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 arning:
The Internet can be hazardous to your job. Newspaper stories about
inappropriate Internet use by school employees are popping up
from California to Missouri to Maine. Recently, for example, an
Indiana high school biology teacher was fired for collecting more
than 400 photographs of nude or partially clad young women on
a district computer. An Iowa superintendent resigned and had his
computer confiscated after being accused of using school computers
for gambling and accessing sexually explicit material on the Internet.
Increasing numbers of school employees are stumbling and sometimes
crashing and burning on the Internet superhighway. Workplace Internet
abuses range from mundane time wasters -- playing computer games,
shopping, or typing personal e-mails -- to more serious offenses,
such as downloading pornography or e-mailing racist or sexist
jokes to coworkers. At the same time, of course, Internet use
is making most of our jobs easier and more productive with virtually
instant access to a world of resources and information.
Will the expanding use of the Internet prove to be a boon or
a bane to school district employees? How can school leaders, as
employers, encourage use of this powerful tool while minimizing
abuse?
A shared interest 
If you're thinking that your employees would never abuse their
Internet privileges, consider the growing popularity of web sites
dedicated to computer games. The number of Internet game sites
mushroomed by 25 percent in six months, to 18,830 web sites, according
to an article in U.S. News and World Report, Oct. 9, 2000. Just
two of the most popular sites counted a total of 2.5 million workplace
visitors in a single month, with an average time online of nearly
1.5 hours per visitor.
While these numbers represent a minority of all workers, private-sector
employers are becoming concerned about how their employees are
using the Internet during work hours, and they are responding
with new monitoring systems and Internet use policies. Nearly
three-quarters of large companies now monitor employees' e-mail
and Internet habits, according to U.S. News and World Report.
You and your employees share a strong interest in developing
and maintaining effective, appropriate, and ethical use of the
Internet in the workplace. From an employer's point of view, it's
about production, customer service, efficiency, and a fair day's
work for a fair day's pay. It's also about avoiding liability
stemming from inappropriate use and minimizing the costs associated
with discipline, discharge, recruitment, and retraining of workers.
For their part, employees have a fundamental self-interest in
supporting appropriate use of technology -- they don't want to
be fired for inappropriate use. But their interests also have
to do with job enhancement, developing new skills, personal integrity,
teamwork, the need for all workers to pull their own weight, and
the potential for contributing to the success of their schools.
Your responsibilities as a school leader are to provide training
and encourage appropriate use of the Internet, develop and communicate
clear policies and expectations, and maintain systems for consistent
monitoring of Internet use. Your employees' responsibilities include
reading and understanding district policies, conducting their
work within the parameters and expectations of those policies,
maintaining consistently high ethical standards, and using common
sense and good judgment. Both sets of responsibilities need to
be executed consistently if your district is to take full advantage
of new workplace technologies while avoiding Internet abuse.
Rules to live by
In many school districts today, it's commonplace for teachers,
administrators, and other employees to have access to a computer,
use the Internet, and send and reply to e-mail messages on a daily
basis. Many schools focus on rules and policies for student use
of the Internet and overlook making rules for the adults in the
building. Unfortunately, school employees are not immune to the
temptations of abusing their Internet privileges. Policies covering
employees' use of e-mail and the Internet are your first line
of defense.
In addition, make sure you and your employees consider these
statements inviolate:
• Your school e-mail account is not yours. Messages might
travel through multiple networks, and unless they're encrypted,
they're not private. Your messages are the property of the school
district. They can be retrieved and read, and your use of e-mail
can be monitored.
• Your school Internet account is not yours. It's not private.
Your access to web sites can be reviewed, and your use can be
monitored.
• Your employer pays for your access to the Internet, which
is provided for you to conduct your work. Although occasional
and brief use of the Internet for personal reasons might be acceptable,
you need to understand your employer's policies and expectations
and know under what circumstances personal use during the workday
violates these policies.
• You should never create, store, or forward inappropriate
e-mail messages or attachments from a work computer to anyone.
If you receive such a message, do not share it with a coworker
or friend. Instead, trash it immediately, and ask the sender not
to forward this type of material to your work address in the future.
The Internet age arrived suddenly and without an instruction
manual. While integration of technology in the workplace careens
at warp speed, workplace systems, policies, and training chug
along at a snail's pace. In the chasm between these realities
lie the remains of cyberspace victims -- unwary e-mailers, unwise
web surfers, and lost productivity in the workplace. A word to
the wise for school leaders: Get your policies and systems in
order to achieve the right balance between encouraging appropriate
use and restricting misuse. Communicate to your employees: Be
smart, be responsible, and heed the classic warning of Hill Street
Blues' Sgt. Esterhaus, "Let's be careful out there!"
Don
E. Lifto has been a public school superintendent
for 19 years. He is currently superintendent of Northeast
Metro 916 Intermediate School District, White Bear Lake, Minn.
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