Electronic Media/Cell Phones & Acceptable Use Policy

 For parental peace of mind and the safety of our students enroute to school and home and off campus, students may bring phones to school and leave them in their backpacks turned off. A student who takes out his/her phone, has it on his/her person or uses it at any time during the school day without permission of administration will receive an automatic detention.  Additionally, the phone will be taken by administration, the parent will be notified and the parent must pick up the phone in the office following a parent, student, principal conference. If a child needs to make a call during the school day it must be made from the school office on the school’s telephone with permission from the appropriate school staff member. St. Bernadette School does not assume responsibility for the loss, damage, or theft of personal cell phones.

Students may use their personal iPad, Kindle, or Nook for use of reading books ONLY under the supervision of a teacher within the classroom.  These devices are not permitted to be used at any other time.  If a student does not follow this policy EXACTLY, the device will be confiscated, the child’s parent will need to pick it up from the Principal and the child will not be permitted to bring a device to school.  If a parent permits his/her child to bring such a device to school, the school does not take responsibility for missing devices.

A student who would use a cell phone or computer to “sext”, “text”, blog or cause harm to another student or teacher may be subject to dismissal. The use of any social networking sites are discouraged for our students and use of them to harm another student or teacher’s reputation may lead to dismissal. At no time may a student use the name of St. Bernadette of Lourdes School on any website or social network site. 

For Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia technology is a valuable and real world educational tool. Our schools are committed to teach its students, faculty, administrators, staff, and school community to work and to learn effectively with technology and to ensure responsible use of technology. The policy outlined below applies to all technology use including but not limited to Internet use. The Acceptable Use Policy for Technology applies to all students, faculty, administrators, staff, volunteers or community members allowed access to school technology resources. In some cases outside or personal uses of technology may be applicable under this policy.

SCOPE OF USE
We recognize that the digital world allows anytime, anywhere access. Uses mentioned in this policy apply to inside school use and may in certain instances apply to personal technology use and/or uses outside of school. Where personal outside use of technology threatens a likelihood of substantial disruption in school, including harming or interfering with the rights of other students or teachers to participate fully in school or extracurricular activities, these activities may be viewed as a violation of the Acceptable Use Policy and may be subject to the disciplinary measure found herein.
N.B. The types of electronic and digital communications referenced in this AUP include, but are not limited to, social networking sites, cell phones, digital cameras, text messaging, email, voice over ip, chat rooms and instant messaging.

GOAL
The school’s goal is to prepare its members for life in a digital global community. To this end, the school will:
• integrate technology with curriculum to enhance teaching and learning
• encourage critical thinking, communication, collaboration and problem solving skills
• facilitate evaluation and synthesis of information
• encourage ethical practices and provide education for internet safety and digital citizenship • provide a variety of technology based tools and related technology skills
(Revised May 2011)

RESPONSIBILITIES OF USER
Our schools will make every effort to provide a safe environment for learning with technology including Internet filtering and safeguards. The students, faculty, administrators, staff, and school community are granted the privilege of using the computer hardware and software peripherals, and electronic communication tools including the Internet. With this privilege comes the responsibility for appropriate use.
In The Archdiocese of Philadelphia we use information and technology in safe, legal, and responsible ways. We embrace the following conditions or facets of being a digital citizen.
● Respect One's self. Users will select online names that are appropriate and will consider the information and images that are posted online.
● Respect Others. Users will refrain from using technologies to bully, tease or harass other people
● Protect One's self and Others. Users will protect themselves and others by reporting abuse and
not forwarding inappropriate materials or communications.
● Respect Intellectual Property. Users will suitably cite any and all use of websites, books, media,
etc.
● Protect Intellectual Property. Users will request to use the software and media others produce
and protect license agreements for all software and resources.
TECHNOLOGY USE GUIDELINES
Educational Purpose/ Appropriate Use: School technology is to be used to enhance student learning. Students must not access social networking sites or gaming sites, except for educational purposes under teacher supervision.
Copyright/Intellectual Property and Identity: All sources obtained for teacher and student work should be properly cited. Users are to respect the rights of and the intellectual property of others in accordance with Federal Copyright Law. Transferring copyrighted material to or from a school without expressed permission of the owner is a violation of Federal Law.
Communications: Electronic and/or Digital communications with students should be conducted for educationally appropriate purposes and employ only school sanctioned means of communication. The school sanctioned communications methods include:
● Teacher school web page
● ·Teacher school email
● Teacher school phone number
● Teacher created, educationally focused networking sites
Teachers or administrators in their normal responsibilities and duties may be required to contact parents outside of the school day. A teacher or administrator is free to contact parents using a home phone or a personal cell phone. However, they should not purposely distribute a home phone number or a personal cell phone number to students. If a student contacts a teacher or administrator using a teacher or administrator’s personal numbers, email or networking sites, the teacher or administrator should immediately report this to the administrator or appropriate authorities.
Revised May 2011

Electronic and Mobile Devices, Cellphones: Users must adhere to local school policy that may further define uses of mobile devices. Access will be determined by the administrator of the school. If a particular mobile device is to be used for educational purpose, the school administration and/or teacher will provide parameters for this use.
Examples of Unacceptable Uses - Users are not to:
● Use technology to harass, threaten, deceive, intimidate, offend, embarrass, or annoy any individual.
● Post, publish, or display any defamatory, inaccurate, violent, abusive, profane or sexually oriented material. Users must not use obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude or threatening language. Users must not knowingly or recklessly post false information about any persons, students, staff or any other organization.
● Use a photograph, image, video or likeness of any student, or employee without express permission of that individual and of the principal.
● Create any site, post any photo, image or video of another except with express permission of that individual and the principal.
● Attempt to circumvent system security.
● Deliberately visit a site known for unacceptable material or any material that is not in support of
educational objectives. Students must not access social networking sites or gaming sites, except
for educational purposes under teacher supervision.
● Violate license agreements, copy disks, CD-ROMs, or other protected media.
● Use technology for any illegal activity. Use of the Internet for commercial gains or profits is not
allowed from an educational site.
● Breach confidentiality obligations of school or system employees
● Harm the goodwill and reputation of the school or system in the community
● Transmit any material in violation of any local, federal and state laws. This includes, but is not
limited to: copyrighted material, licensed material and threatening or obscene material.
Reporting: Users must immediately report any damage or change to the school’s hardware/software that is noticed by the user.
Administrative Rights: The school has the right to monitor both student and employee use of school computers and computer accessed content. Due to the evolving nature of Technology, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Office of Catholic Education reserves the right to amend or add to this policy at any time without notice.
Personal Use of Social Media
This section of the policy refers to the personal use of social media sites such as, but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Myspace.
Teachers and students may not mention members of the school community without their consent unless the subject is of public concern and the speech falls under applicable constitutional protections.
Revised May 2011

‘Friending’ of current students by teachers is forbidden on a teacher’s personal social networking site. Personal posts’ must use appropriately respectful speech, and refrain from harassing, defamatory, abusive, discriminatory, threatening or other inappropriate communications.
Policy Violations
Violation of the above rules will be dealt with by the administration of the school. Violation of these rules may result in any or all of the following:
● Loss of use of the school network, computers and software, including Internet access. The student will be expected to complete work on a non-networked, stand-alone computer system.
● Issuance of demerits/detentions, if applicable.
● Disciplinary action including, but not limited to, dismissal and/or legal action by the school, civil
authorities, or other involved parties.

Revised May 2011