{"id":50,"date":"2019-11-14T14:25:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/?page_id=50"},"modified":"2023-03-07T16:49:43","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T22:49:43","slug":"political-activity-guidelines-for-lps-employees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/political-activity-guidelines-for-lps-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Political Activity Guidelines for LPS Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Political Activity Guidelines for LPS Employees<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Dear LPS Staff,<\/p>

An important part of civic life is having conversations that involve diverse opinions, being an advocate on important issues and participating in elections. As staff members of Lincoln Public Schools, we have a duty to do this in our personal lives while we foster a learning and working environment that does not include activities or messages that try to politically influence our students or colleagues. The following reminders and guidelines for Lincoln Public Schools staff members should help in preparing for political activity.<\/p>

Thank you,
John<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Goal<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Students, families and community members are confident that LPS staff members have not used taxpayer resources to communicate political opinions to anyone.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Resources<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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You should not use school district resources to advocate for political candidates, legislation or political viewpoints (including email, websites and webpages, word processor, paper, copies, pens, meeting space in buildings, etc.).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Roles<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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You should not use your position with students or other members of the public to represent political candidates or political viewpoints. You may not openly advocate in your role as an employee.\u00a0 If you support a candidate, please make it clear in your communications that you represent yourself and not your school or LPS.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Social Media<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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You can endorse or discuss candidates or political issues on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) only on your personal account and during your non-work time. If your personal account is based on an LPS email address or you have labeled your personal account with an LPS title or position, you should use a different handle for political activity to avoid creating confusion.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Political Candidates and Issues in Classrooms<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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If one candidate is introduced in a classroom for instructional purposes, all candidates for that office should be given the same opportunity.\u00a0 If all candidates in the race cannot attend, you should reconsider whether a balanced view still can be shared with students.\u00a0 Candidates may visit schools for tours \u2014 just as all citizens \u2014 by contacting the school. No campaign materials may be in sight or distributed in classrooms.\u00a0 Similarly, if a political or controversial issue is discussed in class, it must be discussed from a perspective of balance without advocacy on the part of the staff member.\u00a0 Policy 6450 provides some guidance.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Political Email Messages<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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What should you do if you receive political ads or solicitations that arrive through your LPS email accounts?\u00a0 First, it is not your fault, and you have not done anything wrong if you receive political ads or solicitations in your school district email.\u00a0 Your email is available to the public, and any person, organization or candidate can send you an email.\u00a0 \u00a0If you receive a political ad or solicitation for support:<\/p>

  • Please delete the email.<\/li>
  • Do not forward it to anyone else, or even to yourself.<\/li>
  • In addition, most emails of this type have the option to unsubscribe someplace at the bottom.\u00a0 Please unsubscribe, so you are not put in this position in the future.<\/li>
  • If you are interested in supporting a candidate, please reach out to the campaign on your own computer\/phone and on your own time.<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Political Messaging in Schools<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Clothing<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Staff may not wear clothing that espouses political viewpoints in front of students.\u00a0 Students, unlike staff, may express political opinions and exhibit political messages on clothing while at school as long as it is not disruptive to the learning environment or are inappropriate for school (profanity, advocacy of illegal activities, etc.).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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    Written or Verbal Messages<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    Students may not hand out fliers to students en masse, though they can exchange political material with other students with whom they would normally exchange information as friends. Staff have similar guidelines in distributing political printed materials with colleagues and staff may not hand out political material to students to advocate for political positions.<\/p>

    If clothing or printed materials somehow creates a disruption, staff should deal with the disruption that it causes then determine if the clothing or printed materials have to be prohibited from school.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Political Activity Guidelines for LPS Employees Dear LPS Staff, An important part of civic life is having conversations that involve diverse opinions, being an advocate on important issues and participating in elections. As staff members of Lincoln Public Schools, we have a duty to do this in our personal lives while we foster a learning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-50","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/50\/revisions\/1177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}