Sep 22, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – The Central Greene School Board approved the first reading on several policy updates Tuesday night, including the district’s social media and personal electronic device policies.

One of the changes was striking MySpace from the text of the policy and replacing it with “Instagram, SnapChat, etc.” when referring to social networks.

Superintendent Brian Uplinger said few changes were made to the social media policy because it was updated two years ago, as the state mandates it is updated every three years.

“Most of the students already know what to expect,” he said.

The cellphone policy and social media policies do not permit students to use their phones or other electronic devices for noneducational use during school hours, including lunchtime. He said students are allowed to listen to music on their phones at lunch but are not allowed to access social media networks during that time.

Uplinger said if a student is caught violating the policy, “the first offense will most likely be a warning,” but if they are repeat offenders, the district policy allows for teachers, staff or administrators to confiscate their cellphones or other devices the students were using in violation of the policy.

“The phone wouldn’t be searched and a parent would have to come get the phone,” he said.

Uplinger said the only time the district would need to search a device is if it was a serious legal matter, such as a hack into confidential school information or illegal activity. If that was the case, the district would confiscate the phone or device from the student and wait until a parent or guardian was present to search the phone themselves.

“We would never search through someone’s phone without a parent present,” he said.

Punishment for students violating the policy will be determined at the different building levels, Uplinger said.

“Those procedural types of things we keep a little more open,” he said.

The communication and information services policy allows for district staff to use cellphones or electronic devices for some personal use, but warns that no communication sent or stored on the district’s network should be considered private because the district policy allows for the district to access those communications.

Uplinger said the policies were discussed at a Sept. 15 policy committee meeting in which the public was barred from attending in a move that may have violated the state’s Sunshine Act. The board will have a second reading on the policy updates after allowing 30 days for public input on the first reading.