Coaches, administrators have mixed reactions to social networking regulations

Local high school coaches soon will be further restricted in how
they can communicate with players, and some aren’t happy about
it.

Late last spring, the Missouri Legislators passed the Amy Hestir
Student Protection Act, and Gov. Jay Nixon signed it into law in
July.

The law, which goes into effect in late August, was named for a
Missouri woman who testified that she was coerced into a
relationship with a teacher when she was in junior high. The bill
contains several new provisions for reporting instances and
allegations. Among those is a parameter for school districts in
case of misuse of online tools by teachers.

At the heart of the matter is whether social networking
applications such as Facebook, Twitter and even text messaging will
be banned as a way for coaches and teachers to communicate with
students. While the intention is to eliminate avenues for
inappropriate communication, a practical application for such
communication is the rescheduling practices, alerting athletes of
schedule changes, or answering a text from a student regarding a
homework problem.

While the measure does not outlaw such things as team or fan
pages, coaches say they are unsure whether they can continue to
construct such outlets for players, parents and fans to be kept in
the loop about team happenings.

Hazelwood West soccer coach Jason Sellers said he and assistant
coach Steve Mayes had talked recently about setting up a Hazelwood
West soccer Facebook page, a plan that may be put on hold.

“It was going to be for parents and students to be on if there
were game changes, if there was practice plans and stuff like
that,” Sellers said. “As much as kids are on these social
networking sites, it would be easy to get that information out
there as opposed to e-mails and texts. I really think this is
something (that likely won’t happen) now.”

Fort Zumwalt West girls swimming coach Jeri LaBrot agrees with
Sellers.

The idea was likely soon to be set in motion to create a Zumwalt
West girls swimming Facebook page in order to keep those involved
with the program in the loop, but those plans will likely have to
be scrapped because the danger of what could happen with such an
outlet is just too great.

“I haven’t done a Facebook page (for the program) at all because
I think there is the possibility of so many different problems with
them,” LaBrot said. “I think whether you are a friend with a
student or not, even if the relationship is totally appropriate
things can be misconstrued. It’s just not worth it. It’s just going
to be best to stay away from it, personally.”

Districts are now being required to draft policies limiting how
teachers can interact with students online. Included in those
policies are very specific limits on teacher-student contact
through social media outlets.

The new shaping of direction in policy for a district’s teachers
has proven to be a necessary thing for administrators — not just
for the safety of the students, but for the piece of mind of
coaches.

“First and foremost, the student’s safety is our concern, and
that is at the forefront of these decisions,” Francis Howell
Central athletics director Scott Harris said. “There can still be
sites, but they have to be open and public. There can’t be any
private sites. No one can friend students. There can be an FHC boys
soccer site. I believe our cheer and dance teams have utilized
(Facebook).”

While she understands the need to protect students, LaBrot said
that based on the fact that the law doesn’t extend to other
childcare workers, something of a double standard is in play.

“It’s targeted toward the bad apples, I understand that, but it
makes the whole industry look bad,” LaBrot said. “I do also
understand that it doesn’t hurt anyone to not be friends with a kid
on Facebook.”

For Sellers, the fundamental philosophical issue at play comes
from something other than his tenure as a teacher.

“It is a shame that it has come to this in our society,” Sellers
said. “I will say this, though. If these (social media) are still
popular when my daughter, who is five now, comes of age; I know as
a parent that I will be involved in this on her side (of
monitoring) as well. There will not be an unsupervised usage of the
internet. I know for a fact that you have to watch out for your
children, and I have no problem with that. There are people out
there with bad intentions, and you do have to watch out for
them.”

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