Thread: Teachers can't be friends

Teachers can't be friends.....

yes you heard that right....

[Missouri bans students and teachers from being Facebook friends

Teachers can be friendly with their students, but they can’t be their friends, at least when it comes to social networks such as Facebook. State Governor Jay Nixon has signed Senate Bill 54, which goes into effect on August 28, 2011 in the state of Missouri.
In other words, later this month it will be illegal for students and teachers to be friends online, according to KSPR.

Senate Bill 54 is dubbed the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, which aims to fight inappropriate contact between students and teachers, including protecting children from sexual misconduct by their educators. It is named after a Missouri public school student who was repeatedly molested by a teacher several decades ago. The Bill strengthens rules against schools that fail to report sexual abuse of students by employees, but at the same time it also adds other requirements, such as the social networking component.



The new law bans direct social networking contact between teachers and students in the hopes of setting more distinct boundaries on the relationships between the two. Section 162.069 of the bill explains the social networking part in a bit more detail:

Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian. Teachers also cannot have a nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student.

This implies that teachers will still be able to have a Facebook Page for interacting with students on a slightly more personal level, as long it’s still work-related. It’s the actual friending, messaging, and whatever other direct connection you can make on a social network that will not be allowed.
It’s not clear how Missouri plans to enforce the law, but it’s quite possible social networks will be asked to do a little work themselves. Will the state be allowed access to Facebook accounts, personal computers, or ISP records to see who is friending whom?

Personally, I think it’s a little bit ridiculous as I’ve seen multiple student-teacher friendships work out just fine, even before social networks ever existed. Then again, I don’t live in Missouri.

Source

re-donk-yew-lous

It makes sense that students and teachers (at least young teen students) shouldn't be friends on facebook. Imagine a teenage girl putting up seductive photos, and then a male teacher seeing those photos - the possibilities for litigious parents suing or accusing the teacher of viewing what could, in the eyes of a court, be child porn just aren't worth it.

It doesn't make much sense for older students - but I'd assume college / university doesn't count?

Originally Posted by Sarah22

I think we could be a friend with our parents! For teacher,I have a Psychological obstacle

Nice contribution but please leave us alone with your spam... thank you! Bye!

Mod Edit: In future report do NOT mini-mod, the staff will deal with it as they see fit.

This is Missurah [sic] we are talking about here. So, I would imagine this is a reaction to many students hooking up with teachers and using Facebook as a means to do so.

Yes they can be as far you know what are your boundaries there are something you can't do or share with your teachers same for your parents and so on, meaning we can be friends but everything has its boundaries you don't cross .... you in safe zone if you do .... suffer the consequences :)