School districts weigh Facebook’s perils, promises

NEW YORK - Should students and teachers ever be friends on Facebook? School districts across the country are weighing that question as they seek to balance the risks of inappropriate contact with the academic benefits of social networking.

At least 40 school districts nationwide have approved social media policies. Schools in New York City and Florida have disciplined teachers for Facebook activity, and Missouri legislators recently acquiesced to teachers' objections to a strict statewide policy.

The Clark County School District has no policy that prohibits teachers from communicating with students on social media websites, said district spokeswoman Amanda Fulkerson.

In the New York cases, one teacher friended several female students and wrote comments including "this is sexy" under their photos, investigators said. A substitute teacher sent a message to a student saying her boyfriend did not "deserve a beautiful girl like you."

Such behavior clearly oversteps boundaries, but some teachers say social media can be a vital educational resource if used appropriately, especially because it's a primary means of communication for today's youngsters.

"Email is becoming a dinosaur," said David Roush, who teaches media communications and television production at a Bronx high school. "Letters home are becoming a dinosaur. The old methods of engaging our students and our parents are starting to die."

New York Chancellor Dennis Walcott plans to release social media guidelines this month, saying recently that teachers "don't want to be put in a situation that could either compromise them or be misinterpreted."

Roush does not accept students as friends on his personal Facebook page but has created a separate profile to communicate with them. But that runs afoul of Facebook rules restricting users to a single profile.

Roush used the page to get the word out quickly about a summer internship on a cable-access show, and a student who learned about it from the Facebook post won it.

"If I would have emailed him, if I had tried calling him, he never would have got it," Roush said.

Nkomo Morris, who teaches English and journalism at a high school in Brooklyn, said she has about 50 current and former students as Facebook friends. That could be a problem if the new rules instruct teachers not to friend students.

Morris manages her privacy settings so neither current nor former students see her personal information but do see posts about current events. She also lets students know whether something on their Facebook pages raises a red flag, such as sexual content.

"They're not always as savvy as I am," Morris said.

Efforts like New York's have been subject to legal wrangling and resistance from teachers and their advocates.

Missouri legislators last year passed a law that barred teachers from using websites that allow "exclusive access" with students 18 years old or younger. Teachers complained they would be banned from Facebook and Twitter.

A judge granted an injunction, declaring the law "would have a chilling effect" on free-speech rights. The legislature then repealed the restrictions and passed a new law directing school districts to develop their own policies.

Some districts adopted a model policy by the Missouri School Boards Association, decreeing that staff members must use district-approved devices when communicating electronically with students. The guidelines are intended to make it easier for supervisors to monitor teacher-student interactions.

The Missouri State Teachers Association believes some local policies are too restrictive and that the association will support its members if they are disciplined under those new rules.

"We're prepared to deal with the first issue where a teacher's rights are being infringed," spokesman Todd Fuller said.

Donna Lieberman, director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said she hopes the new policy considers First Amendment rights as well as "the enormous potential for benefiting students' education that is represented by technology."

Musical theater teacher Charles Willis was suspended in 2010 from Braden River High School in Florida for friending more than 100 students on Facebook and for posting sexually suggestive images and acronyms for profane words. He is in a nonclassroom job at another school, said John Bowen, a school board attorney.

Doctoral research at the University of Southern California found 41 districts nationwide that have approved social media policies.

Under a policy approved by the school board in Muscogee County, Ga., in November, school employees are "strongly discouraged" from allowing students access to personal websites.

Nancy Willard, author of "Cyber Savvy: Embracing Digital Safety and Civility," believes school districts should set up their own online environments and use tools like Gaggle.net and ePals.com, which have been designed for educational purposes. Also, Edmodo is a Facebook-like network for teachers and students.

The problem with Facebook is that it was set up for socializing, Willard said.

"On Facebook, flirting is encouraged. You are encouraged to post your relation­ship status and your relationship interests. That's not appropriate for a relationship between teachers and students."

Review-Journal reporter Trevon Milliard contributed to this report.