The Ocean Gate Board of Education sponsors pupil publications as important elements of the instructional program. Pupils are encouraged to develop skills of written and verbal communication and to exercise the right to express their opinions freely and responsibly.

The rights of free speech, and free expression of pupils in public schools pursuant to the First Amendment, are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings and shall be applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment. The board of education reserves the right to exercise prepublication control over school sponsored publications through administrative staff and faculty. Pupils shall have the right to appeal the exercise of censorship by school district staff to the board of education.

Pupil expression may be restricted, if it can be determined that such expression is inconsistent with the basic educational mission of the school district and when censorship action is reasonably related to legitimate educational concerns.

Pupils who violate this policy by expression, publication or distribution of any materials which are biased or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, unsuitable for immature audiences, or which do not meet the school district’s high standards of learning and propriety consistent with its educational goals and objectives may be subject to appropriate discipline.

This policy shall be implemented in accordance with regulations to be developed by the chief school administrator. The regulations shall:

A. Identify school district staff responsible for pupil publications;

B. Establish procedures for prepublication review; and

C. Specify procedures for appeal by pupils to the board of education with provisions for prompt decisions to be made at each level.

School Websites Publishing

School-sponsored websites are also subject to this policy and to the same regulatory constraints as are print publications.

School websites provide the district with unique and ever-changing ways with which to interact with the community and improve student learning. They allow an individual school to provide current and complete information to its community at large, they give the community a means to communicate effectively with student personnel, they create expanded means for student expression and they provide new avenues for teachers to help students meet high standards of performance. All district schools wishing to maintain a presence on the Internet shall develop a written web policy that allows the school to realize the benefits of Internet use while protecting the school and community from its potential misuse. All school websites and school website policies shall conform to this policy.

Purpose and Use of School Websites

The primary purpose of a school’s website is to communicate effectively with its community. The chief school administrator or designee shall ensure that the site is maintained in such a way that the community receives reasonably current and accurate information.

A school may elect to have its website serve additional purposes related to its educational mission. These include, but are not limited to:

A. Publishing the student newspaper;

B. Publishing student literary magazines;

C. Posting teacher-created class information;

D. Publishing appropriate student class work.

When the school allows student publications on its website, the purpose of including the publication shall be clearly identified in that section of the site. These publications shall be subject to the requirements of established district and school policy related to student print publications and in accordance with state and federal law related to student expression.

Maintenance

All district, individual school, and teacher or student created school-based web pages shall be hosted on district servers.

The chief school administrator shall designate an individual, the school website administrator, to administer and monitor the website and all school-based web pages to ensure compliance with school policy, district policy, and state and federal law. Prior to publication, all material to be posted shall be reviewed by the website administrator.

Passwords and User ID’S required to maintain the site shall be carefully guarded to ensure that only authorized personnel have the opportunity to make changes on a school website.

Content Standards

A. All materials and information must be consistent with the mission, goals, policies, programs and activities of the district. All subject matter shall relate to curriculum, instruction, appropriate general information, or to activities of the district or of schools within the district.

B. All material on a school website shall be either original to the school, in the public domain, or posted with the express permission of its rightful owner. This includes, but is not limited to, text, graphics, pictures, video, sounds, music, characters, logos, and trademarks. Web page publications shall follow all applicable copyright laws and guidelines.

C. Teachers may maintain instructional pages on the school’s website. They may also maintain and link to instructional sites on remote servers, especially servers designed for educational use, provided that the linked sites conform to all parts of this policy.

D. Neither staff nor students may publish personal home pages on the district server.

E. Student-created web pages shall be supervised by a designated staff advisor and shall comply with all aspects of school and district web policy. Student organizations that are not officially recognized and do not have staff advisors shall not be permitted to submit materials for publication on school websites.

Standards

A. Because Internet publications are available to the entire world, special care shall be taken to protect the privacy of students and staff. Web pages may not include personally identifying information regarding a student such as telephone numbers, addresses, names of other family members, names of friends, e-mail addresses, specific location of a student at any given time, grades, or any other academic information. No confidential information shall be published on or linked to the website.

B. Student work may be published on web pages only with written consent of the student’s parent or the eligible student before each incident of publication. The authoring student shall also sign a copyright consent form.

C. Links to student e-mail accounts are prohibited.

D. Pictures of students may be included only under the following conditions:

1. Individual student pictures may be published on the website only with written consent of the student’s parent or eligible student.
2. Pictures of groups of students involved in a school-related activity may be published without consent; however, the students shall only be identified by the group name.
3. Students shall not be individually identified in pictures unless there is a special reason for doing so, such as recognition for receiving an award. In such cases, the student’s parent or eligible student must give written consent.

Changes in Technology

Given the rapid change in technology, some of the provisions of this policy may become outdated rapidly.
Therefore, this policy shall be reviewed periodically and revised as necessary. The board authorizes the chief school administrator to prepare appropriate regulations and procedures for implementing this policy. When changes in technology occur before this policy can be adjusted, the chief school administrator or designee shall make decisions at the district level and the building level consistent with the philosophy set forth herein.

Adopted: April 30, 2003
NJSBA Review/Update: January 2009, November 2017
Readopted: October 7, 2009
Reviewed:

Key Words

Publications, Student Publications, Website

Legal References: N.J.S.A. 18A:11 1 General mandatory powers and duties
N.J.S.A. 18A:36 35 School Internet websites; disclosure of certain student information prohibited
N.J.S.A. 18A:54 20 Powers of boards (county vocational schools)
N.J.A.C. 6A:8-3.1 et seq. Implementation of the Core Curriculum Content Standards

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969)

Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986)

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260 (1988)

Desilets v. Clearview Regional Board of Education, 137 N.J. 585 (1994)

Possible
Cross References: *1111 District publications
5145 Rights
5145.2 Freedom of speech/expression
*5145.5 Photographs of pupils
*6142.10 Technology

*Indicates policy is included in the Critical Policy Reference Manual