School Issues Rules With A Byte
The Bellingham School District wants to make sure students behave in the classroom as well as on the computer.
School leaders have proposed a ground-breaking policy on student access to computer networks, in an effort to keep students responsible for good behavior on-line.
“We are looking at the edges and the boundaries and the expectations of what should be set (as policy),” said Superintendent Dale Kinsley. “We think we’re really breaking some new ground in this area.”
Bellingham is believed to be one of the first schools in the nation to pursue such a policy, Kinsley said.
Local voters last year approved a $6 million technology bond that will soon allow teachers - and students - to tap into the Internet, a worldwide computer network.
Educators tout the Internet as a global information resource, capable of putting students into museums and laboratories around the world.
But the network also includes a host of unregulated services, such as pornographic magazine articles and movie clips.
The new policy, presented to the Bellingham School Board on Thursday, establishes guidelines for good on-line behavior and requires students and parents to sign permission forms if students are to use school networks after hours, via modem from a home computer.
Claudia McCain, director of the Bellingham Public Library and a School Board member, is worried that parents who don’t sign the permission slips could be holding back their children.
“The students who do not use the Internet could be educationally disadvantages and the playing field would not be level,” McCain said. “It’s like denying someone math or history.”
Kinsley pointed out that all students would still have access to computer networks during the school day, with activities monitored by teachers.
Board member David Blair said it will be difficult for educators to monitor students who tap into school networks from home.
“The reality is, you’re going to have a demand for that service. The issue is going to be monitoring that time (available to students),” he said. “To control what they’re actually doing with that time is beyond us.”
But Kinsley said the district wanted to be clear about rules for good behavior while students are in school.
Violations would result in loss of access or other discipline. xxxx STUDENT RESTRICTIONS Among the rules: Sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures. Harassing, insulting or attacking others. Damaging computers or computer networks. Trespassing into other teachers’ or students’ computer files. Violations would result in loss of access or other discipline on par with existing rules for inappropriate language or behavior in the classroom.