Buzz Surrounds So-Called Facebook Law

Questions are swirling about Facebook friendships between teachers and students with the passage of a new state law that quickly picked up the moniker “Facebook Law."

The legislation signed into law last month by Gov. Jay Nixon is aimed at protecting children from sexual assault. But two lines in the bill sponsored by State Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, referring to social media have garnered much attention.

spokeswoman Ginger Fletcher said district officials already have a policy against teachers having students as Facebook friends. Each year, administrators go over the policy with teachers and staff, she said.

“The whole point is that teachers need to be as appropriate with their students (in social situations) as they are in the classroom,” she said. “With Facebook, it’s more difficult because of all the other factors that feed into a Facebook page…that can give students the wrong impression.”

The Kirkwood policy prohibits a staff member from knowingly allowing students access to his or her personal networking website or webpage “that discusses or portrays sex, nudity, alcohol or drug use or other behaviors associated with the staff member’s private life that would be inappropriate to discuss with a student at school.”

The policy says staff members also may not “knowingly grant students access to any portion of the member’s personal social networking website or webpage that is not accessible to the general public” or “post information about identifiable students on a personal website or webpage on a social networking site without the permission of a supervisor.”

According to the district’s policy, any staff member who engages in any of the behaviors — or in any other conduct that intrudes on a student's physical or emotional boundaries without a valid educational or health purpose — would face discipline, including termination.

Fletcher said Kirkwood would further modify its policy if the Missouri School Boards Association makes any new recommendations based on the new law.

What Teachers Think

But at least one Kirkwood teacher thinks that the district’s policy is unclear and that the new state law, which goes into effect Aug. 28, is confusing. 

The teacher said she found Facebook to be an important tool in keeping up with former students and remaining a positive role model in their lives as they go through high school.

But just to be safe, after hearing the hoopla over the Facebook Law, she unfriended several former students who had not yet graduated from the district.

What Parents Think

Mary Purcell, a parent of a Kirkwood seventh-grader, said she didn't see anything wrong with her son maintaining a relationship with his former teachers and role models through Facebook.

“Some of his past teachers feel like family to both of us,” she said. “I hate that a couple of bad eggs spoiled a beneficial opportunity for both the teachers and their students.”

School District Stance

Fletcher acknowledged it was difficult in a tight-knit community such as Kirkwood where teachers might also be relatives or family friends of students to keep their professional and social lives separate.

And she said school officials see the value of social media – the Kirkwood School District and several of the schools within the district have their own Facebook pages. But an organization’s “page” is different from an individual’s personal profile in that it is open to the public and private messages cannot be sent.

“The electronic world is fast becoming our day-to-day norm and the same professionalism modeled in the classroom has to be modeled whether we are in the mall or at a sporting event,” she said.

One retired school teacher agreed, saying she would not feel comfortable being Facebook friends with students. Teachers have to be on guard all the time against the perception of impropriety, she said.

Letter of the Law

The statewide legislation is called the The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act. Although it runs several dozen pages, two sentences have led to the nickname the Facebook Law:

• “No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a work-related internet site unless such site is available to school administrators and the child's legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian.” 

• “No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a nonwork-related internet site which allows exclusive access with a current or former student.”

Cunningham said her legislation’s primary goal was to prevent teachers who have sexually assaulted a student from being placed in another district. It is named for a student who was repeatedly assaulted by her junior high school teacher. The teacher went on to work in several school districts, even winning a “Teacher of the Year” award, before retiring.

Cunningham told the Huffington Post that she did not intend to prevent teachers from joining social networks or becoming Facebook friends with students. Rather, the idea was to discourage teachers and students from communicating exclusively, without a parent, guardian or school administrator being able to access the message, she said.

"We are by no means trying to stop communication, just make it appropriate and make it available to those who should be seeing it," she told HuffPost. "Exclusive communication is a pathway into the sexual misconduct."