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Oklahoma City Public Schools
now provides a Wide Area Network (WAN) made up of a high speed
infrastructure for connectivity to internal networks, storage
systems and the Internet. Access to the Internet, is now
available to students, teachers, administrators, and staff in
the Oklahoma City Public School District. This access offers
vast, diverse and unique resources to all. The goal in
providing this access is to advance and promote education in
Oklahoma City Public Schools by facilitating resource sharing,
innovation, and communication. Access to the Oklahoma City
Public Schools WAN and the Internet is intended to assist in
the collaboration and exchange of information between and
among schools, offices, regional education service centers,
and other worldwide educational entities as well as provide a
source of information to students, faculty, and
administrators. Computers and networks put enormous power at
the fingertips of all users; however, they also place
responsibilities on all users. Ethical questions surrounding
computers and the networks are no different than those in
other spheres of our lives. The following guidelines will be
followed by all users who gain access to the Oklahoma City
Public Schools WAN and the Internet by virtue of their
association with Oklahoma City Public Schools.
-
Oklahoma City Public Schools cannot be
held responsible for misuse of material downloaded from the
Internet or for inappropriate or sexually explicit material
being obtained through Oklahoma City Public School’s
Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- Users
shall not authorize anyone else to use their name, login,
password, or files for any reason.
- Users
shall use the Oklahoma City Public Schools WAN and
connectivity to the Internet through the Oklahoma City
Public Schools WAN for only legitimate educational
purposes. Users shall not use this access for unlawful
purposes, such as the illegal copying or installation of
software.
- Users
shall not attempt to discover another user’s password.
- Users
shall not write, produce, generate copy, propagate, or
attempt to introduce any computer code designed to
self-replicate, damage or delete files or otherwise hinder
the performance of any computer’s memory or operating
system. Such software, commonly called viruses, can
propagate through an ISP to other computers connected to the
Internet and cause widespread damage.
Users shall not use access to the Oklahoma City
Public Schools WAN or the Internet to annoy or harass others
with unacceptable language, images, or threats. Users shall
also not access any unacceptable, obscene or objectionable
information, language or images. In particular, electronic
mail, bulletin boards, news groups, or Internet Web sites
available through the Internet will not be used for these or
any other inappropriate purpose.
CONSEQUENCES
Violation of
Oklahoma City Public School’s policies, regulations, and
procedures concerning the use of the WAN and the Internet will
result in the same disciplinary actions that would result from
similar violations of other Oklahoma City Public School
policies and/or regulations. Any or all of the following
consequences may be employed:
- Loss of
computer privileges, with length of time to be determined by
the appropriate administrator.
- Any
campus-based disciplinary consequence, including suspension,
deemed appropriate by the school administration.
- Long-term
suspension may be considered in flagrant violations that
blatantly corrupt the educational value of computers or in
instances when users have used Oklahoma City Public Schools’
WAN or Internet access to violate the law or to compromise
the relationship between Oklahoma City Public Schools and
our ISP.
- Employees
found to be using the WAN or Internet access inappropriately
or illegally are subject to progressive disciplinary
consequences specified under applicable Board
policies/regulations or negotiated agreements.
ACCESS
AGREEMENTS
All users
gaining access to the Internet through Oklahoma City Public
Schools must agree to abide by the Terms and Conditions for
use of on-line Internet access prior to use. The text of the
Terms and Conditions has been provided by the Oklahoma State
Department of Education. The terms and conditions of such use
and the user application for access to the Internet will be
provided to and signed by all employees and students.
CONTROL OF
ACCESS TO WIDE AREA NETWORK AND THE INTERNET
Oklahoma City
Public Schools will sponsor access to the WAN and the Internet
for students, teachers, and staff members. When provided,
access will be granted only for the pursuit of educational
objectives. Each authorized user will be given a user
identification name and confidential password that will be
used to gain access to the Oklahoma City Public Schools WAN.
Passwords shall not be disclosed to others for any reason, and
shall not be written where they can be discovered by another
person. Only the authorized user shall use passwords. If an
authorized user suspects that the confidentiality of a
password has been compromised in any way, he/she shall report
it to a teacher or system administrator. Violation of system
restrictions or attempts to circumvent systems restrictions
shall be deemed unauthorized use of the Oklahoma City Public
Schools WAN.
ACCESS TO
COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARD SERVICES
Computer
bulletin board services are on-line services generally
provided by individual groups or companies on a free,
unsupported basis. Many are located in the Oklahoma City area
and are modem-accessible by a local telephone call. Many more
are located nationwide and require a long-distance call to
access them.
Bulletin
board services are usually provided to support a single
purpose. For example, a company may provide a bulletin board
for the sole purpose of providing updated input/output device
drivers. An individual may start a bulletin board on a
personal computer that has been provided with special bulletin
boards software and modem capable of answering incoming calls
for the sole purpose of collecting and distributing music
software files. Many of these bulletin boards are legitimate
and provide a valuable service to the on-line user community.
