Appropriate
Use Policy of Sumter County Schools Computers and Network Resources
It is the belief of the Sumter
County Board of Education that the use of technology for the purpose of
information acquisition and retrieval is an important part of preparing
children to live in the 21st century.
The Board further believes that a
“technology rich” classroom can significantly enhance both the teaching and
learning process. This technology includes computer hardware, software, local
and wide area networks and access to the Internet. Due to the complex nature of
these systems and the magnitude of information available via the Internet, the
Sumter County Board of Education believes guidelines regarding acceptable use
are warranted in order to serve the educational needs of students.
It shall be the policy of the
Sumter County Board of Education that the school system shall have in
continuous operation, with respect to any computers belonging to the school
having access to the Internet:
1. A
qualifying “technology protection measure,” as that term is defined in Section
1703(b)(1) of the Children’s Internet Protection Act
of 2000; and
2. Procedures
or guidelines developed by the superintendent, administrators and/or other
appropriate personnel which provide for monitoring the online activities of
users and the use of the chosen technology protection measure to protect
against access through such computers to visual depictions that are (i) obscene, (ii) child pornography, or (iii) harmful to
minors, as those terms are defined in Section 1703(b)(1)
and (2) of the Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2000. Such procedures or
guidelines shall be designed to:
Provide for
monitoring the online activities of users to prevent, to the extent
practicable, access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet and the
World Wide Web;
Promote the
safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other
forms of direct electronic communications;
Prevent
unauthorized access, including so-called “hacking,” and other unauthorized
activities by minors online;
Prevent the
unauthorized disclosure, use and dissemination of personal identification
information regarding minors; and
Restrict minors’
access to materials “harmful to minors,” as that term is defined in Section
1703(b)(2) of the Children’s Internet Protection Act
of 2000.
The district’s technology
resources are provided for educational purposes that promote and are consistent
with the instructional goals of the Sumter County School System. Use of
computers and network resources outside the scope of this educational purpose
is strictly prohibited. Students and employees accessing network services or
any school computer shall comply with the district’s acceptable use guidelines.
The district reserves the right to monitor, access, and disclose the contents
of any user’s files, activities, or communications. Email accounts are provided
to teachers and students as long as they are active in the school system. They
will be deleted when their status changes.
It must also be understood that
the Internet is a global, fluid community, which remains largely unregulated.
While it is an extremely valuable tool for educational research, there are
sections that are not commensurate with community, school, or family standards.
It is the belief of the Board that the Internet’s advantages far outweigh its
disadvantages. The Sumter County Board of Education will, through its
administrative staff, provide an Internet screening system which blocks access
to a large percentage of inappropriate sites. It should not be assumed,
however, that users are completely prevented from accessing inappropriate
materials or from sending or receiving objectionable communications.
Additionally, access to the
Internet and computer resources is a privilege, not a right. Therefore, users
violating the Sumter County Board of Education’s acceptable use policy shall be
subject to revocation of these privileges and potential disciplinary action.
Sumter County Schools
Computers and Network Resources Employee Acceptable Use Guidelines
Please read the following
carefully. Violations of the Acceptable Use Guidelines may cause an employee's
access privileges to be revoked, School Board disciplinary action and/or
appropriate legal action may be taken, up to and including employment
termination.
Additional items that employees
need to be aware of:
A.
Staff must be
aware that students have access to the Internet from all of the school system's
computers. Teachers must use good judgment and closely supervise their
student's use of the Internet. The School System uses filtering software to
help prevent student access to inappropriate web sites. However, it is
impossible to block access to all objectionable material. If a student decides
to behave in an irresponsible manner, they may be able to access sites that
contain materials that are inappropriate for children or are not commensurate
with community standards of decency. They should not be permitted to access
sites unrelated to their assignment and should not be allowed to access game or
other sites that could infect the computer with “Spyware”.
B.
Teachers should
follow the guidelines below when allowing or directing students to do Internet
searches.
Elementary:
Students in grades K-5 may visit sites pre-selected by a teacher. Searches may
only be done with child-friendly Internet search engines and must be
done with teacher supervision.
Middle:
Students in grades 6-8 may only perform unsupervised Internet searches using
child-friendly search engines. A search using any other search engine must be
conducted with teacher supervision.
High:
If students in grades 9-12 use any search engines other than a child-friendly
search engine, they must use the advanced search page of internet search
engines in order to develop more reliable, useful, and relevant search results.
C.
Any individual
who is issued a password is required to keep it private and is not permitted to
share it with anyone for any reason.
D.
Never allow a
student to log in with a staff member's user name and password. They will tell
their friends what the password is and they will log in under the teacher name
and look at private documents including e-mail and grades.
E.
Be careful when
entering your user name and password or changing your password. Students will
try to look over your shoulder and steal this information.
F.
Enforce the
Acceptable Use Guidelines while supervising students. For example, students
should not have access to a command prompt or other software applications not
accessible through the student menu. It is the employee's responsibility to
notify the administration and the Technology Department of any violation of the
Acceptable Use Policy.
G.
Do not allow
students to go to computer labs unsupervised (if the school site has labs).
H.
Treat student
user names and passwords with confidentiality. Do not post a list of user names
and passwords where all students can see them.
I.
Users are
responsible for the appropriate storage and backup of their data.
J.
The system
requires employees to change passwords every 60 days. Some examples of
passwords not to use: names of pets, birth date, children's names, street
address, school mascots, favorite car, sports team, actor or movie. Do not
record your login or password for your security.
K.
Short-term
substitute teachers are not to take students to the computer lab nor allow
students to use the computers in the classrooms. (Long term substitute teachers
may be qualified to use computers/labs after they receive appropriate
orientation including review of the Acceptable Use Policy.)
