District Administration - April 2012 - (Page 14)

NewsUpdate Mo. District Cannot Censor LGBT Web Sites, Court Rules Like most districts, the camdenton (mo.) r-iii school district has filtering software to block content deemed inappropriate for students. Until recently, however, camdenton was blocking Web sites geared toward supporting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBt) communities. on Feb. 15, a federal district court ruled in favor of the American civil Liberties Union (AcLU) in a lawsuit filed in August 2011 on behalf of a camdenton student. According to the court, the district’s custom-built filtering system “systematically allows access to Web sites expressing a negative viewpoint toward LGBt individuals by categorizing them as ‘religion,’ but filters out positive viewpoints toward LGBt issues by categorizing them as ‘sexuality.’” The district, however, says that its intent was to abide by the guidelines set forth by the children’s internet Protection Act and that the blocking of the sites was a script error in the filtering system. “We reconfigured the system,” says superintendent Brian henry. “The plaintiffs’ Web sites were unblocked on Feb. 10, and our it department addressed the changes Feb. 11—before the court made its final ruling.” Web sites blocked by the filter included PFLAG National (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the matthew shepard Foundation and campus Pride and dignity UsA, which is a catholic LGBt organization. The district argued that it would unblock individual Web sites upon request, but the court responded by saying, “students may be deterred from accessing websites expressing a positive view toward LGBt individuals either by the inconvenience of having to wait twenty-four hours for access or by the stigma of knowing that viewpoint has been singled out as less worthy by the school district and the Br iefings community.” “it is absolutely possible to protect children from sexually explicit content while also protecting their First Amendment rights,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the AcLU LGBt Project, in a statement released by the AcLU. Going forward, the camdenton district says it will comply with the court’s decision and it has no intention on appealing the ruling, says henry. “We do not want to discriminate against any of our students,” he says. “We support our students’ rights to receive information.” New Software Helps Manage Food Allergies may have less severe allergies or food sensitivities to view the ingredients. According to Jamie humphrey, administrative dietician for District 11, the program has done wonders to alleviate food services paperwork, reduce phone calls from concerned parents, and promote inclusion in the cafeteria. Upon logging into Allerschool, users can choose which school in the district they are eating at and then pick what foods they want to avoid. the menus are listed in great detail, displaying not only common food triggers such as nuts, dairy, meat and gluten, but also items such as spices, beans, seeds and high-fructose corn syrup. Allerschool was created by a Denver-based company, gipsee, which has a similar program for restaurants. its founder, Dilip chopra, has a daughter with food allergies and wanted to help students feel included in the socialization of the cafeteria. “it gives them a sense of normalcy,” says chopra. “it also gives piece of mind to parents who have never felt comfortable with their child eating at school.” After paying a $1,000 startup fee, which includes training and input of much of the student data and recipes, districts generally pay $10 per month. Allerschool is being introduced in other colorado districts and in districts in illinois. District Administration Monitoring A chilD with severe fooD Allergies is no easy task. Monitoring hundreds of such children within a district of 30,000 students is even harder. this is why colorado springs (colo.) school District 11 adopted a new software system from a local provider this past fall that details the ingredients of every meal served at every school. the program, Allerschool, not only allows parents of students with severe allergies to log in and request special meals for their children, but it also allows students and faculty members who 14 April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - April 2012

District Administration - April 2012
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Special Ed Update
Facilities Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Robust and Safe BYOD
Success Breeds Success
Funding Building Projects in a Tough Economy
Widening Participation to an IB Education
Why All the Chatter about #EdChat?
Supervisor’s Opinion
Going Mobile
New Directions
Crisis Response
Student Counsel
Product Focus
Online Edge

District Administration - April 2012