Information Ethics and Acceptable Use
Guidelines
INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM
At CES, we believe all students should have access to the materials they want. We do our best to provide the most up to date materials for our students to meet the needs of their school research and personal inquires. There are filters on our computers to prevent students from accessing social media sites and sites that could prove harmful according to the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) like obscenities, pornography, etc.
PRIVACY
All students have their privacy protected at CES. All materials inquired about or check-out remain private unless the librarian sees a chance of harm being done to or by the student in which case the librarian will speak to the guidance counselor for help.
COPYRIGHT AND PLAGIARISM
Copyright infringement and plagiarism is not tolerated at CES. Techniques to avoid these things are taught in the library as well as in the language arts classes. If there is any question as to what is “free game,” see the Fair Use and Creative Commons links below, and as always, we encourage students to ask questions when they are unsure if they are breaking copyright laws or plagiarizing.
CHALLENGING MATERIALS
Parents and students may challenge materials in the school's media center. If a parent or students sees an item as unnecessary or inappropriate, they may schedule a meeting with the librarian to handle this situation. If the challenger is not satisfied, the challenge will then be presented to the principal, guidance counselor, and head of each grade level. In the end, the final say goes to the decision made by the principal and the librarian.
ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
CES students have access to the Internet, school network, and other electronic resources to meet their school-related needs. Students may have access to the Internet ONLY with a teacher’s permission, and ONLY for educational needs. Access to the Internet through school resources is a privilege, not a right, and may be revoked for inappropriate or unauthorized use as determined by district authorities.
Unless specifically authorized, the district prohibits the following activities and any others determined to be unacceptable uses of school system technology:
- Allowing another person to use an assigned account.
- Use of technology for non-school related communications.
- Use of technology to access obscene or pornographic material.
- Use of technology to transmit material likely to be offensive or objectionable to recipients.
- Use of technology to communicate through e-mail for non-educational purposes or activities.
- Use of technology to participate in inappropriate and/or objectionable discussions or newsgroups.
- Use of technology to disseminate hate mail, harassment, discriminatory remarks, or other antisocial communication.
- Use of technology to plagiarize any information whether or not that results in a copyright violation.
- The illegal installation, distribution, reproduction or use of copyrighted software on district computers.
- Loading, downloading, or use of unauthorized games, programs, files or other electronic media, including peer-to-peer applications used to download songs, movies, or software illegally.
- Malicious use of computers or the network to develop or distribute programs that harass other users, infiltrate a computer system, and/or damage the software or components of a computer system.
- Use of technology to facilitate any illegal activity.
Violation of the above is subject but not limited to the suspension and/or dismissal of all parties involved. In addition, the district and/or its designees reserve the right to pursue civil and/or criminal prosecution as the situation warrants.
Adapted from http://www.kms.keene.k12.nh.us/auphbk and http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/Departments/main.asp?titleid=etsaup