Look Both Ways | Protecting students at school

Protecting students at school

Official school Web sites, online newsletters, and other school communications may contain specific information about students and faculty, including names and photos, identifying who is participating in student councils, who is on various sports teams, and so on. Additionally, they often contain information about when and where meetings, practices, and events will be held which provides predators with information they can use to locate individuals, or target their empty homes. Some classes may also create their own Web sites so parents and students can check out homework assignments or students can post projects.

If your school is potentially exposing any personal information about students it’s time for the school to do a safety analysis of all online communications to identify and mitigate risks. Consider whether the site should be searchable by the public and whether you should use full names of students. You may want the information to be two-tiered: with some visible to the general public; and some restricted to the ‘approved’ list of e-mail addresses that students and parents provide at the beginning of each year.

Establishing Internet safety policies in schools

Policies should be given out to every teacher and to all students and their families. Specific policies might include:

What information the school may share about its staff and students
When, how and where to report Internet abuse – whether it involves bullying, plagiarism, inappropriate use of school computers, or other forms of online abuse by either students or teachers.
The types of filters and other restrictions the school has put in place so students and their families are clear about the level of monitoring available.
Guidelines for appropriate Internet usage and the consequences for failing to adhere to the policies
Consequences for Internet actions that do not take place in school, but nevertheless impact students at school.

Students and their parents should be required to sign off on these policies.