Acceptable Email Use Policy for SJBC

ACCEPTABLE EMAIL USE POLICY

Introduction

Use of email by students of St. John the Baptist’s College is permitted and encouraged where such use supports the goals and objectives of the school.

However, St. John the Baptist’s College has a policy for the use of email whereby the students must ensure that they:

• use email in an acceptable way
• do not create unnecessary risk to the school by their misuse of the internet
• comply with current legislation

Unacceptable behaviour

• use of personal communications systems for school use of any description
• use of school communications systems for personal use or sending chain letters
• distributing, accessing or storing images, text or materials that might be considered indecent, inappropriate, pornographic, obscene or illegal
• distributing, accessing or storing images, text or materials that might be considered discriminatory, offensive or abusive, in that the context is a personal attack, sexist or racist, or might be considered as harassment or bullying
• accessing copyrighted information in a way that violates the copyright
• breaking into the school’s or another organisation’s system or unauthorised use of a password/mailbox
• broadcasting unsolicited personal views on social, political, religious or other non- school related matters
• transmitting unsolicited commercial or advertising material (SPAM)
• undertaking deliberate activities that waste staff effort or networked resources
• introducing any form of computer virus or malware into the school network
• accessing another person’s e-mail account
• sharing your password with another student

Monitoring

St. John the Baptist’s College accepts that the use of email is a valuable school tool. However,

misuse of this facility can have a negative impact upon student productivity and the reputation of the school.

In addition, all of the school’s email resources are provided for school purposes. Therefore, the school maintains the right to examine any systems and inspect any data recorded in those systems.

E-mails will be periodically deleted to create space upon the network.

In order to ensure compliance with this policy, the school will use monitoring software in order to check upon the use and content of emails periodically. Such monitoring is for legitimate purposes only.

Sanctions

If a student is found to have breached this policy, they will face the withdrawal of their e-mail account and/or network usage for an indefinite period. The actual penalty applied will depend on factors such as the seriousness of the breach and the student's disciplinary record.  In addition to this contact will be made with parents / carers to notify them of our concerns.