Frederick County Public Schools Social Media Terms and Conditions
The purpose of the Frederick County Public Schools (“FCPS”) official social media platforms is
to provide information about our schools and public education generally in a timely and efficient
manner. The following social media terms and conditions apply to any official FCPS social
media page, including official social media pages
of any of its schools. These terms and
conditions provide anyone who chooses to communicate with Frederick County Public Schools
via its official social media platforms with guidelines for engagement. FCPS
therefore encourages anyone with specific questions or concerns involving a school matter to
contact their school principal or the Director of Policy and Communications (“Director”). Public
comments expressed on FCPS social media pages do not reflect the opinions and position of the
Frederick County School Board, FCPS, and its schools, officers and employees. Comment Removal
Frederick County Public Schools considers its social media platforms to be a limited public
forum. Recognizing that students use and access official FCPS social media platforms, FCPS
expects those who engage and comment on FCPS social media platforms to serve as role models
to students and engage in civil, appropriate commentary. As a result, FCPS reserves the right to
remove comments that contain:
- Conduct that violates the terms and conditions of the applicable social media platform
(e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Illegal conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
- Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates prohibited discrimination, harassment,
and/or retaliation
- Conduct that is threatening, inciting, harassing, or bullying
- Content that is unrelated to the original FCPS post
- Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party, such as copyright or
trademark infringement
- Information that is false
- Content that compromises the safety or security of FCPS, any of its schools, staff, or
students
- Personnel information, individually identifiable student information, or other confidential
material
- Profane language or content
- Promotions of services or products
- Promotions of political candidates or organizations
- Sexual harassment or sexual content
- Solicitations of commerce or advertisements including promotion or endorsement
- Spam or comments that include links to external online sites
- Conduct that is otherwise in violation of School Board policies or that reasonably may
lead to the substantial disruption of or material interference with FCPS school operations
Comments in violation of these terms and conditions may be removed from the applicable FCPS
official social media platform. Continued or egregious violations may prompt FCPS to further
restrict an individual’s commenting on official FCPS social media platforms. FCPS will not
remove content simply because it disagrees with the user’s viewpoint or the user criticizes FCPS. Comment Removal Procedure
The FCPS social media platforms are administered by designated staff. When designated staff
suspect a violation of these terms and conditions, the Director will be notified and will review
and authorize removal of a comment when appropriate. Upon finding a violation, the Director
will make a reasonable effort to contact the individual commenter to give notice of the violation
and the removal of their commentary. Appeals regarding the Director’s decision to remove a
comment or to take further action for repeated violations of these terms and conditions may be
submitted via e-mail to the Assistant Superintendent for Administration within two calendar
days. Notices
Individuals should be aware that their comments may be subject to the Virginia Freedom of
Information Act and records retention requirements. FCPS may be obligated to retain public
comments in its records and/or disclose the information if requested. Official FCPS Social Media Pages include, but are not limited to, those pages identified on the
FCPS website.
