Cardinal Corner: alex geordan

Our district’s first few weeks with youngsters went well. I would like to take moment to thank the entire staff (certified and classified) for their preparation — it paid off. The students and staff have already begun working 100 percent toward a successful 2012-13 school year.

Thank you for giving the education of your youngsters’ very high priority at home. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, relative or just a friend of a school-aged student, your role is a very important one. We, at Canfield Local Schools, deeply appreciate the trust you place in our district personnel every day. We want you to know that your child’s success in school and your satisfaction with our schools matter to us.

As parents, it is our responsibility to set reasonable rules and guidelines for computer and social media use by our children. By taking responsibility for our children’s online computer use, you can greatly minimize potential risks of being online.

Make it a family rule to:

• Never give out identifying information — home address, school name, or telephone number — in a public message, such as chat or news groups. Be sure you’re dealing with someone both you and your children know and trust before giving out this information via e-mail.

• Do not post photographs of your children in news groups or on web sites that are available to the public. Consider using a pseudonym — avoid listing your child’s name and e-mail address in any public directories and profiles.

• Get to know the Internet and any services your children use. Have your children show you what they do online and become familiar with all the activities that are available online. Find out if your children have free web-based e-mail accounts, such as those offered by Hotmail and Yahoo, and learn their user names and passwords.

• Never respond to messages that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening, or make you feel uncomfortable. Encourage your children to tell you if they encounter such messages.

• Instruct your children not to click on any links that are contained in e-mail from persons they don’t know. Such links could lead to inappropriate web sites or could be a computer virus. If someone sends you or your children messages or images that are indecent, lewd or obscene with the intent to annoy, harass or threaten you, immediately report this to the NCMEC’s Cyber Tip Line at 800-843-5678 or cybertipline.com.

• Check out blocking, filtering and ratings applications. Be sure to make this a family activity. Consider keeping the computer in a family room, rather than a child’s bedroom. Get to know your children’s “online friends” just as you get to know all of their other friends. If your children have cellular telephones, talk with them about using the phones safely. The same rules that apply to computer use, also apply to cellular telephones.

We, as a district, would never attempt to invade on family matters, but we do feel it is our obligation to give suggestions to constantly look out for our students’ safety within and outside of our building’s walls.

It’s a great time to be a Cardinal.

(Alex G. Geordan is the Canfield Local Schools Superintendent. Neighbors will publish his monthly column on the fourth Saturday of each month during the school year. To comment, send feedback to neighbors@vindy.com and it will be forwarded to Mr. Geordan.)