New Missouri law on social-media ‘friending’ confounds teachers

New Missouri law on social-media ‘friending’ confounds teachers

www.kansascity.com

JEFFERSON CITY | A new law barring Missouri school teachers from exchanging messages with students on social-media websites such as Facebook is drawing national attention — and criticism.

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I did a search and did not see anything so I hope this is not a duplicate. I am just not sure what to even say about this. I mean while it does suck that a teacher managed to seduce a student through facebook I have a hard time seeing this as a solution. Any teacher that wants to seduce a student already has really good access.

Named for a Missouri woman who testified that she was manipulated into a sexual relationship with a teacher while in junior high, the wide-ranging bill contains several new provisions for reporting instances and allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers and school employees.

They are not forbidding students from being alone in rooms with teachers or spending an hour at a time being influenced in person by teachers but no poking on facebook?

I feel like this is a more a sad commentary on society today than it is a solution to anytihing.

But what’s attracting renewed attention as students prepare to go back to school are provisions requiring districts to draft policies restricting how teachers may communicate with students. Among those provisions are very specific limits on teacher-student contact through social-media websites

www.kansascity.com
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Where I lived preciously in NC, not only could the teachers not be friends with students, but they were not allowed to be friends with the students parents on FB! Additionally, if a parent was having a gathering, and alcohol was being served, the teacher was not allowed to attend, even if they were not consuming! Talk about communism!

Originally posted by haarvik
Where I lived preciously in NC, not only could the teachers not be friends with students, but they were not allowed to be friends with the students parents on FB! Additionally, if a parent was having a gathering, and alcohol was being served, the teacher was not allowed to attend, even if they were not consuming! Talk about communism!

How is that Communism?

Please explain...

reply to post by haarvik


There is no government in communism...

I think you mean those pathetic attempts at communism that you have seen on planet Earth. Yeah, I'd call that facist rule under a communistic banner. Yeah, these laws should apply to students under 18, but not to the parents of students. The school system and the state have no right barring Teachers who are adults from fraternizing with parents outside of the work place.

I am in my 30s now and to this day one of my dearest friends is the physics teacher I had when I was 16. He was an amazing teaching, a really good mentor - if I had listened to him - and a great friend. He kind of always treated us all like people. He never condescended. Granted I was a year ahead so I was younger than the other kids he usually had for that class but only by a year. Believe it or not, he never tried to molest me once in all this time.

This is way too harsh. It's one thing to avoid it as much as possible, but to ban it by law is a little..american?

It's designed to prevent such circumstances, but it really only further distances students and teachers in the wrong ways.

Besides, couldn't this go the other way? Teachers seeing students' facebook posts and actually help prevent sexual misconduct by another colleague or getting help for a suicidal/depressed kid?

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck



Small town Canada has the same rules, it's to avoid "inappropriate relationships" particularly favoritism.

To be quite honest I think they should be permitted. Sometimes kids have no one to talk to and sometimes they post alarming things on facebook. Kids normally do not have their parents on there, at least if something was amiss, a teacher could talk to the student about it. Teachers who want to do harm to students have a variety of ways this can be done. Why treat ALL teachers as guilty when most of them just want what the parents want.. what's best for the kids!

~edit~ I also meant to point out that molestation, favoritism and other inappropriate student/teacher relationships have existed long before facebook was invented...

reply to post by Kitilani


Yeah, the whole thing is just too much for me. I "deactivated" my account a few months back and have never missed it - once. My suggestion is don't do it - it is a waste of time and an exposure you may not want or even realize you have.

CJ

I agree with it.
Teachers should in no way have any sort of relationship with students / students families outside of teaching.

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
I agree with it.
Teachers should in no way have any sort of relationship with students / students families outside of teaching.

That's unrealistic. Social functions such as church, community gatherings, etc. bring teachers in contact with students and their families all the time and there are bound to be connections made outside the school. I played in a band with one of my teachers and was employed by another in his sideline business outside teaching.

Expecting teachers to divorce themselves from the community because they may interact with a student or their families is stupid.

Your search was not good but here you go.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

A good way to search is to just enter keyword like in this case it would be, facebook, law, teachers and you'd come up with the threads.

Originally posted by kro32
Your search was not good but here you go.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

A good way to search is to just enter keyword like in this case it would be, facebook, law, teachers and you'd come up with the threads.

edit on 3-8-2011 by kro32 because: (no reason given)

Yeah, none of those keywords came up accept "facebook" and that narrowed it down to about 1000 threads. The title of the thread you linked should have helped you understand that. My thread title actually has those keywords in it. Yours does not. Thanks a ton for stopping by.

The question is why would the teachers need/want to be friends with their students on Facebook in the first place, I know I didn't ever add any of my professors during college and to this day I refuse to add anybody I currently work with. Generally such close interactions with students open the teachers up to all kind of unpleasantness so really, is it such a bad thing there is a law to help keep the two groups separate? Yes its a shame that we have to use legislation in place of good sense and intelligence but oh well, for once its an at least useful law unlike some of the other garbage that gets passed by various legislatures around the country.

reply to post by Helig


I do not really understand your reasoning. It seems you are saying this is a useful law because you would not want to friend a teacher. I am not sure that is a good enough reason for a law, is it?

I live in Italy.
I attended a Classic Lyceum high school some years ago.
It was completely normal to add at least 1 teacher to your friends on facebook. It was the students asking for it, or the teacher asking for it.
But in no other school this happens.
I don't see what is wrong with it. No scandal ever happened about it.

reply to post by Kitilani


I'm saying I can see the reasoning for the law because of the rash of student-teacher cases of impropriety and such, its just better if there are clear lines between teachers and students to begin with.

reply to post by Kitilani


I gotta reply to this, I am a parent of a young adult, and I live in MO. And I teach p/t, and have taught full time in the past.

I think this is an excellent Idea, and here is why. My childs facebook account is for her use, but I do monitor it, daily.

There is a parent portal for parents and a student portal for students on line for school use. I see no reason why an adult, should have access to my childs facebook page in any way shape or form, unless they are approved by me. What happens on my childs fb page is her way of letting off steam. what is said could, and probobly would be used against her in a classroom setting. What happens if a kid hates a teacher, and posts it on thier fb page, some other friended teacher sees it and repeats what the child says, to the teacher being talked about- all of a sudden you have a child who is facing a hostile teaching environment for an entire year, it could ruin thier outlook on school. NOPE-those teachers do not need to be involved in any part of my childs life outside of school, and school activities. And no, I dont invite teachers to come to my house either.

Not only have I seen bad situations with teachers delving into childrens lives where they shouldnt, but also I have seen them blow things far farther out of preportion than they should be, instances that would not have been an issue suddenly became world shattering. The kid ends up scarred for life. The trick is, STAY OUT OF THIER LIVES- if you feel the need as a teacher to help a child, do it in the classroom, or hotline if its a desparate situation, tell the principal to put them on the back pack program if you think they are going hungry, but stay out of thier personal space, and thier parents personal space.

My childs schools have tried for years to get me to send her to summer school, shes a b average student so really doesnt need to go, but I refused totally, because those kids need a break from the pressure of school, thats what thierpersonal fb account is, thier private personal spce for THIER own use, not the teachers.

There Im done.