Others, however, are operated for purposes not consistent with
education and contain obscene and/or other inappropriate
material. Most bulletin boards contain files available for
downloading into the user’s computer that are not scanned for
viruses or other destructive software. There have been many
documented instances of computer data being corrupted by
destructive software being inadvertently downloaded from a
bulletin board.
Bulletin
boards have a greater risk than commercial or
government-supported on-line services of the following:
- Incurring
unanticipated telephone costs
-
Propagating viruses and other destructive software
- Exposing
the user to obscene and other educationally inappropriate
material
Because of
these added risk, NO BULLETIN BOARD WILL BE GENERALLY APPROVED
FOR ACCESS BY OKLAHOMA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMPUTER EQUIPMENT.
A building or
staff administrator will only approve access to bulletin
boards, on a case-by-case basis. Even when approved, such
access will be closely monitored by the administration to
ensure that the use of the bulletin board is educationally
appropriate, does not incur unanticipated cost to the Oklahoma
City Public School District, does not expose the user to
obscene or inappropriate material, and does not endanger
Oklahoma City Public Schools’ computer equipment.
If
unauthorized access to a computer bulletin board is suspected,
it will be reported to the building or staff administrator
immediately. Unauthorized access to a computer bulletin board
shall be deemed unauthorized use of District computer
equipment.
ACCESS TO FTP AND RELATED SITES
File
Transfer Protocol (FTP), a standard Internet protocol, is
commonly used to transfer web files from the creator’s
computer to the web server. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
can also be used to access remote computers for the purpose of
file retrieval.
FTP sites
are provided by companies or government entities for the
purpose of retrieving software, software updates, and/or
hardware drivers. An FTP site can be created on any internet
connected machine with the use of commonly available FTP
software. Many of these sites are in place for legitimate
purposes. Others, however, contain inappropriate material
and/or software being distributed in violation of copyright
laws.
The
following are risk factors associated with FTP access:
-
Distribution of illegal copyrighted
material
-
Propagation viruses or other
destructive software
-
Exposure to obscene or educationally
inappropriate material
Access to
FTP sites will be approved on a case by case basis and will be
checked for validity by the Information Technology Department.
All requests for access must be turned in to the helpdesk and
will be routed to the appropriate reviewer.
If access to
an unapproved FTP site is suspected, it will be reported to
the building or staff administrator immediately. Access to
unapproved FTP sites shall be deemed unauthorized use of
District computer equipment.
PEER TO PEER FILE SHARING
SOFTWARE
Peer to peer
file sharing software is defined as any software used to make
files available to others from the user’s computer. In
addition, the user is able to gain access to files of others
utilizing the same software.
Some
examples of this type of software are:
Peer to peer
software use has increased significantly. It is commonly used
as a means to obtain music in MP3 format but is also used for
image and video format distribution. All of the files
available for download reside on someone else’s computer and
are not regulated. Since it is up to the user to scan his or
her files there is the potential for a virus or similarly
destructive software to be downloaded. Also, the content of
the files distributed are copyrighted and therefore the
distribution is illegal.
The
following are potential risks of file sharing:
-
Propagation of viruses or other
destructive software
-
Exposure to obscene or educationally
inappropriate material
-
Distribution of illegal copyrighted
material
Because of
the added risk, NO PEER TO PEER SOFTWARE WILL BE APPROVED FOR
ACCESS BY OKLAHOMA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS’ COMPUTER EQUIPMENT.
If access to
file sharing software is suspected, it will be reported to the
building or staff administrator immediately. Access to file
sharing software shall be deemed unauthorized use of District
computer equipment.
SOFTWARE
Software on
the network is owned by or licensed to the Oklahoma City
Public Schools and is protected by copyright and other laws,
together with licenses and other contractual agreements. You
agree not to make unauthorized copies of licensed software for
your own use. Oklahoma City Public Schools’ software policy is
taken very seriously and violators of it, whether they are
Faculty, Staff, or Student, will face disciplinary action.
Software piracy and fraud is extremely costly to an
institution’s finances and reputation. The Information
Technology Department reserves the right to periodically run
unannounced software audits of all computer systems in the
district. These procedures are necessary to stay within
software piracy guidelines. NO PERSONAL SOFTWARE MAY BE
INSTALLED ON ANY OKLAHOMA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS-OWNED COMPUTERS.
All software must be approved and come through Information
Technology Desktop Services. This includes software for which
you may have extra licenses for from home computers, freeware,
shareware, beta/test software and all other software not
installed by a member of Information Technology. As these
machines are owned by Oklahoma City Public Schools, Oklahoma
City Public Schools must be the license holder. This policy is
not meant to stifle productivity, rather, it is meant to
respect the licensing guidelines of software manufacturers as
well as reduce the burden of troubleshooting computers with
non-Oklahoma City Public Schools standard software titles.
Financial and criminal penalties may be incurred by Oklahoma
City Public Schools for pirated/non-licensed software. These
penalties may be passed on to the offender. Software piracy
and license fraud is a serious crime and results in
extraordinarily high fines (usually twice the value of the
pirated software title). Please contact the Information
Technology Desktop Services should you have any questions or
comments regarding software licensing in the Oklahoma City
Public School district.
