Nixon amends Facebook law, districts now decide

A piece of Missouri legislation regarding electronic communication between teachers and students that was signed into law last Friday hit home for sophomore Sara Perkins.

Perkins' mother is an elementary school teacher in Sedalia, Mo., and Perkins' younger sister attends school in that district. Perkins said the school district's lawyer advised teachers to unfriend any of their Facebook friends who are students — including their own children.

"My mom and my sister aren't even allowed to be Facebook friends anymore," Perkins said. "I think that's a little over the top."

This type of restrictive policy for electronic communication between teachers and students could have been put into place statewide by next year, but Gov. Jay Nixon's signing of Senate Bill 1 amended the language of the original bill, Senate Bill 54, which was passed this spring.

The original bill, referred to as the "Facebook Law," would have prevented teachers from having "exclusive access with a current or former student" who is 18 years old or less through a non work-related Internet site, according to the bill. The Missouri State Teachers Association was granted an injunction against the law in August after suing the state. Nixon then asked the Missouri Legislature to repeal four sections of one statute in the bill related to electronic communication, according to an Aug. 26 press release.

The legislature revised the bill so each district must adopt a policy regarding teacher-student communication by March 1, 2012, according to Senate Bill 1.

MSTA spokesperson Todd Fuller said the original bill concerned teachers because it made what they could and couldn't do with social media unclear, both inside and outside the classroom. He said many teachers were worried their use of social media as an educational tool could violate the law.

"It was still confusing enough that even legislators were unsure about what would be covered and not covered by the law," he said.

Fuller said the law could have impeded the educational process within the classroom, but it also potentially could have prevented teachers from using social media in their personal lives. He said the judge who ruled in favor of the injunction mostly used language in his ruling that pertained to the impact of the law on teachers' personal lives. Still, he said, there are school districts that currently restrict teachers' use of social media.

"There were districts that were, … and still are in some cases, saying to teachers, ‘We don't want you to use Facebook,'" Fuller said. "Now that's not saying ‘We don't want you to use Facebook in the classroom,' [it's saying] ‘we don't want you to use it at all.' And that was the bigger issue."

He said the issue of teacher-student interaction through social media had become so prevalent throughout the country that it was likely districts were going to write policies even without legislation forcing them to do so.

Fuller said he's glad the bill revisions allow school districts to decide their own policies because they can decide what's best for their district.

"Our argument all along was that the legislature had gone too far the first time trying to create policy that didn't work for every district in the state," he said. "The Missouri Teachers Association are strong proponents of local control, and our argument is that most districts know what's better for their district and what takes place in their particular district than the state legislature does."

Susan Goldammer, Missouri School Board Association senior director of employment and labor relations, said the revisions give more discretion to school districts regarding their policy content, which is a positive step because the use of technology varies widely among districts. However, she said, the steps toward writing those policies are not simple.

"The downside is this is an extremely difficult area to write policy in," she said.

She said strong opinions on both sides of the issue make social media policies difficult to craft. Goldammer said many teachers and students think there should be no barriers between them in electronic communication, but others think more should be done to protect students from predators who would misuse their authority as teachers.

"The problem is how many roadblocks do we put on the good communication to prevent the bad communication," Goldammer said.

She said policy decisions usually are best made by individual school districts rather than the legislature.

"The legislature is frequently tempted to substitute their wisdom for the knowledge and wisdom of the local school board," Goldammer said. "And that can cause quite a few problems because certainly education is one of those areas where ‘one-size-fits-all' doesn't work."