Our goal in providing electronic services to our students is to facilitate resource sharing, innovation, communication, cooperation, collaboration and curriculum enhancement.

All users are expected to use these resources in a manner that is respectful of others and in accordance with all rules and regulations governing student behavior. Use of the network is a privilege dependent on agreement to and compliance with this Acceptable Use Agreement. By agreeing to this policy, you agree to a legally binding contract.  Conditions for use are:

Acceptable Use and Etiquette

The use of an assigned account must be in support of education, research and/or within the educational roles, responsibilities, and objectives of Niles Community Schools.

All users are expected to abide by the generally accepted rules of network etiquette. These include, but are not limited to:

• Gaining access to or attempting to gain access to resources or files, which are not for public access, is prohibited.
• Gaining access to or attempting to gain access to remote systems as an unauthorized user is prohibited.
• Mailing, viewing, downloading, uploading, copying, forwarding, creating, storing or sending any inappropriate material is prohibited. Inappropriate material includes, but is not limited to: software not licensed for school use; pornographic or obscene material; material insulting to ethnic, religious, or other groups; personally insulting or disrespectful material; material which threatens a person's well-being or safety; intentionally falsified or misleading statements or documents; chain letters; copyrighted material without permission of the copyright holder; activities of any kind that do not conform to the rules, regulations and policies of the Niles Community Schools. The decision of Niles Community Schools with respect to what is inappropriate is final.

Be polite. Never send or encourage others to send abusive messages.

It is inappropriate to use the school’s network for financial gain, business enterprise, partisan politics, or religious proselytizing.

Vandalism is prohibited. It is defined as any malicious attempt to harm or destroy property of the user, another user or of any other agencies or networks that are connected to the network, or the Internet. Maliciousness includes, but is not limited to:

• flooding the system or a user with unwanted data (spamming the network);
• modifying any workstation setup;
• damaging or vandalizing equipment;
• intentional introduction of viruses or failure to follow accepted procedures for prevention;
• falsifying the true origin of a mail message;
• destruction, appropriation, or modification of another's data; learning another person's password by any method.

Security

Every account will have a user name and a password.

Account owners have responsibility for all use of their accounts.

Passwords are for the security of the owner of the account. They may not be divulged to any other person. They should not be written down or stored on any shared system.

Users should be aware of current guidelines for the creation and maintenance of secure passwords.

Do not use another individual's account or log on to the site as the site administrator.

If you identify a security problem, notify a teacher or administrator at once.

Site  Administration

VikingNet accounts are not private.

Accounts will be monitored on a regular basis.

Computer files are the sole property of the owner and may not be viewed without the owner's permission; however, any site activities may be audited.

Users should be aware that Niles Community Schools cannot absolutely guarantee the confidentiality of a user's files or communications. As a rule, sensitive material should not be on the system.

Niles Community Schools is not responsible for the loss of data due to system failure either of hardware or software.

Any known abuse of the site should be reported to a teacher or administrator immediately.

All files uploaded to the site may be viewed, executed, deleted, copied, restricted or compressed by Niles Community Schools.

Niles Community Schools has the right to grant or deny access to school computer resources.

User Signature of Agreement

I understand any violations of the above provisions may result in the loss of my user account and in disciplinary and/or legal action. I agree to report any misuse of the electronic information resources to my systems administrator.

I have read this Acceptable Use Agreement and understand that school district computer Internet use is monitored. I understand, that if I am agreeing to this, I may be disciplined for inappropriate or unacceptable use of electronic information resources. I further understand that student use of electronic information resources is designed for educational purposes. I understand that it is impossible for Niles Community Schools to restrict access to all inappropriate materials. I will not hold Niles Community Schools responsible for inappropriate or unacceptable materials that may be acquired on the network system.

I hereby give my permission and approve the issuance of an electronic account.