E-MAIL
The district
will provide electronic transmission of messages in compliance
with the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)
that makes it illegal to intercept electronic communications
on a public or private network without proper authorization.
The ECPA provides electronics transmission of messages with
the same privacy protection as telephone calls over the public
telephone systems. System operators of public networks are
not permitted to divulge the contents of messages except under
a narrow set of circumstances.
The ECPA also
protects internal systems, such as those at the Oklahoma City
School District, from unauthorized interception of messages by
outside sources. However, the ECPA permits messages that are
stored on internal systems to be accessed by authorized
personnel without violating the Act.
The use of
any District resources for electronic communication should be
related to District business, including academic pursuits.
Only faculty,
staff, students, and other authorized persons conducting
District business may use the electronic communications
systems.
The District
reserves the right to refuse mail and other connections from
outside hosts that send unsolicited, mass or commercial
messages, or messages that appear to contain viruses to the
Oklahoma City Public Schools WAN or other users, and to
filter, refuse or discard such messages.
While we allow personal e-mail to be sent through the system,
please remember that this account is for work/school purposes,
and all mail (and other data) residing on the Network is the
property of the Oklahoma City Public Schools. We highly
discourage subscribing to personal mailing lists and using
your network account for promotions, giveaways, sweepstakes,
and other non-business related communications. Excessive
amounts of mail received from such sources may be deleted
without warning. Any mail that is related to running a
private business or involved in unsolicited advertising will
be deleted and its sender’s e-mail privileges may be revoked.
Similarly, the Oklahoma City Public School district does not
permit the “relaying” of e-mail. Mail relaying is when mail
is sent from an outside account through Oklahoma City Public
Schools’ e-mail server for the purpose of masking who the
original sender was.
Abusing District Distribution Lists is forbidden. Examples of
abusing a Distribution List include sending mail to the entire
District to inform all users of the system that your child is
selling candy and to see you for details. This kind of
solicitation unnecessarily clogs the e-mail system and
frustrates users. Electronic mail is an efficient and
convenient means of communication, but problems can arise when
it is used without restraint and discipline.
District
resources for electronic communication shall not be used for
personal or commercial purposes. Incidental and occasional
personal use of electronic mail and voice mail may occur when
such use does not generate a direct cost for the District, but
such messages will be treated no differently from other
messages. (An example of a use that does not create a direct
cost is placing a local telephone call: The District will pay
no more for telephone service than it would have paid had the
call not been made. An example of a use that does create a
direct cost is placing a long-distance telephone call: The
District will pay a direct charge for that call. Likewise,
any activity that involves printing creates a direct cost.)
Other
prohibited electronic communications include, but are not
limited to:
- Use of
electronic communications to send copies of documents in
violation of copyright laws;
- Use of
electronic communication systems to send messages, access to
which are restricted by laws or regulations;
- Capture
and “opening” of undeliverable electronic communications
except as required in order for authorized employees to
diagnose and correct delivery problems;
- Use of
electronic communications to intimidate others or to
interfere with the ability of others to conduct District
business.
-
“Spoofing,” i.e., constructing electronic communications so
it appears to be from someone else;
-
“Snooping,” i.e., obtaining access to the files or
communications of others for the purpose of satisfying idle
curiosity, with no substantial District business purpose;
- Attempting
unauthorized access to data or attempting to breach any
security measures on any electronic communication system, or
attempting to intercept any electronic communication
transmissions without proper authorization.
- Sending or
displaying offensive messages or pictures;
- Using
obscene language; and,
- Using
another’s password.
The District
reserves the right to access and disclose the contents of
faculty, staff, student, and other authorized users’
electronic communications, but will do so only when it has a
legitimate business need such as those listed in number 2
above, and only with explicit authorization. The District’s
electronic communication systems should be treated like a
shared filing system- -i.e., with the exception that messages
sent or received on District business or with the use of
District resources may be made available for review by any
authorized District official for purposes related to District
business.
The District
will not monitor electronic messages as a routine matter.
The District
will inspect the contents of electronic messages in the course
of an investigation triggered by indications of misconduct, as
needed to protect health and safety, as needed to prevent
interference with the academic mission of the institution, or
as needed to locate substantive information required for
District business that is not more readily available by some
other means. The District will respond to legal processes and
fulfill its obligation to third parties.
The contents
of electronic communication, properly obtained for legitimate
business purposes, may be disclosed without permission of the
employee. The District will attempt to refrain from
disclosure of particular messages if disclosure could create
personal embarrassment, unless such disclosure is required to
serve a business purpose or satisfy a legal obligation.
Individuals
needing to access the electronic communication of others, to
use information gained from such access, and/or to disclose
information from such access must obtain approval for such
activity in advance.
Appropriate
disciplinary action will be taken against individuals found to
have engaged in prohibited use of the District’s electronic
communications resources. |
