Educators, Email, and Archiving: Be Professional or Perish

Educators are role models whether we are on duty or not, and I am of the mindset that we are always on duty.

I also believe in the adage, “don’t write what you don’t want other people to read.” This advice holds true for electronic writings as well.  I am amazed at how many elected officials, educators, and other public workers have made the news for misusing their computers and especially email. Even texting is being debated and tried in the legal circles as evidence.

Since you are reading this blog, you are most likely like me, constantly working to become the best educator you can be for your students.  You probably don’t need to worry about anyone reading your email because you hold yourself to a higher standard. I know my emails would bore someone to sleep. So, in the words off the cover of the popular How-to Series For Dummies, this entry is a reference for the rest of us.

I just paid $70 to have myself fingerprinted for the Criminal Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and for the FBI to ensure that I am not a threat to our students as part of adopted board procedure. (Yes, everyone had to not just me.)  Schools are now requiring criminal background checks on their employees, as they should. I support this completely.  My children go to school, and I want that safety requirement for them as well.  So you better believe educator’s email and internet usage is being monitored as well during working hours.

Your Email at Work:

A recent survey states that one out of three IT workers admit to reading an employee’s email without authorization. So, please know: 1) Your workplace has the ability to read your email.  2) Your workplace may be reading your email.

Isn’t there too much email being sent back and forth to be read? Well, yes there is, but email boxes can be searched for specific key words and computer programs can be run over an entire system to scan email traffic for specific words and word strings.  They can look for an unusually high number of emails, or how many emails are out of district, contain attachments, or how many are forwards, and what time they are being sent.  Consider all of your email in a database with your employer having the ability to organize it, search it, graph it, and open any document. Even if your email is not being read, I would imagine most employers can and do check to see how many emails are being sent and where they are going.  Administrators want to know who is teaching and who is sending out emails.

Powerful Example: Recently, an Ohio school district ran software that red flagged an employee’s emails, and the email served as the crucial evidence to terminate him and lead to his conviction as a sexual predator.

Are they allowed to do that? Yes. Not only are they allowed to it, your school is now REQUIRED to archive your emails. It’s the law. Email Archiving is now required of schools to comply with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as now related in the ediscovery processes. (No your union cannot argue against this either since it is now law.) You will be receiving notice of some sort very soon.

How will your school handle the email archiving process? I don’t know, but law is requiring it, so it will be happening soon. You can contact your IT for more information.

Will anyone be able to read my email? Parents? Coworkers? I don’t know.  I would assume the Freedom of Information Act will allow it.  I would assume that will be the case. (My attorney/wife says they can use that now to access your email.)

Wired Educator’s perspective:  Keep it smart. Keep your email professional. You’re probably doing that already. Keep your correspondence short. Report any improper email you receive to your IT or administrator.  Don’t use your school email for anything other than school. If you want to remind your wife to pick up eggs at the store once in awhile, I’d wait and text her during your plan period or use your smartphone and private account during lunch.

(One last thought: I do very little correspondene with parents via email.  I use the phone.  I save my emails for staff.  Phones are powerful for contacting parents. Emails with parents can become overused and lose meaning.  These are my thoughts.  Also, what if you receive an email from TopGun1987WingMan@yahoo.com claiming to be Johnny’s father?  How do you verify that before revealing personal information?)