After an official first reading of the policy at its July 21 meeting, the Kanawha school board posted it online for a public comment period, which normally lasts 30 days.
The local branches of the ACLU and the American Federation of Teachers union criticized that draft — the ACLU alleged it would've violated the Fourth and First Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, as well as state law — and the issue didn't reappear on a school board agenda until Thursday, when the board had a second reading and placed it out again for public comment.
The new draft is now available on the school system's website, kcs.kana.k12.wv.us. Click the "Proposed Policies" link under the "Resources" list on the main page.
Comments will be accepted until Dec. 23. You can email comments to proposedpolicy@mail.kana.k12.wv.us.
Written comments can be mailed to the school system at 200 Elizabeth Street, Charleston, WV 25311. Write them to the attention of Kanawha schools Superintendent Ron Duerring.
The new draft of the proposed policy still has a scope beyond what its title may imply to Facebook and Twitter users. It still says "Social media can be engaged in by various ways, for example, through text messages, instant messages, and email."
Jim Withrow, the school system's general counsel, said Thursday that the school system used outside attorneys from West Virginia-based Bailey & Wyant to develop the new version.
Attorney Chuck Bailey told board members Thursday that some comments teachers' organizations and service personnel made were legally correct. He said he believes the new draft balances the rights of employees and the board.
"Perhaps, there might be some cutting edge issues in here that really no one can say," Bailey said. "So we tried to make it really fair."
Board member Ric Cavender asked how the policy would affect a student using their own smartphone on their own data plan. Michael Taylor, a Charleston-based attorney with Bailey & Wyant, said it doesn't cover that situation specifically because the student may be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
"Assume that they did connect to the Wi-Fi at the school, then you have the right under this policy to access that data on that public system," Taylor said, referring to school-provided wireless internet service. "But on the private systems that gets extremely tricky. We couldn't even begin to craft a policy that could cover everything that would protect the Fourth Amendment rights of the students on that."
The new draft of the policy maintains the statement that: "Users should have no expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send, receive, or display on or over the school district's CIS systems, and the school district's authorized third parties' systems, including their personal files or any of their use of these systems."
The definition of CIS is generally the same: "computers and other electronic devices, network, internet, electronic communications, information systems, databases, files, software, and media."
The first section of the policy still says its purpose is to "establish rules and guidance for the use of social media by students and employees," but no longer includes "guests" and the policy's entire definition of "guests," which had included visitors and school board members, has been cut.
Also, after the phrase stating the purpose is to "establish rules and guidance for the use of social media by students and employees (collectively 'Users')," the new draft now adds the line "when such use has a rational nexus to the User's employment or school environment."
But while it claims the school system has the right to "inspect, review, or retain electronic communication containing School District information or information created or maintained as a part of a User's employment with the school district," it still doesn't specify how broad "School District information" should be defined. And the policy says the school system has the right to "inspect, review, or retain electronic communication containing School District information" on "User's [sic] personal computers, electronic devices, networks, internet or electronic communication systems."
A paragraph has been deleted that said the school system had the right to inspect electronic communication created, sent, received or stored on "another entity's computer or electronic device when Users bring and use another entity's computer or electronic device to a School District location."
©2016 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
