Student ICT Acceptable Use Agreement
The John Berne School (hereafter “school”) offers students the opportunity to access the internet and other ICT services as part of the school curriculum.
The following guidelines apply to all students accessing any resources through the school’s network:
- Students must have written permission from a parent or guardian to access the school’s ICT resources.
- Students are not to access, without staff instruction, any ICT resources including, but not limited to, web sites; emails; files; and programs.
- Network administrators may, at any time, review files and communications to maintain system integrity and ensure that students are using the system responsibly. Students should not expect that any files or communications accessed through the school’s computer services will be private. The school reserves the right to access students’ files and communications at any time.
- Actions that are not permitted on the network include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures.
- Using obscene language.
- Sending unsolicited full school or large group emails.
- Harassing or insulting others.
- Damaging computers, computer systems or computer networks (e.g. by the creation, introduction or spreading of computer viruses and trojans; physically abusing hardware; altering source code or software settings, etc.).
- Violating copyright laws. The legal rights of software producers and network providers, and copyright and license agreements must be honoured (e.g. downloading copyrighted games, videos or music files could result in legal proceedings, resulting in a fine).
- Using others’ usernames and passwords.
- Supplying your username and password to others.
- Accessing others’ folders, work or files.
- Intentionally wasting resources, e.g. playing games rather than using the system for educational purposes.
- Using the network for discussion about or supply of prohibited substances such as drugs and alcohol.
- Employing the network for commercial purposes or activities by for-profit institutions or organisations, product advertisement or political lobbying.
- Using the network to disrupt use by other individuals or by connecting networks.
- Students must respect others’ privacy and academic property.
- Each student wishing to use the network will be issued with an account which can be used to access online information services. Each account owner is responsible for all activity under that account.
- It is the student’s responsibility that their password is kept secure at all times. If the individual’s account is used by others, the student must accept responsibility for its use. Students must log off at the conclusion of a lesson. Failure to do this may leave the student liable if an account is misused.
- Harassment via SMS messages, emailing, chat rooms, blogs and message boards will not be tolerated and must be reported to the Assistant Principal immediately. Acts of cyber-bullying outside school hours should also be reported immediately.
- Transmission of any material in violation of any state, federal or international regulation is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material, threatening, harassing or obscene material, pornographic material, or material protected by trade secret.
- All communication and information accessible via the network should be assumed to be private property. Any sources used in research must be cited and credit given to the author.
- Student-owned devices may only access the school’s network and resources with written permission from the Assistant Principal. Under no circumstances are students under such an agreement to allow others to access the school’s resources through these devices.
- Security problems must be brought to the immediate attention of the Assistant Principal. The problem must not be demonstrated to other users.
- The running (execution) of programs that have not been sanctioned by the Assistant Principal will be deemed a breach of this agreement and disciplinary action will be taken.
- Assessments: students should be aware that the failure by electronic means (either by email, disc or any type of transferring device) to hand in assessment items by the due date will be treated in the same manner as failure to submit an assessment on time. Failure of hardware or software will not be deemed as an acceptable reason for late submissions of an assessment task. It is the student’s responsibility to backup their work electronically or in hard copy form.
- Email is provided by the school for school use. The school understands that personal emails are sometimes received. Students should be aware that at times email is checked to make sure that system integrity and school policies are maintained. Therefore, emails should never be assumed to be private.
- Vandalism will result in cancellation of privileges. Vandalism is defined as any attempt to access, change, or destroy data of another user. This includes, but is not limited to, the uploading or creating of computer viruses, trojans, or other programs that cause denial of service. Hardware and software vandalism will result in students and their families having to pay all costs to repair damage including any labour charges.
- The school reserves the right to suspend students from the use of the computer facilities for breaching this agreement.