Social networking has infiltrated just about every phase of our lives. Whether its Facebook, MySpace, texting, Twitter or any other technological method, communication with each other has forever left the talking phase and entered into the fingertips phase.
It is a sad state of affairs when we have students who can’t read or write, but they know what “IDK” and “LOL” mean. That’s “I don’t know” and “laugh out loud” for those of you who don’t know.
The North Marion School Board is looking at this whole issue right now. They are worried the line is being blurred as to what is appropriate and what is not as far as teacher-student interaction. They would like to discourage all teachers from being “friends” with a student on Facebook or texting with students outside of school-related reasons.
We agree with the school board here. The district is currently looking into what the legal ramifications are on such a policy. The district can’t, and should not, legislate what a teacher does, or does not do, on their personal time outside of the school. However, this is a slippery slope and one that needs to be navigated carefully.
Telling a teacher, who happens to be a parent of a student in the district, that they cannot be friends with their own child, probably won’t fly.
But there is a bigger issue here. Why would a teacher (who is not a parent of a child in the district) want to open their private lives to their students? Facebook has become an easy way to stay in touch with old friends and long-distance family members. It has also become an easy way to communicate with large groups of people. However, teachers should not cross that line with students — that should be common sense. There are so many other ways to communicate with students. Maybe the district should have its own Facebook page, and within that have several groups where teachers and students can interact with each other.
Texting has also become a major issue for school districts. It has become the new “passing notes in class” of the old days, only they are using thumbs and cell phones instead of paper and pencils.
We can’t think of any reason why a teacher and student should be texting one another outside of school-related issues. Why would a teacher ever give their personal cell number out to students? They already can e-mail and see them every day in school. They have the listed home numbers of all the students if they really need to contact them.
There are some obvious times when texting might be appropriate. Coaches and club leaders need to get a hold of students during off-campus endeavors or during summer camps, leagues and outings. But other than that, there should be no reason students and teachers should be texting one another. It crosses that invisible line of what is appropriate and what is not. What first begins as an innocent text could later be taken as an invitation to something more inappropriate. One thing texting excludes is emotion and tone of what is meant. You read stories all over this nation about students and teachers involved in inappropriate relationships. Why feed that or give it an outlet for temptation? Why even begin to walk down a road where something might happen?
It will be determined whether the law is on the North Marion School District’s side here, but its actions are in the right place.
