Warning message district employees received today.
Borrowing an idea from China's Communist Party rulers, Plainfield Schools Superintendent Steve Gallon has put part of the Internet off limits to District employees -- specifically the NJForums on the Star-Ledger website.
The graphic above captures the message one employee received when they tried to log on to the Ledger website this morning.
The message refers to 'District Internet Acceptable Usage Policy'.
Having a policy is a good thing, and many -- if not most -- employers, public and private, develop, post and enforce such policies.
Partly out of concern that employees not while away the hours on company time, and partly to block sites deemed inappropriate (porn, online shopping, sports programming and online betting are high up on the list), such policies often detail the kinds of sites considered inappropriate.
It's also considered acceptable to warn people that repeated attempts to log on to forbidden sites will be noticed and may be punished.
What is striking IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE is that it apparently never bothered the District's administrators BEFORE TODAY that employees might go to the NJ Forums web pages.
If I were an employee, I would also worry about whether the District had secretly installed keytroke-capture software on my machine and was interested in finding out the passwords and usernames for my online accounts.
To be used for future retribution?
NOTE: For those who have never visited before, the Ledger's NJForum for Plainfield is here.
- Ledger: "NJForums: Plainfield"
-- Dan Damon [follow]
Posts
8 comments:
Dan, Facebook and many other time-wasting sites are inaccessible at my job and at the jobs of many people I know for the same reason. Employees have been caught logging on and posting during work hours, surfing, and so on. I think the district is right to restrict access. I think the city should do the same thing, given what many have witnessed there as well during work hours. If you ever have gone to the NJO forum, you will see that district staff and teachers post all kinds of things during the work day. I don't find this troubling at all. It should have been done a long time ago. District staff and teachers AND administrators should be focused on work during the work day. Another reason may be that the district would be responsible for any inappropriate content made on its computers. There is also the possibility that some comments are made from one individual using another person's computer. It is most likely that the superintendent is blocking this site because of the inordinate amount of time staff/teachers are reading the forum comments, given the current issues. It also may be done as a warning before he had to take further action. It may have come from supervisors who complain about the distractions it causes. It may be that parents have complained about the idea of teachers and staff commenting during work hours. I don't see it as the administration clamping down, because people can log on and read the forum or post comments on the forum from home or from non-workplace computers. This is only saying it shouldn't be done from district computers during working hours. I just looked on the NJO forum after I read your post, and already, people are talking about this. Again, I think the city administration should follow suit with Facebook and other networking sites. Some people have already gotten in trouble for inappropriate use of the Internet during working hours. I think your analogy to China is off-base and unfair. Again, individuals are free to do what they want to on their own time and to express their first amendment rights. Public workers (I am one) should not be wasting taxpayers money in this way. As a taxpayer and resident, I don't want my taxes paying for individuals who want to surf, make anonymous commentary on stupid forums like NJO, play solitaire, chat on Facebook, or anything else. Today is my day off, by the way. lol
Dan,
What is STRIKING is that EMPLOYEES apparrently were logging in DURING WORK HOURS. In a struggling districtlike Plainfield our students need every minute.
Let them do it on their OWN time. Not on my TAX dollars.
@ 10:44 and 10:45 -- I have no problem with a policy and have both helped build one and worked where there was one.
What caught my eye was that ALL OF A SUDDEN there is a forbidden site, and it's not one of the 'usual suspects' (which I outline in the post).
Unless I fell off the wagon at some wild turning, aren't teachers and staff still subject to Federal laws about breaks and lunch hours? Isn't that what 'teachers' rooms' are for?
And, if I'm in the 'teachers' room' on break, can't I browse the Internet, as long as I'm not smoking indoors, looking at porn, gambling or shopping?
Dan I can't believe that employee's were logging on the the nj forum during working hours. This is disgusting. PLEASE help me to understand why this is breaking news. My tax dollars are more important than someone having acess to the internet during working hours. I say to the employee's of the district do all your web surfacing at home, not in our schools.
Dan, I think you're right (I posted the 10:44 comment) that workers can do what they want on their own time (breaks, lunch) during the work day, so maybe the computer in the break room should not be restricted. However, the instructional and staff equipment should only be used for work-related things. I still think your analogy to China is unfair. Maybe the site will be unblocked in a couple of weeks, but maybe there has been an huge and unusual spike in "non" break or lunch related use of the district's computers over the past few days that is distracting from the teaching of children. I don't know, of course, but I am thinking that there may have been specific complaints. Frankly this is a "heads-up" for employees so they won't get "written up" for this infraction and others regarding social networking sites. Again, I am a public worker and my job has restricted facebook and other forums and networking sites because so many people have wasted time on them. Also the NJO forum may have particular distractions for the school district because of the rumors, innuendo, lies and personal attacks that are being made. Being on the outside I have no idea what's going on, but I wouldn't be surprised if this action had to do with staff and or teachers getting caught writing or reading the forum when they are not supposed to.
Staff in PPS do have a break and many of them do read the posts during their break.
Dan is right, it is funny that all of the sudden this site is blocked, yet facebook and many other time wasters are still available.
But this is what disturbs me most about this move. Take a walk thru the High School and keep an eye out for broken computers. They are piled in the corners of every classroom. When a computer goes down these days, thats it, it won't get fixed or replaced or even taken from the room. We have at least three smart boards sitting in corners not being used. The entire High School library is without internet access!!
And yet the IT department has the time to set up site blockers to keep us from reading about what a screw up Gallon is?!?! They can't get the internet running in the library so students can do some research, but they can protect Gallon from the bullies on the internet!! This is crazy!!
The fact that this site was OK yesterday and is forbidden today is what worries me. It shows that the Superintendent, and there's nothing "super" about him thatI can tell, is afraid of what the public might find out. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with what the superintendent has done to block the website, but the timing and its close similarity to what the Chinese and Iranian governments do is what is striking.
It will be a good thing when Dr. Gallon is long gone. I only hope that the BOE of that time will choose wisely and not take applicant's word on anything, but demand proof and make the process transparent.
Folks that get to work early, breaks, and lunch and after work....I think it is ok for someone to use the computer. But after last night when they threw him on 85 and him over and now he don't no one on the computer. He was quick to do this but he hasn't started packing yet. Can't know one explain why he is the highest paid superintendent in the state of new jersey in an Abbott Dist. kids still sharing books, teachers without comtracts - well whats up with that. But he took time to write up his girls another job description.
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