Carroll teachers are not to ‘friend’ students or their parents on social media

With the Missouri state law going into effect Aug. 28
prohibiting social networking between teachers and students, local
educators and school officials are weighing in on what venues of
communication between the two parties are appropriate.

Carroll County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent of
Instruction Steven Johnson said teachers are informed during a
yearly training that includes the topic of staff and student
relationships that teachers are not to “friend” students – or the
parents of their students – on Facebook.

“Friending” others allows you to connect with them, often seeing
personal information that they post.

Teachers are advised should only communicate with students about
school-related topics, like coursework and grades. They are also
told that they should be very cautious about what they post on
their personal social media sites.

“Teachers are held to a high standard of ethical behavior,” he
said.

When teachers start interacting with students outside of school,
they open themselves up to possible criticism, accusations or even
litigation, Johnson said.

Director of Human Resources Jimmie Saylor said there is no
official written policy in place concerning teacher and student
social media site relationships, but there is a policy about staff
and student professionalism.

There have been a couple incidents over the years concerning
teachers exchanging too much information with parents and students
on Facebook, Saylor said. Issues have also been raised about
students posting things about their teachers on Facebook, which can
also be inappropriate.

“The teacher has to be very careful not to share student
information on a Facebook page” because of student privacy rights,
she said.

Complaints or problems concerning social media sites are
addressed on a case-by-case basis, Saylor said.

Franklin Middle School language arts teacher Deana Munchow, of
Littlestown, Pa., said she feels very strongly that teachers and
students should not be friends on Facebook. While several students
have tried to “friend” her, she has declined their requests.

“I just feel that Facebook is my private area,” she said.

Even if it happens unintentionally, the boundaries between
teacher and student could be blurred if the two become linked on
social media sites, Munchow said.

There are many other ways for students and teachers to keep in
contact, like email and through wiki pages, she said.

Munchow doesn’t post anything inappropriate on her Facebook, but
it’s not created at the level of professionalism she would want
parents and students to see, she said.

New Oxford High School language arts and English teacher Amanda
Bamberger said she would not friend a student on Facebook unless
she knew him or her on a personal level.

Bamberger, of Hampstead, said she knows some teachers who are
friends with their students because they interact with them
elsewhere, in the community where they both live. Bamberger said
that is not really an issue for her since she doesn’t live in the
community where she teaches.

While being friends with some students would probably be OK, she
thinks it wouldn’t be as appropriate with other students, so she
has decided to keep it separate. Also, she said some people may
challenge why teachers, especially young ones like herself, would
be friends with her students on social media sites.

One merit to connecting to students on Facebook would be that
the social media site is something in which they are interested.
Bamberger has used mock Facebook pages in her lesson plans because
it is something with which her students are familiar.

“I think if people are aware of the risks, and are professional
and responsible, they could use technologies as a way to connect
with [students],” Bamberger said.

While Munchow doesn’t think that students and teachers should
become friends on Facebook, she recognizes there can be exceptions,
like being related to a student.

She and Bamberger don’t think it should be prohibited by law, as
it now is in Missouri.

“I don’t think the government should be able to step in and tell
you who you can and can’t befriend on Facebook,” Munchow said.

Reach staff writer Alisha George at 410-857-7876 or
alisha.george@carrollcountytimes.com.

© 2011 Carroll County Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Share and Enjoy

Swift: Before Facebook, we had Mombook – In

• 
  Tammy Swift

Talk about it

Decades before MySpace or Facebook, the Swift family had its own social-networking site.

It was called Mombook.

All information was collected at a central site – aka Mom’s brain – and disseminated via a state-of-the-art device known as Mom’s mouth.

Mombook saved us all a lot in time and phone bills. We didn’t need to call each other to catch up on each other’s lives. With just one phone call from Mom, we could learn who was interviewing for a new job, who redecorated her kitchen and how someone’s diet was going.

Mombook was bug-free, efficient and amazingly fast. News spread as if it had been texted by an over-caffeinated 14-year-old with double-jointed thumbs.

Oh sure, sometimes a detail got lost along the way. For instance, a bad connection once made me think Mabel was pregnant when the expectant mother was actually her cat.

And our social network sometimes crashed when Mom had to take a boiling pot off the stove or help Dad find a shirt.

But overall, it was a seamless system.

The trouble is, Mombook seems to need an upgrade of late.

I don’t think she’s grown obsolete; in fact, she seems as sharp as ever.

The bigger thing is that Mombook seems to be selectively disseminating information.

Case in point: Mombook will spend a lot of time telling us about the fact that someone in the neighborhood got new siding or a third cousin we’ve never met passed away at age 92 after a long battle with life.

But then we’ll get sudden, random, out-of-the-blue calls like: “Well, your dad’s out of surgery, and he’s fine.”

What? He was in surgery? For what? I didn’t know he was sick. The last I heard from them they were heading to Banff, Alberta, for a vacation. What on earth had happened?

Mombook spilled out a long monologue about Dad being sick for four days and trying to get help in a desolate area of Canada and finally getting a CAT-scan that revealed his gall bladder was diseased.

Upon a Canadian doctor’s advice, he was flown home for emergency surgery, where they removed the organ, which had begun developing gangrene.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Mombook has also forgotten to post updates about other significant events, such as the fact Bertha had interviewed for and accepted a new job, that a well-known family friend had died and that Verbena had underwent minor surgery.

Whenever I complain about it to Mombook’s support staff, she replies that she “didn’t want to worry me.”

I have no doubt this is true. Parents spend their entire lives worrying about their kids and trying to protect them. So it’s tough when the roles begin to change.

They don’t always realize it’s OK if we worry a bit – it’s actually our turn.

Ahhh, Mombook.

It’s the only social-networking site with a heart.

---

Readers can reach Forum reporter Tammy Swift at (701) 241-5525

Tags:
tammy swift, life, columns

Share and Enjoy