Legal

Code of Conduct

Last updated 15 September 2026

Treat people as though they are trying, because they are. No harassment of any kind, no sharing of anyone else's information, and nothing here that would be out of place in a classroom of children. Report anything that breaks this and a person will read it.

Where This Applies

This platform has no public comment sections, no forums and no messaging between learners, so there is less surface for this to govern than on most sites. It still applies in three places: classrooms and cohorts using Sankofa Code, any correspondence with us, and anywhere people represent themselves as part of this community.

It is written now rather than after something happens, because a standard set in advance is worth more than one improvised under pressure.

Respect

Treat people as though they are trying. Nearly everyone here is learning something difficult, often without the support, equipment or time that other people take for granted.

Nobody's question is too basic. The person asking what a variable is deserves the same seriousness as the person asking about query plans. Anyone who has been made to feel stupid for asking knows exactly how much damage that does, and this platform exists partly because of it.

Disagree with the work, not the person. Reviewing someone's code by describing what it does is useful. Reviewing it by describing what they are is not.

Inclusion

Sankofa Code is built for Black learners, and it is open to everyone. Those two facts sit together without tension: building something specifically for people who have been underserved does not require excluding anyone else.

Everyone is welcome here regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, neurotype, age, body size, class, level of education, or how much or how little they already know.

Language matters more than intent. If someone tells you a word landed badly, the useful response is to stop using it, not to explain why it should have been fine.

Harassment

Harassment is not tolerated in any form. That includes, and is not limited to:

  • Slurs, or demeaning comments about any of the characteristics listed above.
  • Sexual attention or advances of any kind, and sexual language or imagery directed at anyone.
  • Deliberate misgendering, or repeated use of a name someone has asked you not to use.
  • Threats, intimidation, stalking, or following someone across platforms.
  • Publishing someone's private information without their clear permission.
  • Sustained disruption of a class, a cohort or a conversation.
  • Encouraging any of the above, or defending it as a joke.

There is no version of this involving a child that gets a lesser response.

Privacy

Do not share other people's information. In a classroom that means a learner's progress, scores and struggles belong to that learner, and to their teacher where a school relationship exists. It is not material for anyone else.

Do not publish someone's work without asking. Somebody's half-finished project is not a demonstration of anything except that they are partway through.

Teachers: the notes you keep in the classroom view stay in your own browser and are never sent to us. They are still about real children, so treat them the way you would treat anything else you write about a student.

Appropriate Content

Children use this platform, often in classrooms. Keep what you write here suitable for them, including in variable names, comments, project content and anything you submit to us.

Do not build anything here that exists to harm somebody: harassment tools, credential harvesters, or software designed to deceive people. Security is taught in this curriculum from the defending side, and the difference between studying an attack and running one against people is not subtle.

Do not upload or link to material you do not have the right to share.

Reporting

Report anything that breaks this code to hello@sankofacode.org. Put “Code of Conduct” in the subject line and it goes to the front of the queue.

Tell us what happened, where, and roughly when. Screenshots help. You do not need to prove anything to a standard, and you do not need to be certain before you write.

Reports are read by one person and are not shared beyond what is needed to deal with them. If you are reporting something about your own classroom and do not want your teacher told, say so and we will work out how to handle it.

You can report something that happened to someone else. You can also report anonymously, though it limits what we can do.

Nobody will be penalised for reporting something in good faith. If reporting ever cost someone their standing here, the code would be worthless.

Enforcement

A person reads every report and a person decides what to do, proportionate to what happened.

Depending on severity, the response may be a private explanation of what was wrong, a warning, removal from a cohort, or closure of an account. Where somebody is being actively harmed, access is removed first and discussed afterwards.

We will tell you what was decided about a report you made, as far as we can without exposing anyone else's private information.

If you think a decision about you was wrong, reply and say so. There is one person here and they will read it.

Suspension and account closure are also covered in the Terms.

Questions about this policy go to hello@sankofacode.org. Every message gets a personal reply.

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