A.      Educational Purpose

1.   Internet access has been established for a limited educational purpose.  The term "educational purpose" includes classroom activities, continuing education, professional or career development, and high-quality, educationally enriching personal research. 

2.   The Internet has not been established as a public access service or a public forum. The school system has the right to monitor and place reasonable restrictions on the material students access or post through the Internet.  Students are also expected to follow the rules set forth in this policy, the student disciplinary code, and the law in their use of the system Internet system.

3.   Students may not use the Internet for commercial purposes.  This means they may not offer or provide products or services through the Internet. 

B.  Access to Materials

1.   The Internet may be used to access materials under the following conditions:

a.                  Internet access is appropriately monitored. Students receive instruction, appropriate to their age, regarding strategies to avoid the inadvertent access of inappropriate material and what to do if they accidentally access such material.

b.                  Prohibited material may not be accessed by the students at any time for any purpose. In accord with the Children's Internet Protection Act, the Carteret County Public School System designates the following types as prohibited materials: Obscene materials, child pornography, material that appeals to an unhealthy interest in, or depicts or describes in a patently offensive way, violence, nudity, sex, death, or bodily functions, material that has been designated as for "adults" only, and material that promotes or advocates illegal activities.  

c.                   Other materials not specifically named above will be deemed appropriate or inappropriate on a case-by-case basis.  Decisions will be based upon age of student and relevance of content to curriculum.

2.   If students mistakenly access inappropriate information, they should immediately disclose this access to a teacher or supervising adult.  This protects them against a claim that they have intentionally violated this policy.

3.   The school system has installed a Technology Protection Measure to protect  against access to inappropriate material. The determination of whether material is appropriate or inappropriate is based on the content of the material and the intended use of the material, not on the protective actions of the Technology Protection Measure. If students think that the Technology Protection Measure has prevented them from accessing appropriate material, they may request that the material be reviewed and, if appropriate, unblocked.

C.  Privacy and Communication Safety Requirements

Personal contact information includes name together with other information that would reveal location and identity, including, but not limited to, parent's name, home address or location, work address or location, or phone number.

1.   Elementary or middle school students are not to disclose full name or any other personal contact information for any purpose.

2.   High school students are not to disclose personal contact information, except to education institutions for educational purposes, companies or other entities for career development purposes, or with specific approval from school system employees.

3.   Students are not to disclose names, personal contact information, or any other private or personal information about other students under any circumstances. Students are not to forward a message that was sent to them privately without permission of the person who sent them the message.

4.   Students must not agree to meet someone whom they have met online without parent's approval and participation.

5.   Students must promptly disclose to a teacher or other school system employee any message they receive that is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable. They should not delete such messages until instructed to do so by a school system employee.

D.  Illegal, Unauthorized, and Inappropriate Uses and Activities

1.   Illegal Activities

a.   Students may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to the local area or wide area networked computer system or beyond their authorized access.  This includes attempting to log in through another person's account or accessing another person's files.

b.   Students may not make deliberate attempts to disrupt any part of the computer system or destroy data by spreading computer viruses or by any other means. 

c.    Students may not use the Internet to engage in any other illegal act.   

2.      Inappropriate Language

Restrictions against inappropriate language apply to all speech communicated through the Internet , including but not limited to public messages, private messages, and material posted on web pages.

a.   Students may not use obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, threatening, or disrespectful language.

b.   Students may not post information that could cause damage or a danger of disruption.

c.   Students may not engage in personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks.  

d.   Students may not harass another person. Harassment is persistently acting in a manner that distresses or annoys another person. If students are told by a person to stop sending them messages, they must stop.

e.   Students may not knowingly or recklessly post false or defamatory information about a person or organization.

3.   Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement

a.   Students may not plagiarize works that they find on the Internet. (Plagiarism is taking the ideas or writings of others and presenting them as if they were original.)

b.    Students must respect the rights of copyright owners in the use of materials found on, disseminated through, or posted to the Internet. Copyright infringement occurs when students inappropriately reproduce a work that is protected by a copyright. Copyright law can be very confusing. If students have questions, they should ask a teacher. 

E.   System Security and Resource Limits

1.   System Security

a.   Students are responsible for their individual account and should take all reasonable precautions to prevent others from being able to use their account.  Under no conditions should students provide their password to another person. 

b.   Students must immediately notify a teacher or the system administrator if they have identified a possible security problem.  Students who go looking for security problems may be construed as illegally attempting to gain access.

c.    Students are to avoid the inadvertent or intentional spread of computer viruses by following the school system’s virus protection procedures.

2.   Resource Limits

a.    Students may use the Internet only for educational and career development activities and limited, high-quality, personal research.  

b.   Students may not download files unless authorized by a school system employee.

c.    Students may not misuse system, school, or personal distribution lists or discussion groups for sending irrelevant, non-educational messages. 

d.   Students must check their e-mail frequently and delete unwanted messages promptly. 

e.    Students may subscribe only to approved high quality discussion groups that are relevant to education or career development.

f.    Excessive use of the Internet may raise a reasonable suspicion that students are using the system in violation of policy and regulations.

F.   Rights and Expectations

1.   Free Speech

The right to free speech and access to information applies to the use of the Internet. The school system may restrict access to materials for valid educational reasons, but may not restrict access to information and ideas based on viewpoint discrimination. The school system Internet service is considered a limited public forum. The school system may restrict student speech for valid educational reasons, but will not restrict speech on the basis of a disagreement with the opinions being expressed.

2.   Copyright

Students own the copyright to works that are created in school or for a class assignment.  If the work is created jointly, each student will have joint ownership of the copyright. Students and their parent/guardian must agree to post student work on the school web site.  Published work should be accompanied by a copyright notice.

3.    Privacy

a.    Students should expect only limited privacy in the contents of personal files on the school system server and records of online activity. Student use of the Internet will be supervised and monitored. The school system's monitoring of Internet usage may reveal activities students engage in using the Internet.

b.   Routine maintenance and monitoring may lead to discovery that students have violated this policy, the student disciplinary code, or the law.  Individual searches will be conducted if there is reasonable suspicion that students have violated this policy, the student disciplinary code, or the law.  The investigation will be reasonable and related to the suspected violation. 

c.   Parents have the right to request to see the contents of their student’s personal data and e-mail files by submitting a written request.

4.   Due Process

a.   The school system will cooperate fully with local, state, or federal officials in any investigation concerning  or relating to any illegal activities conducted through the school system Internet service.

2. In the event there is a claim that a student has violated this policy or student disciplinary code in the use of the Internet, the student will be notified and given the opportunity to be heard in the manner set forth in the student disciplinary code.

3. If the violation also involves a violation of other provisions of the student disciplinary code, it will be handled in a manner described in the code.  Additional restrictions may be placed on the use of the Internet.

G.  Limitation of Liability