Department of Education Internet Acceptable Use Policy

We take privacy and online safety seriously at Marta Valle High School. One of the most important outcomes of our work with technologies like our interactive community website, is the opportunity to inform students about Internet safety, and get them into safe and responsible online habits within this private, closely-monitored environment.

All users of this website must first agree to adhere to the NYC Department of Education's Internet Acceptable Use Policy.

Because of our students' increasing participation in Internet activity, including social networking web sites like MySpace and Facebook, outside of school, we are encouraging members of our community, particularly parents, to pay special attention to the following sections of the policy:

Highlights from the NYCDOE's Internet Acceptable Use Policy
5) Parental Notification and Responsibility

• If the Department provides home Internet access, parents are exclusively responsible for monitoring their own and their child(ren)'s use of the Internet if they access the system from home. Filtering may or may not be employed to screen home access to the Internet. Parents should inquire with the school or district.

• A) Personal Safety Violations For Students
  1. Student users will not post or transmit photographs or personal contact information about themselves or other people without prior written parental consent from the parent of the student whose information is being posted. Such consent must be delivered to the child’s teacher or principal. Personal contact information includes, but is not limited to, home address, telephone number, school name, school address and classroom.
  2. Student users will not agree to meet with someone they have met online without their parent's approval and participation.
  3. Student users will promptly disclose to their teacher or other school employee any message they receive that is inappropriate or makes them feel uncomfortable.
• D) Inappropriate Language
  1. Restrictions against inappropriate language apply to public messages, private messages, and material posted on Web pages.
  2. Users will not use obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, threatening, abusive or disrespectful language.
  3. Users will not post information that could interfere with the educational process or cause a danger of disruption in the educational environment.
  4. Users will not engage in personal attacks, including prejudicial or discriminatory attacks.
  5. Users will not harass another person. Harassment is persistently acting in a manner that distresses or annoys another person. If a user is told by a person to stop sending them messages, they must stop. However, nothing in this paragraph shall prohibit supervisory use of e-mail in connection with Department activities and employment.
  6. Users will not knowingly or recklessly post false or defamatory information about a person or organization.
• E) Privacy Violations
  1. Users should not repost a message that was sent to them privately without permission of the person who sent them the message.
  2. Users should not post private information about another person.
• G) Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
  1. Users will not plagiarize works that they find on the Internet. Plagiarism is taking the ideas or writings of others and presenting them as if they were original to the user.
  2. Users will respect the rights of copyright owners and not infringe on those rights. Copyright infringement occurs when an individual inappropriately reproduces a work that is protected by a copyright. If a work contains language that specifies acceptable use of that work, the user should follow the expressed requirements. If the user is unsure whether or not they can use a work, they should request permission from the copyright owner.
• H) Access to Inappropriate Material
  1. Users will not use the Department system to access material that is profane or obscene (e.g., pornography), that advocates illegal or dangerous acts, or that advocates violence or discrimination towards other people (e.g., hate literature). For students, a special exception may be made if the purpose is to conduct research and is approved in writing by both the teacher and the parent. Department employees may access the above material only in the context of legitimate research expressly approved in writing by the employee's supervisor.
  2. If users inadvertently access such information, they should immediately disclose the inadvertent access in a manner specified by their school or central division office. This will protect users against an allegation that they have intentionally violated the Internet Acceptable Use Policy.

• A) Student Information
  1. Each school must obtain written parental consent prior to the disclosure of student information or student work on any Department Web page. Student information includes name, address, school name, grade, class, photograph, writing or other creative work, or any other student educational record.