L. Email accounts are provided to
employees for professional purposes. Email accounts should not be used for
personal gain or personal business activities; broadcasting of unsolicited
messages is prohibited. Examples of such broadcasts include chain letters, mail
bombs, virus hoaxes, SPAM mail (spreading email or postings without good
purpose), religious notes, and executable files. These types of email often
contain viruses and can cause excessive network traffic or computing load.
M. Employees are not permitted to
connect or install any computer hardware, components, or software, which are
not school system property to or in the district's technology resources without
prior approval of the district technology supervisory personnel.
N. Employees are not permitted to
use the school's computer hardware or network for any illegal activity such as
copying or downloading copyrighted software, music or images, or violation of
copyright laws.
O. Employees are not permitted to
download, install, or use games, music files, public domain, shareware or any
other unauthorized program on any school's computer or computer system.
P. Employees must abide by the
Sumter County Schools Web Site Posting guidelines when posting any materials to
the web.
Sumter County Schools Email
Disclaimer
Sumter County Schools has implemented a series of technology systems that
“filter” all incoming email to detect SPAM (junk mail) and those that contain
viruses, certain key words, html scripts, or have other attributes that could
potentially be unacceptable for student viewing or compromise network security.
Our system also uses a Bayesian filter that uses algorithms to identify
messages that are probable SPAM. We have set the system to automatically
redirect any email identified as SPAM to the junk mail folder.
We have had some emails sent to teachers, administrators and employees of the
school system that have been reported as being blocked. We realize the scrutiny
we get when email is tagged as SPAM, blocked and subsequently deleted. There
are many reasons why an email may be blocked by our system and they have been
listed at the bottom of the page.
90% of our received mail is SPAM or SPAM related. While we realize that blocked
email is an inconvenience, we have chosen to error on the side of caution due
to the possibility of inappropriate content slipping through and being seen by
a student peering over a teacher’s shoulder.
If you have experienced this issue with email communication, we recommend that
you check a few items noted below and try again.
1. Are
you sure you have the correct address and that you did not mis-key?
2.
Does your computer have current virus and spyware protection software installed
and working properly?
3.
Does your email contain embedded images (some signatures) or have a custom
stationary look that utilizes images, sounds, and or other multi-media content?
4.
Does your email address contain a correct return email address?
5. Are
you trying to send the email as a blind copy?
6.
Does your mail provider (or AOL, Hotmail, etc.) append anything to the message
that might contain a phrase which could identify it as Spam?
7.
Does your email have advertising in the body, header, or footer? e.g.
"Find out more"
8.
Does your email contain third party content in the form of html links or links
in the header or footers of your email?
9.
Does your email contain attached files?
10. Is
the problem intermittent with sometimes email being delivered and other times
it is not? If so, do you see any pattern such as messages go through if you
reply to one they sent you, or they get blocked when you use an account which
has a signature?
11.
Did you get any notification indicating the message was undeliverable or didn’t
go through?
· Virus Filter – Messages identified or suspect for Viruses, Trojans, and
e-mail exploits will be deleted.
· DNS Blacklist - There are several servers on the internet that maintain a DNS
Blacklist for servers know to distribute Spam or to have open relays which
allow Spam. Our Filter uses those lists so if someone has an e-mail account on
one of the Blacklisted servers then their mail will be blocked. It is their
mail server owner who is responsible for being removed from those lists.
· Keyword Checking – There is a long list of keywords and phrases that if found
in the subject or body of the message will be identified as Spam. Examples
would include but not limited to phrases such as “don’t miss out”, “find out
more”, “100% guaranteed”, “please answer quickly”, “call now”, “adult only”,
and a host of obscene phrases. Words included would be Viagra, nympho, erotic, and all those words not fit to print.
Yes, we know that not every message with one of those is Spam but these are the
most common and if they are removed from the filter will let hundreds or
thousands of Spam messages through each day.
·
Header Checking – Messages will be blocked if the “From” field is empty,
contains more than 4 numbers, or uses part of the recipient’s address/name.
They will also be deleted if they have html scripts, contain remotely hosted
images in the message body or if the message is mostly a graphic file with very
little text. Both of those are methods Spammers use to get past the Keyword
checking and often result in the obscene pics being
displayed in the message. Messages that have false email headers and faulty
return addresses will also be blocked.
· Macro Filter – Any files with
Macros will be rejected and deleted, both incoming and outgoing. These are a
potential security risk due to what could happen when a Word or Excel file is
opened with a destructive Macro. Those are extremely easy for an end-user to
create and then send to anyone with destructive results as soon as they open
it.
· Bayesian – This is the
“Smart” filter that uses algorithms to identify potential Spam. It
results in a lot of false positives but the decision was made to delete all
Bayesian identified messages instead of tagging them and sending them on
through. This means that many thousands of messages are deleted each day and
are not logged due to the size, so many legitimate messages are deleted as Spam
and we have no way to trace what happened.
· Directory Harvesting – If someone
sends a message that has several incorrect addresses in the “To:” field then
the entire message will be rejected. This helps prevent Spammers from just
sending a huge distribution list of potential names and getting lucky with
some.
· Custom Blacklist – Individual
mail addresses and entire mail domains can be added to a custom list to be
blocked.
· File
Attachments – Many types of files are blocked for security reasons and include
those such as VBS, EXE, COM, BAT, and ZIP. Files such as XLS, PPT, DOC are NOT blocked unless they contain Macros. File
attachments are quarantined so if they don’t have a Macro then they can be
forwarded on to the recipient if they are work related and the recipient lets
us know when they get an automated notification that it was blocked.