This document evaluates a proposed social media policy for a school district. The policy aims to establish rules around student and employee social media use on school systems. It addresses privacy and allows personal data access to sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, it does not include restrictions for visitors. Potential risks of the policy include unauthorized access to private information and restricting free speech. The document suggests modifications like limiting the policy's timeframe and specifying restricted sites. It concludes that balancing regulation with privacy and free speech rights requires adjusting the policy.

1. Running Head: Evaluating a Policy Proposal for Adoption
2
Evaluating a Policy Proposal for Adoption
Katie Lopez
Argosy University
Evaluating a Policy Proposal for Adoption
Social media policy
The social media policy draft seeks to address the problem of
social media use in schools. The policy aims at establishing
rules and regulation for the usage of social media by both the
employees and the students. This policy addresses the issues of
social media privacy when using school district's CIS systems.
According to this policy any information created, send,
received, stored or displayed through the system can be is not
guaranteed privacy. The information can be viewed by a third
party’s system. However, the policy does not include visitors in
the restrictions rules. According to this policy students and
employees can use their personal data bundle to surf and access

2. social media such as Facebook and Twitter. (Bertot, Jaeger &
Hansen, 2012).
The possible stakeholders in this policy are; the students, the
schools employees, Kanawha County's public school officers
and the schools administration. The students and school
employees are the people directly targeted by the policy and are
directly affected. The policy impacts on the privacy of their
social media use. The school administration is responsible to
ensure that the policy is implemented and followed in
accordance with directions given by the Kanawha County's
public school officers. The Kanawha County’s public school
officials are responsible for formulation of the policy.
The proposed policy poses a number of risks to the stakeholders
involved. One of the risks posed by the policy is access of
personal, private and confidential information by unauthorized
person. Users of social medial exchange important and
confidential information via the social medial. Allowing a third
party’s system to have access to this information exposes the
user to a great risk of leak of information.
Another risk posed by this policy is infringement of people
right to free speech. Restricting users of social media will be
like infringing their right to free speech Most of people use
social medial to express their opinion on various issues
affecting them. Therefore, restricting the usage of the social
medial will deny them of this fundamental right. (Williams,
Feild, & James, 2011).
The above policy can be modified in different ways to before its
adoption. One possible modification for the policy is to set
time under which the policy should apply. The policy should
not be in force all throughout the day. The students and
employees should be given specific time frames under which
they can enjoy using the social media without fear of being
monitored. (Fowler, 2009)
Another possible modification for this policy is to restrict
specific social media which may cause harm but not all the
social media. The policy should specify which social medial

3. platforms will be monitored when used within the school
premises. In this, way the policy can succeed in discouraging
users from accessing a particular social medial when in school.
(Fowler, 2009)
The goals of the policy makers were to control and regulate the
usage of social media in school environment. The policy
makers wanted to prevent the use of social media to transfer and
spread unwanted materials and information which could either
harm others or cause defamatory.
It is good to regulate social media usage in schools
especially among the students. However, total denial or total
restrictions may not be the best approach. The policy should
put into consideration the provision and of the constitution
concerning personal privacy and right of expression. In
addition it is unethical to monitor somebody’s private and
confidential conversation without their permission. Therefore
the policy makers should consider adjusting the policy to
capture all the relevant considerations.
Once adopted, the proposal will require various actions and
resources to be implemented fully. The social medial policy
should be distributed to everyone affected by the policy. This
action is meant to make read and understand before it is
implemented. The policy makers should also educate the
students and employees about the implication of the policy.
This is meant to prevent case of people breaking the policy
regulations unawares. (Fowler, 2009)
The policy makers should conduct a legal review through law
practitioners. Legal review ensures that the policy is consistent
with all State and Federal laws. Once the document it is
approved by a qualified counsel it can be implement as a
binding document to the affected parties.
The policy will require an information system and qualified
personnel to monitor the system. The information system will
be responsible for monitoring the social medial activities by the
affected parties. The system should be able to filter and sort
information retrieved from the users. (Bertot, Jaeger & Hansen,

4. 2012).
The system is likely to face several resistances from the
students and employees affected by the policy. The affected
parties are likely to advocate against the policy claiming that it
interferes with the right for privacy and freedom of speech. The
students and worker are even likely to demonstrate against the
implementation of the policy.
To overcome the resistance the leader of policy advocacy
should hold some training to pass information to the affected
parties highlighting the advantages of implementing the policies
and some positive implication of the policy once implemented.
References
Bertot, J. C., Jaeger, P. T., & Hansen, D. (2012). The impact of
polices on government social
Media usage: Issues, challenges, and
recommendations. Government information quarterly, 29(1), 30-
40.
Fowler, F. C. (2009). Policy studies for educational leaders: An
introduction. Allyn &
Bacon/Pearson.

5. Williams, J., Feild, C., & James, K. (2011). The effects of a
social media policy on pharmacy
Students’ Facebook security settings. American journal of
pharmaceutical education, 75(9), 177.