition to this, students may have their internet access or their computer privileges suspended for a specified time as determined by their classroom teacher in consultation with the school principal.

I have read the above policy and agree to my son/daughter having access to the Internet.

Signed _____________________________ Signed _____________________________

Student (Parent / Guardian)