Fostering academic excellence and biblical virtue to equip students for lives as local and global Christian servants.

Conduct Agreement

You are using services and sites of TPS. We are family-friendly and we insist that all material on our site and directly linked from it be family-friendly. Use of our classes and other services constitutes understanding of and agreement to the following standards and requirements.

Biblical Worldview

TPS is an academic community built on mutual respect for one another in the nexus of faith and scholarship within a biblical worldview. We strive to integrate academic excellence and a biblical worldview in a coherent seamless approach to academic education. We also avoid separation of scholarship into “secular” and “biblical” compartments, and we affirm a Trinitarian creedal Christian worldview that respects denominational differences.

Respect and Kindness

An academic setting affords frequent opportunities to consider differing opinions and ideas. We recognize that even within a worldview that sees the Bible as the standard for truth, there is an acceptable conservative range of interpretational opinions and individual applications. We encourage students to present and defend their views and to open-mindedly consider positions other than their own, but we insist that all such interactions be conducted with kindness and respect. We seek to always speak truth in love, remembering that love is patient, kind and gentle. We do not tolerate personal attacks or insults, or any other approach that belittles other people, regardless of their viewpoint. This standard applies to the classrooms, the meeting rooms, the discussion forums, the blogs, and all other interactive mediums within TPS.

Academic Integrity

TPS requires that all work submitted by a student is original to that student. Any work submitted that is substantially derived from another source – including texts, web sites, peers, parents, or any other – cannot be credited to the student and may be scored as zero in the gradebook. This includes both intentional and unintentional use of disallowed sources because academic integrity is an active not a passive process.

Safeguarding Privacy

Minors are protected by privacy rights that are unwaiverable, including by the minor or parent. TPS is legally required to protect these rights. TPS classrooms and community spaces are not private or safe spaces for the purpose of protecting sensitive information from possible misinterpretation or misuse by others presently or in the future. Therefore, TPS classrooms and community spaces may not be used to share legally private or privileged information, including medical, mental health, sexuality, gender identity issues, trauma, financial, legal, academic records, and any other matters reasonably or legally considered as private and protected. These restrictions apply to all forms of information, including text, graphics, images, and videos.

Each class period has a short “sharing and prayer” session led by the teacher in the first ten minutes of the scheduled class time. These sessions are not recorded. Students with parent permission may share generalized individual information regarding themselves only, and intimate or protected details must be omitted. No private information about someone else may be shared, even for the purpose of concerned prayer. No adverse information about someone else may be shared for any reason.

Usernames and Passwords

We assume that while using our site or services, students will conduct themselves honorably in a manner they would be proud to have associated with their name and their family’s name. Accordingly we insist that every student use only his own assigned username while on our site or in our conferences. We do not permit anonymous participation in any of our services, nor do we permit students to use a fake name or another student’s name while on our site. We expect students to immediately report compromised usernames or passwords, or any other violation of this standard.

Denominations, Politics, and Social Action

TPS is a private Christian academic organization, not a public forum for promoting political, social, or denominational organizations, parties, or platforms. Political, social, or denominational discussions are limited to what is directly related to the academic context (e.g., topic of the course, topic of the forum), and all matters must be discussed academically with respectful consideration of alternate viewpoints, particularly viewpoints that are supportable within the broader Trinitarian Christian creedal orthodoxy.

Modesty and Decorum

Our classrooms and other site features allow young people to interact with one another in a variety of ways, including posting photos and movie clips, and various other spoken and written forms of interaction. In all interactions that utilize our site services, participants must maintain decorum in spoken and written conversation, and all posted photos and video interactions must exhibit conservative modesty in dress and behavior. Recognizing that different people have different standards of modesty and decorum, we insist that in all video, audio and written word interactions our students proactively take a conservative approach that reasonably avoids offense to others. In photos and videos, our general requirement is for everyone (regardless of age or gender) to remain covered from at least above the chest to the middle of the upper thigh (no cleavage, bare midriffs, or short shorts, please).

Flirting and Romance

We encourage online group study or social activities. However, we insist that our meeting rooms, forums, and other interactive mediums not be used for flirting, dating, or other “romantic” endeavors. Regardless of the age or gender of the participants or what any particular family accepts or rejects as appropriate in this area, we don’t want our sites or services to be used in this way.

External Groups and Associations

TPS expressly forbids external associations that state or imply any association or connection with TPS classes or groups, including the use of our name, logo(s), or other identifiers. We particularly forbid the use of Google Hangouts and similar platforms to create external groups related to our classes or internal groups. These external platforms are particularly dangerous for minors because they have no oversight and effectively no safety or security. TPS has historically received reports of bullying, sexual harassment, sexual predation, harassment over political or social beliefs, cheating rings, identity theft, hacking, student cliques and “gangs”, slander, and other unsafe and unsavory behaviors in these unsanctioned external groups and sites.

TPS Social provides a safe space for social interaction that includes all the features of Google Hangouts plus much more, including yearbook pages; clubs and interest groups; a dedicated social group for every TPS class; sharing of artworks and craftsmanship, sharing of self-written stories, poems, and novels; and much more. Students are encouraged to use the safe spaces provided by TPS to enhance their academic experience with social and community opportunities.

Advertising and External Links

We do not permit advertising on our site; therefore we also do not permit students to post links to external products or services, even if those products or services are free.

Reporting Problems

Mutual accountability reinforces individual restraint in promoting appropriate standards of behavior. Mutually agreeable standards of behavior are achieved by all participants gently confronting and reporting problems when they see them. Anyone who finds the behavior of another to be upsetting or offensive should ask the “offender” to cease or modify the behavior. If a direct request proves ineffective in stopping the problem and preventing recurrence, then please report the matter to TPS. When reporting a problem, please provide as much specific information as possible, including the day, time, user names of all participants and witnesses, precise words used, and other details regarding the nature of the offense. We investigate all reports that contain sufficient information, and take action on all reports we can substantiate.

Parental Oversight

We assume that parents provide sufficient oversight to ensure their students conduct themselves honorably and adhere to these posted standards while they use our site or services. Furthermore, recognizing that we serve a wide range of ages and backgrounds wit a variety of school opportunities and services, we expect that parents will ensure that their own kids individually refrain from any activities they feel are not beneficial to them.