Should Teachers and Students Be ‘Facebook Friends’?
Christine Lusey
2011/08/02 19:00:00
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Everyone’s on Facebook! Even your child’s teachers, probably. But is teacher/student communication via social networks a good idea?
Missouri doesn’t think so. The Show Me State just passed what’s already being called The Facebook Law, which bars contact between teachers and students on any site that includes a mechanism for private communication (like Facebook).
SB 54 actually creates the “Amy Hestir Student Protection Act,” named for a student who was molested by one of her teachers. The bill also mandates that allegations of sexual misconduct by a school employee be reported within 24 hours.
It would hold school districts liable if they fail to disclose to another district that an employee was either dismissed or allowed to resign after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Additionally, “a registered sex offender, or a person required to be registered as a sex offender, is prohibited from being a candidate for school board.”
Did we really need a law for that? Are a lot of sex offenders campaigning for school board positions? It seems like a sex offender school board candidate in Missouri would be kind of a long-shot candidate anyway.
And “crimes of sexual contact with a student while on public school property as well as second and third degree sexual misconduct are added to the offenses for which a teacher's license or certificate may be revoked.” Well, you’d certainly hope so!
SB 54 takes effect August 28 of this year.
Missouri doesn’t think so. The Show Me State just passed what’s already being called The Facebook Law, which bars contact between teachers and students on any site that includes a mechanism for private communication (like Facebook).
SB 54 actually creates the “Amy Hestir Student Protection Act,” named for a student who was molested by one of her teachers. The bill also mandates that allegations of sexual misconduct by a school employee be reported within 24 hours.
It would hold school districts liable if they fail to disclose to another district that an employee was either dismissed or allowed to resign after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Additionally, “a registered sex offender, or a person required to be registered as a sex offender, is prohibited from being a candidate for school board.”
Did we really need a law for that? Are a lot of sex offenders campaigning for school board positions? It seems like a sex offender school board candidate in Missouri would be kind of a long-shot candidate anyway.
And “crimes of sexual contact with a student while on public school property as well as second and third degree sexual misconduct are added to the offenses for which a teacher's license or certificate may be revoked.” Well, you’d certainly hope so!
SB 54 takes effect August 28 of this year.
Read More: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/01/in-missouri-te...
Top Opinion
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Tonya Edwards 2011/08/03 03:42:14Undecided
+12There are some really bad ass teachers that are great to have on facebook. They were my mentors in school and I can still contact them outside of school. (Now that I've graduated.) I can see how it could be an issue though..
yes if you already graduate..
I mean seriously, who wants their teacher to come up to them and say "so I heard are dating so and so" or "how was that party last night? heard you got pretty wasted"
NEVAR!
While keeping children safe from sexual predators is important, the sex offender registry law is flawed (at least here in the US).
An example; a friend of mine has a friend (yep, met him once), who is a registered sex offender. He was drunk at a bar, and the men's room was out of order. The bartender would not let him use the ladies room (they were single occupancy and he had the keys), so he went out back to urinate behind the bar. A married woman was kissing a man who was not her husband out there as well... so to speak... as in, not on the mouth... and to keep him from possibly embarrassing her, had him arrested for indecent exposure. He never even saw them out there. So, for the rest of his life he gets the same stigma attached to his name as a child rapist, because the registry is black and white. You are a sex offender, or you are not one. All of this because of bad judgment when he was drunk. Had he wet his pants, he would probably be in the same boat.
If you want to keep your children safe from sexual predators, do NOT let them on the internet. It is a well know fact that 90% of the women on the internet are guys posing as them (especially the lesbians), and about 80% of the teenagers on the internet are much older then they profess.
Now I can understand why thi...
While keeping children safe from sexual predators is important, the sex offender registry law is flawed (at least here in the US).
An example; a friend of mine has a friend (yep, met him once), who is a registered sex offender. He was drunk at a bar, and the men's room was out of order. The bartender would not let him use the ladies room (they were single occupancy and he had the keys), so he went out back to urinate behind the bar. A married woman was kissing a man who was not her husband out there as well... so to speak... as in, not on the mouth... and to keep him from possibly embarrassing her, had him arrested for indecent exposure. He never even saw them out there. So, for the rest of his life he gets the same stigma attached to his name as a child rapist, because the registry is black and white. You are a sex offender, or you are not one. All of this because of bad judgment when he was drunk. Had he wet his pants, he would probably be in the same boat.
If you want to keep your children safe from sexual predators, do NOT let them on the internet. It is a well know fact that 90% of the women on the internet are guys posing as them (especially the lesbians), and about 80% of the teenagers on the internet are much older then they profess.
Now I can understand why this was thought to be a good idea. Teachers can watch for cyber bullies, and predators, but they still will not have access to private messages on Facebook, which is where these types of communications will move.
Privacy is good thing. The more freedoms they remove, the easier it becomes for them to take away the rest of them. If someone wants to add one of their teachers as a friend, let them. I was friends with many of my teachers in school, and had nothing to hide from them.
On the other hand, social networking is the way kids (especially high school kids) communicate, learn, share and basically live their lives today. A teacher could use Facebook as a tool for teaching, communicating and interacting (in a proper way) with students during off-school hours.
I'm a high school teacher, and I'm seriously considering setting up a second Facebook page for interacting with my current students. I think Facebook could be a valuable teaching tool, but I don't need my students trying to interact with my mother, sisters, old college buddies, etc.
As it stands now, though, I turn down any friend requests from current students.
You could post what chapters need to be read, etc... What has been assigned as homework for reminders. This could be good for legitimately sick children who missed a day of class, do not want to fall behind on their lessons, and possibly do not have the best friends to ask about what was covered in class.
Heck, you could even toss out tips and such for your classes, and occasionally give the answer to a bonus/extra credit question for an upcoming test to motivate them to check it often.
A fan page, or even a group (Or whatever they call them now) would limit them being able to read posts about your personal life (and those from your personal life's posts).
Bravo for trying to come up with ways to use modern technology and trends to reach students, you clearly care about providing proper education.