CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha County School district is currently in the midst of reviewing a social media policy for its employees.
The board’s newest member, Ric Cavender of Charleston Main Streets, said many companies and school boards have adopted similar policies given the popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“As a matter of fact, a lot of agencies and non-profit organizations adopt them as well,” Cavender said. “A social media policy by itself really aims to make sure that the employees of the organization or the district or the agency knows how to conduct themselves on social media as a representative of that agency.”
That could include not using profanity or posting inappropriate photos. Cavender said that he personally did not want to interfere with personal devices.
“I don’t believe we should have access to anyone’s personal device unless they’re accessing our either WiFi network or the network of the school,” he said. “My hope is the policy makes it very clear what the social media aspect of the policy is and what the device usage policy is.”
The policy still has about 10 days left of the public comment period, Cavender said. He recommended caution on social media, especially if employees’ accounts are public.
“Anyone can look up your name and access your account and see the pictures you post and stuff like that,” he said of public accounts. “It really comes down, in my opinion, to personal responsibility. If you’re an employee of a school system or any organization that has a policy in place, then I think it’s really important that you protect your personal information.”
The Kanawha County School board meets again next Thursday, Aug. 18 at its usual Elizabeth Street location at 6 p.m.