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A Missouri teacher has sued the state over a new law that prevents teachers from contacting their students over the Internet, arguing that it will make it illegal for her to chat with her own child over Facebook
Missouri teacher sues state over 'Facebook law,' says she can't contact her own child online
Seeded on Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:04 PM EDT
Article Source: Yahoo! News
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- Public Discussion (8)
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Thomas, argues that there are better ways to prevent teacher misconduct than infringing on free speech by blocking contact on social media sites.
Banning Facebook conversations and the like also amounts to a restriction on students' ability to communicate with their teachers, and in the courts, the extent to which school officials can dictate students' behavior online has been a contentious subject. The Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that administrators could punish a student who raised a "Bong hits 4 Jesus" banner across the street from his school because the banner created a "substantial disruption" within the school. Appeals courts have since tackled cases of disciplined students who say their off-campus online activity is free speech and not disruptive enough on campus to merit suspension.
State will lose on this one.
- 5 votes
#1 - Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:07 PM EDTWhat a stupid rule. In my son's school, the students and parents are encouraged to contact teachers by email. Especially for students who live out of town and cant stay after school for help because they have to ride the bus, email is a great way to get help with homework. At least with social networking, if a teacher makes inappropriate comments, its in writing where there is a record of it.
A teacher cant contact her own child online?!?! Seriously, can you say NANNY STATE?
- 5 votes
If you hire a teacher to do a job, and you've done your job in checking out their credentials etc... then what is the point in cutting down on a teacher's and student's ability to communicate? Seems to me that this is a non-issue if everybody is doing their job.
- 1 vote
They are attacking a symptom instead of a disease. If the teacher is not interested in sexually abusing children, they could have them at their home for a sleep over with no harm done. If they are...do you really think that they can't "communicate" with the child in an inappropriate way if they are banned from using Facebook? Good Lord, every kid has a cell phone nowdays, do you really think the teacher can't simply text them? Or (gasp) actually CALL them on the phone...provided he/she didn't get a chance to just talk to them in class...a determined pedophile will find a way....they did before Facebook, they will even if it is banned.
- 2 votes
Yeah its ridiculous. They go after Teachers, and pedophiles are running wild!
- 4 votes
#2 - Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:14 PM EDTDarn...I was beat to this seed. My guess is that the school likes the ability to monitor teachers' emails, at least their work emails. I think the blanket policy regarding FB is extreme. Like northern girl mentioned a message on FB, whether private or public, is still a written record. My question is does the school trust their teachers or not? Would they ban all interaction between teachers and students that wasn't on campus or linked to a campus email address/web address? Are they no longer allowed to interact with family members who are also teachers or school administrators? That seems to be the problem for the mom/teacher mentioned in the article. I don't like this rule...I think it is moving a little too far in the wrong direction and it means teachers can't be trusted.
- 2 votes
#3 - Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:21 PM EDTWhat happens is one of your parents is a teacher and you want to have friends over? Could that teacher's son have a sleep over or a birthday party at home, or would that be banned because a student would be staying at a teacher's house?
- 3 votes
Exactly, northern girl! What if a student was scheduled for his mom's math class or dad's English class? Are they no longer allowed to live at home because they will have private conversations? Sheesh! I hate it when policy makers don't think things through.
- 2 votes
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