Warning message district employees received yesterday.
UPDATE: While this item was originally posted mid-day Wednesday as 'breaking' news, the details in the Comments readers have made (see here) so far raise even more questions about why the NJForums page was targeted specifically -- especially as some point out many other 'time-wasters' like FaceBook were still available. At least as of yesterday. A reader is trying to get a copy of the 'acceptable use' policy and I'll put it up when I get it. -- Dan
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]
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9 comments:
Dan,
Funny how no one complains about the students not having textbooks, about schools not reaching AYP, about the lack of well-maintained schools, but hey! that's not as important as staff having access to NJ.com
Who do you think should be on the next Shame on You?
Maria,
What are you talking about? Everyone is complaining about no textbooks, AYP, and poorly maintained schools. People have been buzzing about this because instead of focusing on these problems, Gallon seems to be spending a lot of time trying to fix his reputation.
well said maria
Maria Pellum's comment makes no sense. I'm not sure how she knows that no one complains about textbooks, AYP, and the lack of well maintained schools. I've seen and heard quite a bit of complaining about them.
The blocking of NJ.com is an unrelated issue.
Its really unfortunate that these flaps over certification, motor vehicle registration and internet access are distracting us from the very essential question - are our kids being well taught and are they learning what they need to to become productive citizens?
Its amazing how one's poor judgement can cause a train wreck even in the larger scale of things.
Why should I pay for teachers to gossip on the NJ.com forum during work hours? Even if they are on their break time, they should not be using equipment and/or Internet services paid for by my tax dollars to gossip with thier friends. If the want to use these non-educational websites during thier breaks, they should bring their on computers and wireless Internet service with them to the schools. I have no sympathy for them. They seem to be more concerned with gossip than they are with teaching our children. They can try to pass the blame as much as they want, but they are the ones responsible for teaching our children. If our kids are graduating without being able to read, then it is because our teachers are spending more time talking smack on NJ.COM than teaching our kids. Why don't these teachers do like the rest of us hardworking adults, wait until they get home to read the gossip rags? First they get guaranteed jobs for life, regardless of how poorly they do their jobs. Now they want the taxpayers to pay for them to waste time reading gossip pages? Why don't we just buy all of them subscriptions to the National Inquirer? Information there is just as reliable as what we find on the NJ.com forum.
The only comment on this I will make is that when any employer decides to filter the internet service THEY provide THEY have the right to choose to block whatever site THEY choose to. In the human resources department they sometimes narrow it down to simple comments such as, " If you don't like it, go start your own company and filter what you want to filter ." I may not agree with what they are blocking or tracking, but it is in fact the school systems computer network and Gallon runs the show. Get rid of Gallon and they can go on NJ.Com all they want. Or get rid of Gallon and find out they can't access the internet for anything but say, "Education.com "...his motivation may not be just or true, but it's his. At my house you aren't allowed to access the website - " I know an entrenched NJ politician who got me elected to be the Mayor and prove how inept I am at providing the most basic of leadership skills.com". But, it is my network after all!
I've heard and seen lots of complaints--not just from Maria--about schools not having textbooks, not reaching AYP, not being well maintained, etc. Where has Maria been that she hasn't heard or seen these complaints?
Of course since she has now decided not to post comments from people who choose to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, she may not be getting this kind of information any more. Perhaps because she doesn't want to hear it?
@8:44 p.m. anonymous:
How dare you blame teachers for our struggling student achievement. Teachers in this district work harder than any other district that surround them. In addition to trying to teach children, they get to deal with all this crap! And don't even get me started on parent involvement in this town! One person cannot do it alone and what teachers do with their prep/lunch time during the day is completely up to them. For the record I do agree that it may be unprofessional to blog during work but you cannot parlay that into our student achievement. Cmon now.
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