Transcript Social Media Content

Social Media
Katy ISD Administrative Training
July 27, 2016
Christopher Gilbert
Thompson & Horton LLP
3200 Southwest Freeway
Suite 2000
Houston, Texas 77027
Employee Conduct – Policy DH (Local)
• Rules on electronic media
• Includes all forms of social media
• Text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail,
blogs, chat rooms, video-sharing, social network
sites
• All forms of telecommunication, such as
landlines, cell phones, and web-based
applications
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Employee Conduct – Policy DH (Local)
• Use with students
• A certified or licensed employee, or any other
employee designated in writing by the
Superintendent or a campus principal
• May use electronic media to communicate
with currently enrolled students about matters
within the scope of the employee’s
professional responsibilities.
• All other employees cannot communicate
with students via electronic media
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Educator’s Code of Ethics – Policy DH (Exhibit)
• Standard 3.8. The educator shall maintain
appropriate
professional
educator-student
relationships and boundaries based on a reasonably
prudent educator standard.
• Standard 3.9. The educator shall refrain from
inappropriate communication with a student or minor,
including, but not limited to, electronic communication
such as cell phone, text messaging, e-mail, instant
messaging, blogging, or other social network
communication.
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Educator’s Code of Ethics – Policy DH (Exhibit)
• Factors that may be considered in assessing
whether the communication is inappropriate
include, but are not limited to:
• The nature, purpose, timing, and amount of the
communication;
• The subject matter of the communication;
• Whether the communication was made openly or the
educator attempted to conceal the communication;
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Educator’s Code of Ethics – Policy DH (Exhibit)
• Whether the communication could be reasonably
interpreted as soliciting sexual contact or a romantic
relationship;
• Whether the communication was sexually explicit;
and
• Whether the communication involved discussion(s)
of the physical or sexual attractiveness or the sexual
history, activities, preferences, or fantasies of either
the educator or the student.
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KISD Social Media Guidelines
Authorization for a KISD Social Media Account:
• All Katy ISD online social media accounts, current and
future, must be authorized via attached application.
• Each social media account will be approved by a campus
principal or non-campus department supervisor.
• Any existing sites or pages that represent Katy ISD are
subject to review by campus and department
administrators and may be amended or, when necessary,
removed.
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KISD Social Media Guidelines
Social Media Content:
• All Katy ISD-authorized social media accounts must follow the
District's Responsible Use Guidelines, SBEC Code of Ethics, and
Board policy DH. Online behavior should reflect the same
standards as those published in the Katy ISD Employee
Handbook.
• All content that is illegal, obscene, pornographic, defamatory,
threatening, infringing of intellectual property rights, invasive
of privacy, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive,
hateful or embarrassing to any person or entity, inhospitable
to a reasonable work environment, or otherwise injurious or
objectionable, violates law, policy, or these guidelines is
unacceptable and may be removed.
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KISD Social Media Guidelines
Social Media Content:
• Respect copyright and fair use guidelines. See U.S.
Copyright Office - Fair Use.
• FERPA and District Directory Information limit the release
of private student information. District employees are
responsible for becoming familiar with the privacy codes
and their meaning. Do not post an image/video/name of
a student whose parent has not selected a directory
information code of A.
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KISD Social Media Guidelines
Employee and Account Administrator Responsibilities:
• All Katy ISD employees need to be aware of their
responsibilities concerning their personal social media
accounts and will be held accountable for content on
their social media accounts.
• Be sure to include a disclaimer stating that the
information is unofficial and representative of your views
and opinions, and not necessarily the views and opinions
of Katy ISD.
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KISD Social Media Guidelines
Employee and Account Administrator Responsibilities:
• The account administrator of a Katy ISD-authorized
account should ensure that content is consistently
updated. Dormant accounts will be removed.
• Social media in the classroom is an extension of the
physical classroom. What is inappropriate in the
classroom should be deemed inappropriate online.
• Katy ISD employees need to familiarize themselves with
appropriate security settings for any social media that
may be in use.
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Preliminary Thought:
Is Social Media Worth It?
How personally comfortable you are with your
life being open to the entire Internet?
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• You have heard it before: hackers accessing
databases of major Internet companies to get your
personal information, accidental posts, and the
ever changing settings and privacy options of
popular Internet platforms like Facebook,
Google+, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
• Decide if it is worth the risk to publicly post
personal information
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The Case of Ashley Payne
Ashley Payne was forced to resign, or risk losing
her teaching license, for the photo on the right.
An anonymous parent (or co-worker) found the
photo out of 700 on her Facebook page from a
European vacation
Her Facebook profile,
according to media
reports, was set to the
highest privacy settings.
Yet the photo still got out.
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Drunken Pirates are not a Matter of Public Concern
Stacey Snyder provides another example.
She was a student-teacher who ended up losing her
ability to finish her certification course work and
was required to switch majors.
The court found her use of MySpace and her post
of a the photo to the right with the caption
“drunken pirate” was not a “matter of public
concern” and was instead a personal matter. This
key fact meant that she had no First Amendment
protection.
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Are You an Open Book to Your Community?
• It is critical to know how to manage your Facebook
privacy settings, to be aware that those settings can
change (and often do), and to realize that any public
profile or post on Facebook can be viewed by anyone
• Did you know that Google can index your public
Facebook posts to be searchable by anyone in the
world?
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Did you know that……
• Facebook may own your posts and use them in different
ways (e.g., for advertising)
• Your comments or likes on a company, product, or other
Facebook page can be viewed by the entire world:
including students, parents, and administrators?
• All of the above can happen regardless of whether you
are friends with someone or tell them your Facebook
URL or name?
While social media has its benefits, the privacy risks
are very large. Consider if the trade-off is worth it for
you as a school employee.
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KISD Social Media Guidelines
District Role:
• Use of District logos must be requested and approved
through the Communications Department.
• The District does not endorse or take responsibility for
content posted by third parties.
• The District does not permit explicit or implied
institutional endorsements of any kind through the use
of its names, trademarks, logos or images - including
pictures of campus buildings.
• Katy ISD does not pre-screen posted content, but it shall
have the right to remove content with cause.
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Christopher B. Gilbert
Thompson & Horton LLP
3200 Southwest Freeway, Suite 2000
Houston, Texas 77027
(713) 554-6744
[email protected]
www.theoldestrule.com
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