From Now On - May, 1995

A Monthly Electronic Commentary on Educational Technology Issues

Vol 5. . . No 7 . . . May, 1995

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Copyright Policy: Materials published in From Now On may be duplicated only in hard copy format for educational, non-profit school district use only. In any other case, contact the editor for permission.

Creating Board Policies
for Student Use of the Internet

The Vacuum

There is a huge vacuum out there when it comes to Board of Education policies on student use of Internet resources. When I researched available models before drafting one for the Bellingham Public Schools, I found plenty of AUPs (acceptable use policies) but few Board policies. When I posted an offer to send Belingham's approved policy to members of LM_Net and WWWEDU, I received over 300 requests.

How is a Board policy different from an AUP? And why bother?

In basic terms, AUPs help to define acceptable behaviors by student and staff users of information systems, while Board policies take the matter much further. AUPs were designed to satisfy the regional networks most school districts join when driving onto the Electronic Highway.

• Board policies also describe acceptable student behaviors, echoing the content of AUPs, but they tie those standards to the district's policies on student rights and responsibilities, drawing connections, for example, with the district policy and procedures on locker searches and a student's rights to privacy of freedom of speech. They tie consequences and procedures to those already in effect.
• In addition, a sound Board policy takes a position on access to potentially controversial information and relates these new information sources to pre-existing policies on curriculum and the selection of curriculum materials, outlining clear expectations for staff supervising student use.
• Finally, a comprehensive set of policies would also outline staff responsibilities and rights as employees using these utilities.

Some Examples of the Risks

Many people are unprepared for the serious values conflicts which may arise if the Board of Education remains silent. As can be seen from incredibly restrictive legislation recently introduced by the legislature in Washington, the Internet can inspire all kinds of censorship and heavy-handed regulation by groups and by individuals. The vaguer the rules in any particular district, the greater the risk that individuals will be caught up in storms of protest or moral dilemmas such as the cases mentioned below:

Case #1 - Raw student message

An eighth grader sends an explicit sexual e-mail message to his elementary teacher in a different building describing in great detail what acts he would like her to perform. Alarmed, the teacher forwards the message to you - the principal of the building. What do you do?

Case #2 - Unsupervised Use

An elementary teacher extremely enthusiastic about the Internet encourages students to browse through the Internet during "free time." He feels 5th graders are old enough to make reasoned judgments about materials and he warns them to stay away from certain sites. One day a group of his parents descend upon your office (principal) to complain that their children have been browsing Danish pornography in the back of the classroom while the teacher corrected papers in the front of the room. Your action?

Case #3 - Restrictive software

The high school principal proposes software for the library media specialist to restrict Internet access to select sites, preventing browsing and wandering. She asks the library media specialist to identify "safe" sites. The rest of the Internet will be "off bounds." You are the library media specialist. How do you respond?

Case #4 - Graphic display

9th grade student displays sexually explicit graphic to other students in library media center. She calls other students over to see what she has found - a photograph of a nude couple engaged in a sexual act. She has parent permission to do independent work with the Internet, but other students do not. As the library media specialist, you observe this. What do you do?

Case #5 - Raw Teacher Message

A basketball coach sends a raw message to her buddy in another building but accidentally copies all staff members in central office. The message contains several 4 letter words. You are her principal. What do you do?

Case #6 - Network Mail review

Concerned that staff and students may be violating the district's AUP, the network administrator scans mail messages to be certain that no obscenity is passing over the network. One day she notices romantic messages between two married teachers who are clearly having an illicit affair. Troubled by what she sees as immoral behavior, she passes along her discovery to the manager of information systems, who relays it to his boss, an assistant superintendent, who passes it along to her boss, YOU, the superintendent. What do you do?

Case #7 - Death Threat

A system operator receives a death threat from a high school student full of obscene words. She contacts the high school administrators, who bring the student and parents in for a conference. The student - a highly unlikely candidate for such behavior - denies any knowledge or ownership of the note. You are the assistant principal. What do you do?

What are the types of risk?

The media has devoted most of its attention to risks related to obscenity or inappropriate behavior, but there are also risks related to the quality of the information available and the haphazard way that it is organized. Finally, there are risks associated with attempts to launch surveillance efforts or restrict access. A solid Board policy addresses most or all of the following:

• 1. Contact with objectionable material
• 2. Contact with questionable material
• 3. Contact with questionable persons
• 4. Objectionable behavior
• 5. Objectionable material
• 6. Destructive behavior
• 7. Violation of privacy rights
• 8. Violation of access rights

Key Questions to Address in a Board Policy

A. Philosophical stance

• 1. How is the delivery of information changing in the society?
• 2. What is the proper relationship between information and student learning?
• 3. How does access to information relate to citizenship in a democratic society?
• 4. What relationship should the new information technologies and resources have to the district's curriculum and instructional strategies?
• 5. What relationship should the new information technologies and resources have to the district's selection and screening of instructional materials?

B. School/home responsibilities

• 1. How much supervision do students require at various age levels?
• 2. Who should provide the supervision? How?
• 3. Should parental permission be required for independent use?
• 4. Who decides which information sources are acceptable? The school? parents?

C. Staff responsibilities

• 1. What are appropriate role of teachers, administrators and library media specialists? Should they be pre-screening materials and sites? Should access to some steps be prohibited?
• 2. How is guidance different from censorship?
• 3. How important is it that staff learn to conduct research and show students how to research with such new tools?
• 4. Should staff blend this new kind of research throughout curriculum?
• 5. Should staff teach new research skills?

D. Student responsibilities

• 1. What constitutes responsible behavior and communication?
• 2. What is the connection to existing codes and procedures?
• 3. How much privacy can students expect? Under what circumstances can their messages be scanned or their telecommunications be watched? What are the procedures governing such issues?
• 4. What limits, if any, should be placed upon freedom of speech?

Typically, in most districts there will be a set of procedures which spell out in considerable detail how to translate into school realities the broad principles stated in the board policy. For the Internet, these would speak to program development, rules and sanctions.

Advantages of Enacting Board Policy

The most dangerous and complicated issues arising out of Internet use are likely to create fire storms similar to library and textbook censorship situations. Ultimately, these must be resolved at a philosophical level by the Board as representative of community values. Staff members are at considerable personal risk if they take firm stands on such issues as individuals.

New Issues Arising out Of GUIs (graphical user interfaces)

School use of the Internet takes on a very different flavor when students are able to display vivid graphics on the screens of their monitors. Individual use of text files, however offensive in content, was unlikely to cause much turmoil, but the monitor can act as a billboard for exciting visual material, changing the rules and the stakes of the game.

Schools typically already restrict the kinds of graphical displays permitted on student clothing. One way to handle the challenge of explicit graphics is to treat it in the same way as T-shirts. The point is that although one student may gain parent permission for independent work, that student may offend others during such research. Schools being public, the issue becomes quite complex.

For further information on board policies and the Internet, try the following:

Internet Resources on Policies and Censorship

Bellingham (WA) Board Policy
Text of Bellingham Board Policy and District Procedures - (http://www.bham.wednet.edu)

Acceptable Use Policies - A Texas Gopher file - (gopher://riceinfo.rice.edu:1170/11/More/Acceptable)

Sex, Censorship and the Internet - An excellent colection of case studies, policies and key documents such as ALA (American Library Association) statements and procedures. - (http://www.eff.org/CAF/cafuiuc.html)