Missouri teachers fight to be Facebook friends with students
August 22, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
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.
Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, aims to fight inappropriate contact between students and teachers, including protecting children from sexual misconduct by their educators. It is named after a Missouri public school student who was repeatedly molested by a teacher several decades ago.
The new law is broad enough to prohibit teachers from communicating privately with students over the Internet, and inhibits educators’ ability to converse with students via text messaging and social networks. As I outlined earlier this month, it means teachers and students can’t be Facebook friends.
MSTA argues the law infringes on educators’ first amendment rights of free speech, association, and religion. The group is asking the court to keep that section of law from being implemented until the constitutionality can be determined.
“Many of our members are concerned about the unintended consequences of this law, including their ability to monitor their own children’s online activities,” Gail McCray, MSTA Legal Counsel, said in a statement. “It’s vague and more importantly, we believe it violates the constitutional rights of educators.”
“Plaintiffs have used and are using non-work-related social networking sites as an important avenue for contact with students, both during emergencies and for everyday educational issues, such as when a student has difficulty with a classroom assignment or identifying bullying,” the lawsuit states. “Senate Bill 54 makes it unlawful for Plaintiffs who are also parents of a child in the school district to communicate with her student/child via a non-work-related social networking site if there could be exclusive access.”
Last month, State Governor Jay Nixon signed Senate Bill 54, which goes into effect on August 28, 2011 in the state of Missouri. The new law bans direct social networking contact between teachers and students in the hopes of setting more distinct boundaries on the relationships between the two.
Teachers will still be able to have a Facebook Page for interacting with students on a slightly more personal level, as long it’s still work-related. It’s the actual friending, messaging, and whatever other direct connection you can make on a social network that will not be allowed.
It’s still not clear how Missouri plans to implement the law, whether social networks will be asked play a part in the enforcement, nor if the state be allowed access to Facebook accounts, personal computers, and/or ISP records. It is, however, obvious that the language used to describe the law is too general and overreaching, at least according to many of the state’s teachers.
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August 22, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
My wife and I have five kids and we have warned them endlessly about putting anything inappropriate on Facebook. I think they got the message.
Privacy settings intact, Charlie P. Mandeville of Southbridge says he only allows friends to check his Facebook page.
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The 21-year-old, who works in the sandwich shop of a grocery store, said he’s aware that his employer and prospective employers could look at his comings and goings through social media. Because of that, he doesn’t post photos and messages that are “too incriminating,” he said.
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“It is scary because they will find that stuff,” he said. “And it’s hard to find jobs in this economy. You don’t want to risk it.”
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Mr. Mandeville recalled his mother’s cautionary tale: Her friend and former colleague at a hospital was terminated because of something she posted about a patient, he said.
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Mr. Mandeville’s caution is well placed. Employers increasingly are turning to social media — among other strategies — to find out more about job-seekers. And online reputations matter, according to a Pew Research Center report, “Reputation Management and Social Media.” The report said 44 percent of adults who are online have searched for information about someone whose services or advice they seek in a professional capacity.
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Corey S. Adams, metro market manager for Robert Half International’s Westboro office, said employers are performing online searches because they have to be especially cautious.
“They can’t afford to make costly hiring mistakes, so they’re performing these online searches to learn more about these candidates, whether it be their interests or affiliations.”
A study by the executive search firm ExecuNet found that 77 percent of recruiters conduct Internet searches of candidates to screen applicants, and more than a third of those same recruiters said they have eliminated a candidate based on information they found.
Mr. Adams advises people to watch what they say about current and previous employers. “If someone was to speak poorly about a previous employer,” he said, “that would be a major turnoff to a perspective employer.”
And any sort of unflattering photo may dissuade a hiring manager from setting up an interview or extending an offer, he said.
Everyone leaves a digital footprint or online trail that companies can follow — even if a person doesn’t want to or hasn’t intentionally set out to create it, Mr. Adams said. “They can obtain a lot of information about the job-seeker, and in some cases not all of it is positive — and some of it might not even be true.”
People need to learn to manage their digital footprint and make sure they present themselves in a favorable and professional way, he said.
The first step is to find out what information is already out there, Mr. Adams said. He suggested typing your name into a popular search engine and see what comes up. He said it’s also not a bad idea to look through alumni sites or personal Web pages of friends, family and co-workers.
In addition to activating privacy settings, Mr. Adams advises people to monitor conversations they may be included in by setting alerts through Google or other tracking services such as Technorati or BlogPost, which send email notifications every time something new is said about you online.
If something untrue is said, and you wouldn’t want a hiring manager or prospective employer to see it, contact the person posting the information or the website administrator to ask that it be removed.
“Most sites have policies that deal with these sorts of requests,” Mr. Adams said. “While the request may not be honored, and oftentimes it’s not, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.”
As area colleges gear up for the return of students, social media as it relates to job prospects is a hot topic that’s covered during orientations, said Elizabeth A. Horgan, director of career services at Nichols College in Dudley.
Ms. Horgan said a survey by CareerBuilder two years ago found that 45 percent of human resources professionals, out of 2,500, used social networking sites.
“It’s a piece of the puzzle and it’s definitely used by industry,” she said.
Ms. Horgan said that she encourages students to keep a watchful eye on their profile. Because people can “tag” you in pictures, check it daily. She advised embracing “the grandma rule,” making sure that the post is something your grandmother would be comfortable seeing and reading.
As evidence that younger professionals are aware of their online image, Mr. Adams cited the increased number of recent college graduates and entrepreneurs using the social networking site LinkedIn, which from its outset was intended for executives and professionals.
“I think LinkedIn is a huge topic as it relates to digital footprints, because that’s one of the media outlets, in my opinion, where it’s really geared toward professional networking,” he said.
Lindsay A. Pratola, a spokeswoman for Big Y grocery stores, said that the company doesn’t check applicants’ Facebook pages, but does have a social networking policy for employees.
“Mostly it just governs what people say on personal pages” as an extension of the company’s sexual harassment, discrimination and other policies, she said. “We’re not looking for things.”
Ralph D. Crowley Jr., chairman and chief executive of Polar Beverages in Worcester, said his company doesn’t look at candidates’ social networking.
“My wife and I have five kids and we have warned them endlessly about putting anything inappropriate on Facebook. I think they got the message,” he said. “As to Polar Beverages, we do not invade candidates’ personal sites. We hope that when we offer employment that we know the individual well enough.”
Contact Brian Lee by email at blee@telegram.com.
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