Missouri Schools Dictating How Teachers Use Facebook and Choose Friends

I discovered a clever use for Facebook by teachers this past week. Teachers use Facebook to ensure their students participating in events and representing the school are keeping their commitment to the programs they participate in. It's kind of like a Super Bowl coach ensuring their players meet curfew in the week leading up to the big game.

New rules in Missouri are going to change how teachers use Facebook.

Missouri Education Watchdog reports:

In case you missed it (this being summer and all), Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation last week, sponsored by Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, aimed at providing important safeguards that will help to protect students from sexual misconduct by school employees. For instance, part of the legislation prevents school districts from unknowingly hiring someone with a history of substantiated sex abuse allegations by requiring school districts to disclose that information about a former employee if contacted for a reference. The legislation also requires annual background checks for teachers, bars registered sex offenders from serving on school boards and creates a new task force of lawmakers and state child welfare officials to focus on sexual abuse of children that and complete a study by 2013.

Another piece of the legislation requires school districts to develop policies by 2012 for communication between teachers and students that includes text messages, social networking websites and other electronic devices. Those polices are to restrict teachers from interacting with students on websites or in ways that are not also accessible to others, including school administrators and parents.

Even though I am Facebook, I hate seeing how much time is spent by kids on Facebook. With that said, there are pros and cons to this legislation. While some teachers use Facebook to help their students in the classroom, it is unfortunate their positive efforts are over shadowed by teachers who are sexually prey upon their students. So you can see why I have mixed feelings about this legislation.

The bottom line here is, schools will only look to the mainstream social media sites, and for teachers engaged in inappropriate conduct with a student, there are always ways to beat the system.