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Teachers, Students Fight To Be Facebook Friends

Posted by samzenpus on from the teachers-pet-has-a-friend-request dept.

An anonymous reader writes "State Governor Jay Nixon recently signed Senate Bill 54, making it illegal for students and teachers to be friends online as of later this month. Now, a Missouri teachers group is fighting the state's new law that prohibits them from being Facebook friends with their students by filing a lawsuit. From the article: 'The Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) filed a lawsuit on Friday, challenging a new law. MSTA is specifically asking the Circuit Court of Cole County to determine the constitutionality of the law’s social media portion.'"

15 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Anybody else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Anybody else feel like this is an incursion on freedom of speech?

    1. Re:Anybody else? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wouldn't call it friendship (as in a true sincere friendship like), but several teachers from the University definitely got into my social circles. It seems that again some of you are misunderstanding the meaning of social networks. You really don't have to go daily to have a beer o talk by phone to someone to consider having eventually contact with him/her, either physical or online contact.

    2. Re:Anybody else? by edumacator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Many teachers use Facebook as a means of communicating with clubs, teams, and even classes. Since ninety-five percent of the students (a guesstimate) are on FB, it's an easy form of communication. Even more students have email accounts, but they never check them.

      This wouldn't be such an issue if the term wasn't "Friend," but rather something without the same connotative value. But then, it wouldn't make us feel as warm and fuzzy if I had 5,000 associates instead of 5,000 friends.

      --
      An important change for education.
    3. Re:Anybody else? by xaxa · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Aside from that, I can't help but wonder who in the hell wants to friend their teachers on a social network.

      You might not, but it's still important to defend your freedoms.

      Even if I can tolerate you until the school bell rings at 3pm or 4pm, that doesn't mean I ever want to have anything to do with you outside of class. You're a teacher; not my buddy.

      Facebook didn't exist when I was at school, but there were several adults I knew that I might have added on Facebook. Some of them happened to be teachers -- parents of my friends. They were much more friendly towards me outside school.

    4. Re:Anybody else? by Marillion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Does anyone know if the law has a parenting exemption? Some teachers are parents. I believe that it's a responsibility as a parent to periodically look at how his or her children use social media. As the parent of two teens, I know several other parents of teens who happen to be both a fellow parent and a teacher at the high school where my kids go. I believe those teachers should be able to "friend" their children just as I've "friended" mine.

      --
      This is a boring sig
    5. Re:Anybody else? by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually i'm torn on this. Yes freedom of speech is great but as someone who was hit on by a not very attractive female teacher at 14 as well as watched a friend trade sex for grades with said teacher there is actually sometimes where you DO need to "think of the children" because one forgets how much power a teacher can wield over a student.

      So lets not lose sight of the fact WHY bans like this have been put it place. it isn't like these school boards have gone "Oh its Tuesday, we need to be douchebags" it is because time and time again we have seen both male and female teachers use their position to have sex with their underage students.

      While there are plenty of truly awesome teachers out there (Thanks Ms Edwards for being a great teacher that inspired my lifelong love of science!) there are also some VERY sick puppies out there that are using the profession for their own sexual gratification. So I'd say this is one of the VERY few cases where one actually does need to "think of the children" when weighing and deciding this.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    6. Re:Anybody else? by gsmalleus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I worked with a teacher who ended up having an inappropriate relationship with a student. None of the communication between the two happened on facebook or email, or even phone calls. It was all done with hand written notes. So lets ban pencils and paper from schools. Digital communication is so much easier to trace. I would rather have a log of emails exchanged, or Facebook conversations than having handwritten notes.

      I myself am an educator, and work with multiple school districts. I have worked in districts where they have a policy of not friending students, and I happily comply. I had one district which wanted me to completely delete my FB and Twitter accounts, I declined that position. I have way too many friends that have moved or I don't talk to as much as I would like and Facebook is the only way to keep in touch with them. Other districts don't have such policies and I have accepted friend requests from students or made pages where all the students can get up-to-date info on changes in assignments and such. I must say that when I have the ability to communicate with students via Facebook, it makes life a whole lot easier. I also teach extra-cirricualr activities and if there is a change in schedule or place that we are practicing I can get the word out quickest on social media. I keep my FB profile clean, I don't have any pictures that would reflect upon me in an unprofessional manner. I also expect the same from any students who friend me. I have reported a few students who posted pictures of themselves drinking.

      I live in a small town, and many of my students go to the same church as I do. I see students as I am running my errands around town, many of them are employed part time at restaurants and other businesses that I frequent. Passing laws to prohibit students and teachers from communicating outside of school is just plain stupid.

  2. Re:Question comes to mind by alexhs · · Score: 3, Informative
    1. Leave anonymity
    2. Go to ~CowboyNeal page
    3. Click on the white dot in the top right box. Sends you on alter relationship
    4. Click "friend"
    5. Click "Yup, I'm positive"
    6. ...
    7. Profit !

    You're welcome.

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
  3. It must be pretty tough by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It must be pretty tough if your teacher is your dad, uncle, or even older sibling. Or if you belong to some sports club or similar and everyone else is a friend.

    Also what's the proposed legal situation if a student and/or the teacher uses a psedonym and is unaware that their friend is a teacher/pupil?

    1. Re:It must be pretty tough by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tough? Hell, that law is currently a godsend for kids of teachers. "Sorry, mom, I can't have you in my facebook friends, it's the law".

      I bet a lot of kids would kill for that opportunity!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. this is uber lameness by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    as if being friends in real life was an impossibility, forget facebook the human race survived for millions of years before the internet came along so you can survive and communicate with your friends without facebook too, give it a try, exchange phone numbers, meet for coffee, play a game of pingpong or pool, or a board-game like chess or checkers or dominoes...

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  5. OK its even worse by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Informative
    The bill says:

    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.

    For a teacher who works in a small town for a few decades that will be a large number of people they can never friend on facebook. It could even prevent someone friending their husband or wife. A teacher/pupil can have an age difference of four years, which a few years after they younger one graduates will seem an insignificant difference.

  6. Re:Open and shut case by Loki_1929 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now who's picking and choosing?

    Out of 7,200,000 teachers (US Census 2008), you come up with a list of a couple hundred bad people and declare all of them "state sanctioned child molesters" who "spend their days preying on" their students?

    The only possible compelling interest the state could claim would be protecting children from the likes of people on the list you linked, yet it's completely impossible to show how this law accomplishes that. If the law is an utter failure at preventing undesirable contact between teachers and students (and it is), then it loses the one compelling reason to even consider allowing its complete and utter disregard for the first amendment. Teachers aren't limited to Facebook and MySpace to meet and seduce their students. Believe it or not, they actually sit just a few feet apart for much of the year and nearly all of them have absolutely no interest in molesting anyone.

    --
    -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
  7. When they get those rights by ciderbrew · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Expect to see child kicked out of class due to Facebook posts.

    And in the "grown up" world, a person who brings a camera to any event now ruins the night as far as I'm concerned. Social web and beer doesn't mix.

  8. Freedom of Association by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 3, Informative

    The United States Supreme Court held in NAACP v. Alabama that the freedom of association is an essential part of the Freedom of Speech because, in many cases, people can engage in effective speech only when they join with others:

    "We hold that the immunity from state scrutiny of membership lists which the Association claims on behalf of its members is here so related to the right of the members to pursue their lawful private interests privately and to associate freely with others in so doing as to come within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment" ( NAACP v. Alabama ex rel. Patterson, 357 US 449 - Supreme Court 1958 )