Websites and Social Media Posting Guidelines
While the District may allow user-generated content on its social-media sites, it does not intend to create an open public forum for speech. Rather, to the extent comments are enabled on Kent School District’s social media outlets, the District intends to create a limited public forum subject to moderation pursuant to these procedures. The District encourages community members to comment on its posts to provide their opinions and feedback to the District, but all comments must be kept to the topic of the District’s original post. Our audience includes families and school-aged children, and users should keep that audience in mind when making comments. Page administrators will moderate comments and reserve the right to remove comments on District postings that it reasonably concludes:
• Clearly deviate from the topic of the District’s post;
• Contain profanities or lewd, obscene, or sexually explicit content;
• Threaten or harass;
• Contain defamatory content;
• Invade the privacy of students or staff;
• Promote or advertise commercial services or products;
• Incite illegal or unlawful activity;
• Support or oppose political candidates or ballot propositions;
• Include religious or irreligious proselytizing;
• Contain information that violates any third party’s intellectual property rights (e.g., copyrights); or
• Demean, disparage, or otherwise discriminate against a person or group in violation of District policy 3210, District procedure 3210P, or RCW 28A.642.010. The District reserves the right to temporarily or permanently remove comments that do not meet these guidelines. The limitations will be applied neutrally and will not favor a particular viewpoint or ideology. The District reserves the right to ban, block, or otherwise restrict access to users who violate these guidelines. Prior to removing any comment under these guidelines, the page administrator must save a screenshot or copy of the post that allegedly violates these guidelines for record retention and verification purposes. Any commenter who believes the District wrongfully removed any comment may appeal the decision by contacting [email protected]. The District does not endorse statements or external links and comments posted by third parties on District pages or postings, nor do any such postings represent the views of the District, its Board, or its staff. Any individual commenting on a District page or posting takes personal responsibility for their comments, username, and avatar/photograph. All comments and postings will be considered public records subject to retention and disclosure upon request. The District strives to communicate about urgent issues and respond to inquiries from the community in a timely manner, but please note that the District’s social media accounts are not monitored 24/7. If you are a student in crisis, or have an emergency, please call 911 or for non-emergency safety related inquiries, please contact Safety Services at 253-373-7256 and we will respond in as timely a manner as possible. The District’s Facebook and other social media pages are not intended to be used for third parties to make formal complaints against the District, its employees, or its students. Formal complaints are to be directed to the building/department administrator or find report a concern information at https://www.kent.k12.wa.us/o/ksd/page/general-concerns.
