Teacher Christina Thomas sues state of Missouri over ‘Facebook Law’

August 23, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events

By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 9:22 AM on 23rd August 2011

A teacher in Missouri is suing the state over a new law that stops teachers contacting their students over the internet – arguing the legislation will make it illegal for her to chat with her own child on Facebook.

The measure, which is being called the ‘Facebook Law’, aims to prevent inappropriate communications and sexual misconduct by prohibiting teachers from holding ‘exclusive communications’ on non-work sites.

But Christina Thomas, a Ladue School District teacher, claims in her complaint that the district has issued a notice to teachers stating that they cannot directly contact their own children on Facebook and other social networks ‘if they meet the statutory definition of student or former student’.

Target: The law aims to stop cases like the one involving Amy Jackson. The 35-year-old teacher allegedly arranged sex with a 14-year-old boy over Facebook

Students are defined as anyone under 18 who attends or used to attend the school where the teacher works. Thomas’ children are pupils at the school she teaches at.

The Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, signed into law July 14, has a clause which states: ‘No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a work-related internet site unless such site is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian.

‘No teacher shall establish, maintain, or use a nonwork-related internet site which allows exclusive access with a current or former student.

The measure immediately drew mixed reactions among the state’s teachers, students and parents.

Republican State Senator Jane Cunningham, who sponsored the bill, told The Huffington Post earlier this month that the measure seeks to discourage exclusive communication between teachers and students who lacks parent or school official supervision.

And Charol Shakeshaft, a professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the Huffington Post that the bill is a good way to tackle sexual abuse in schools.

She found that about 10 per cent of public school students in 2000 reported that they experienced unwanted sexual harassment or abuse from an educator.

‘Exclusive and private contact with your students isn’t educationally necessary,’ she told the site. ‘In the same way that in a school we would say, “No, you may not lock yourself into a room with a student,” this law effectively says, “No you may not lock yourself into a website where only you can get to the student.”‘

Banned: The measure, nicknamed the ‘Facebook Law’, prohibits teachers from talking exclusively with students online

There have been a host of incidents in recent months where teachers have been charged for sexually molesting students.

Just last week Jordan Lane, a 27-year-old Texas educator, was arrested for having an improper relationship with a 14-year-old boy.

And earlier this month Amy Jackson, 35, from Bulloch County, Georgia was arrested after allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy. She arranged meetings via Facebook.

However Thomas’ nine-page complaint, filed in conjunction with by the American Civil Liberties Union, claims the regulation violates the First and 14th Amendments.

Most recently, the Missouri State Teachers Association filed a suit on Friday against the state to block the social networking restrictions part of the law.

Critics of the law say it hampers their ability to communicate with students for academic purposes.

Randy Turner, Joplin East Middle School communication arts teacher, wrote on her blog that ‘hundreds of teachers across the state who have effectively used Facebook and other social networking sites to communicate with students, and I am one of those, will have to trash years worth of work, because all teachers are potential criminals’ in the view of the author of the bill, State Senator Jane Cunningham.

‘The teachers I know who communicate with students through Facebook have a large number of parents as ‘friends’ and most of the communication with students is done on the Facebook wall,’ Turner wrote.

She also noted that the bill went through ‘in spite of the positive effect that teachers and students being Facebook friends had on Joplin Schools’ effort to locate students after the May 22 tornado.’

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