Community Guidelines

The HCISD Hub exists to connect Harlingen alumni, families, neighbors, and District staff, to tell stories about our schools, and to support causes that help students. These guidelines keep it a place people want to be.

They are part of the Terms of Use. Breaking them can cost you your content, your listing, or your access.

• Be truthful. Use your real name.
• Be kind. Disagree without attacking anyone.
• Respect privacy, especially the privacy of students.
• Post only what you have the right to post.
• Keep it appropriate for an audience that includes school families.

District policy defines prohibited conduct to include discrimination, harassment, dating violence, and retaliation, even when the behavior does not rise to the level of unlawful conduct, based on race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, age, disability, or any other basis prohibited by law (Board Policy FFH(LOCAL)). That definition applies on the Hub.

Examples of prohibited conduct include:

• Cyberharassment and harassment through electronic communication.
• Offensive jokes, name calling, slurs, or rumors.
• Threats, intimidation, or incitement of violence.
• Unwelcome sexual conduct or advances, and sexual comments about a person.
• Bullying, including conduct covered by Board Policy FFI(LOCAL).
• Retaliation against a person who reports prohibited conduct or takes part in an investigation.

• Spam, chain messages, multi-level marketing, and commercial solicitation.
• Political advertising, campaign communications, and electioneering. The District does not accept paid political advertising and the Hub is not a public forum (Board Policy GKB(LOCAL)).
• Another person's contact information, address, or private details posted without their permission.
• Impersonating another person, a campus, a District office, or the District itself.
• Obscene, pornographic, or otherwise unlawful content.
• Anything that would expose the District to complaints, controversy, or litigation, or that is inappropriate in a school setting with a student audience (Board Policy GKB(LOCAL)).
• Attempts to break into, probe, scrape, overload, or otherwise interfere with the Hub or District systems.

Only upload photos you took or have permission to use, and get the permission of any recognizable person in the photo before you post it.

Be careful with students. Do not post the name or image of a currently enrolled student without the approval required by District policy. A District employee must obtain prior approval from a supervisor or principal before using the name or image of the District, a campus, or any student in a web-based solicitation (Board Policy CDC(LOCAL)). Student records and directory information are governed by Board Policy FL(LOCAL).

District employees are held to the same professional standards in their public use of electronic communication as for any other public conduct (Board Policy DH(LOCAL)). Employees may use electronic communication with currently enrolled students only about matters within the scope of their professional responsibilities, and may not use a personal electronic communication platform, application, or account to communicate with currently enrolled students absent an exception.

Employees may not harass Board members, vendors, contractors, volunteers, or parents (Board Policy DH(LOCAL)).

The Hub deliberately does not offer direct messaging, and it does not offer student accounts. District policy restricts employee electronic communication with currently enrolled students and bars the use of personal platforms for it (Board Policy DH(LOCAL)). Rather than build a channel that would sit in tension with that rule, we left it out.

Stories, events, and causes are reviewed by District staff before they appear. The District retains final editorial authority to accept or reject what is submitted (Board Policy GKB(LOCAL)), and nothing you submit is guaranteed to be published.

We may remove content, unpublish a profile, suspend a listing, or end access when these guidelines are broken. We are not obligated to remove content just because someone asks, and we may act without prior notice when the situation calls for it.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.

Discrimination, harassment, dating violence, or retaliation. Report it to the District coordinator below, not through the general contact form (Board Policy FFH(LOCAL) and Board Policy FFH(EXHIBIT)).

• Debbie Scogin, Assistant Superintendent for Human Services
• Title IX Coordinator and ADA / Section 504 Coordinator
• 407 N. 77 Sunshine Strip, Harlingen, TX 78550
• debbie.scogin@hcisd.org
• (956) 430-9711

Everything else. Use the contact form or call +1 956-430-9500. Tell us what you saw and where you saw it.

A member of the public may file a complaint under Board Policy GF(LOCAL) within 15 business days of the event, by hand delivery, by electronic communication, or by U.S. Mail. Student and parent complaints are filed under Board Policy FNG(LOCAL).

If access to District property or resources is refused under Education Code 37.105, the person is given written information explaining the right to appeal through the grievance process, including the right to address the Board in person within 90 calendar days (Board Policy GKA(LOCAL)).