St. Marys Area School District

Computer Acceptable Use Policy

All use of the Internet and computer network must be in support of education and research and consistent with the purposes of the St. Marys Area School District.

The Internet and computer network will be used to support the district's curriculum, the educational community, communications, research, and projects between schools for district students, teachers, and administrators.

AUTHORITY:

The St. Marys Area School District reserves the right to log Internet use, to monitor fileserver space utilization, to review files and communications by District users while respecting the privacy rights of both District users and outside users. The school reserves the right to remove a user account from the network to prevent further unauthorized or illegal activity.

PROCEDURES:

Only the authorized owner of the account will use network accounts for its authorized purpose. Network users shall respect the privacy of other users on the system and all communications and information accessible via the network should be assumed to be private property and shall not be disclosed except for district purposes consistent with the objectives of this and related policies. Use of St. Marys Area School District's computer hardware, software, network, Internet, or e-mail requires the signing of the use agreement form by all users. If the user is under the age of 18 or is a student living with a parent or guardian the signature of the parent or guardian is also required. The district, at its sole discretion, may wave the signature of young users or those unable to read of fully comprehend these policies. (Parent/guardian is still required.)

PROHIBITIONS:

The use of the Internet and computer network for illegal, inappropriate or unethical purposes by students, employees, or other authorized users is prohibited. More specifically:

Use of the network and/or the Internet to facilitate illegal activity is prohibited.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet for commercial or for-profit purposes is prohibited.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet for non-work or non-school related communications is prohibited.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet for product advertisement or political lobbying is prohibited.

• Malicious use of the network and/or the Internet to develop programs that harass other users or infiltrate a computer system and/or damage the software components of a computer or system is prohibited.

• The creation, use of sharing of computer viruses is prohibited.

• Hate mail, harassment, discriminatory remarks, and other antisocial communications on the network and/or the Internet is prohibited.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet to access obscene, pornographic or socially unacceptable material is prohibited.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet to transmit material likely to be offensive or objectionable to recipients is prohibited.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet to misrepresent other users on the network and/or the Internet is prohibited.

• Use of school technology, the network and/or the Internet for fraudulent copying, communications, or modification of materials in violation of law is prohibited and will be referred to appropriate authorities.

• Loading or use of unauthorized games, programs, files, or other electronic media is prohibited.

• The network and/or the Internet shall not be used to disrupt the work of others; and the hardware or software of other users shall not be destroyed, modified or abused in any way.

• Use of the network and/or the Internet that results in any copyright violation is prohibited.

• Failure to manage e-mail accounts including the regular and frequent deletion of mail.

• Subscriptions to List servers, Newsgroups or other such services without preapproval by district is prohibited.

CONSEQUENCES:

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY:

In no event shall the St. Marys Area School District be liable for damages, whether direct, indirect, special or consequential, arising out of the use of its hardware, software and network technologies. This includes any interruption of user access.