NYC Teachers Forbidden To "Friend" Students 238
betterunixthanunix writes "The New York City Department of Education has issued rules covering student-teacher interactions on social networking websites. Following numerous inappropriate relationships between students and teachers that began on social networking sites, the rules prohibit teachers from communicating with students using their 'personal' accounts, and requires parental consent before students can participate in social networking for educational purposes. The rules also state that teachers have no expectation of privacy online, and that principals and other officials will inspect teachers' profiles. Oddly, the rules do not address communication involving cell phones, which the Department of Education's own investigations have shown to be even more problematic."
Good. (Score:2, Insightful)
Good. That behavior is unprofessional.
Re: (Score:3)
So, are you saying that you lost touch with your teachers, especially the ones you really liked, after the year got over? Since, that is absurd, I'll assume you haven't.
So, let's say you add your teacher on FB after the year. What do you do when the same teacher takes a class for you the following year? Do you un-friend them? Even if you _do_ unfriend them, it doesn't solve the main problem, which is innate bias from some teachers to some students.
What needs to be done is that, all teachers that favor a sel
wait until after graduation (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
The problem here is in defining a non-harmful action (in this case friending someone throug
Re:Good. (Score:5, Informative)
It's not just about Facebook. If you're a teacher and you have a blog (even one you intended to be anonymous) and you students comment on it you could face disciplinary action. The way it's worded even an unauthorized slashdot post could be construed as inappropriate contact if a student posts in the same thread and knows the teacher's handle.
Re:Good. (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Justin, is that you?
Can I get a three day extension on my final project?
Re:Good. (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
...and three if you spit instead of swallowing...
Re:Good. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Good. That behavior is unprofessional.
No, it's not unprofessional. I'm guessing you didn't grow up at the end of the era where having teachers over for dinner was common. Didn't end all that long ago, just back in the 90's. Most of my favorite teachers came over on my invite, with the permission of my parents.
I'm still in touch with a couple of them, about half of them are dead. But my mechanics, science and history teachers? When I'm back in the americas they still come over to visit, and hear about my travels and take things that I've brought or pictures or other tidbits to show their classes. Hell I've spoken infront of their classes in the last 3 years, and I'm nobody important, just someone who has a fascination with learning and traveling.
Re: (Score:2)
It depends on what behavior.
Social networks tend to show EVERYTHING about people who truly use them as they are intended.
Is it OK for a teacher to be friends with students, visit with them and their parents, and so forth? Absolutely.
Is it OK for students to see their teacher's private life - including all the stupid stuff that they did 5 years ago? Probably not, especially not at the primary grades - kids don't need to see adult stuff.
My sister teaches dance at a private dance school. She refuses to friend
Re:Good. (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. Let's create a separate "kids" world. The kids-world will have no swearing, no nudity, no death, no kissing, no money-problems, no divorces. Let's do our level best to shut our kids in these fictional, boring, sterile, pink-plastic worlds, where they can grow up dealing as little as possible with the real world.
Then, once they hit some magical age, 14 or 18 or whatever, let's open the floodgates and assume they're now well-prepared to deal with a world we've done our level best to ensure they've learnt nothing about.
On second thought, let's not do that. Instead, let's be guides and teachers to the real world. Let's try to explain in language a child can understand, rather than try to hide.
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Re: (Score:3)
I don't think I said anything about sexual predators.
I just think kids should worry about kid stuff and not see their teachers getting drunk, being stupid, and generally carrying on. All of which, I'm told, is rampant on Facebook.
Personally, my Facebook account is a mechanism for fooling around with people I largely haven't seen since I graduated from high school 25-ish years ago. And even that gets kind of bawdy and would be inappropriate for small children.
If your wife could use Facebook as a force for go
Freedom (Score:5, Interesting)
Freedom of association? Does that apply? Why do educators seem to love tossing out personal rights and freedoms? Between this, video cameras on laptops, insisting on viewing personal accounts, etc, it's just disheartening. Why not RFID tag them all or lock them in cells on their personal time?
Re:Freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
It does seem like a pretty poor recruiting pitch.
Hey! We need you! Your students will hate you, your administration will suspect you, you'll be paid a pittance for long hours and much work, you'll be subject to every lawsuit a disgruntled punk can talk his drunken mother into starting, you'll pay for your supplies out of pocket, we may have to lay you off with almost no warning, and we'll be spying on you on-line. But other than that, it's a dream job!
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder if this includes ex-students? I friended several of my former teachers.
The solution seems simple enough... make your facebook profile private, so the school administrators can't see who you friended. The courts have already ruled employers can't demand your password to see what's behind the privacy wall.
Re:Freedom (Score:4, Interesting)
Weirdly, I am simultaneously:
a) offended that they're applying such arbitrary restrictions to teachers -- it seems, technologically, stupid, and I've had teachers that are friends
b) pleased, since facebook is a pretty popular venue for creepy guys, and
c) surprised that teachers associating with students on facebook is a big problem, since it seems extremely unprofessional to me.
I have friends that teach and are Facebook friends with their *former* students, but association outside the classroom really should be conducted in a professional manner.
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c) surprised that teachers associating with students on facebook is a big problem, since it seems extremely unprofessional to me.
If you RTFA, you will see that it is not a huge problem -- a couple dozen "incidents," many of which seem to have been entirely online anyway (as opposed to a teacher trying to arrange for sex). On the other hand, teachers and students texting and talking on the phone seems to be a much bigger problem (more incidents and possibly more serious incidents), and the city has not addressed that in this update to the rules.
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I don't think freedom of association applies under 18.
Re:Freedom (Score:4, Informative)
Freedom of Association is nowhere mentioned in the US Constitution. The right mentioned there is Freedom of Assembly.
The Supreme Court has ruled that such an implied right exists, however there are limits. For example you cannot refuse to sell beer to somebody because you don't like the color of their skin. On the other hand it is permissible for the state to make a law that you can't sell beer to someone who is below a certain age.
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Freedom of Association is nowhere mentioned in the US Constitution. The right mentioned there is Freedom of Assembly.
The constitution was never meant to enumerate rights.
Supreme Court has ruled that such an implied right exists, however there are limits. For example you cannot refuse to sell beer to somebody because you don't like the color of their skin.
Yes, but that has nothing to do with the freedom of association, but with the lack of a right to discriminate against people based on certain specific criteria which are enumerated in federal law, or in the case of California, state law.
On the other hand it is permissible for the state to make a law that you can't sell beer to someone who is below a certain age.
Which doesn't address this issue at all, but nice prevarication.
Re: (Score:2)
"The constitution was never meant to enumerate rights."
Yes, but it does had all things not mentioned, first to the state, then to the individual. This is the state exercising it's rights.
OK with this? (Score:3)
Actually, if I were a teacher, I think I'd be OK with this. If you friend a few of your students, then you'd have to friend all of them in order to avoid the appearance of favoritism, and if other teachers were doing it there would be pressure to do it yourself as well. So, instead of having to say, "No, you can't be my friend," you can simply cite the law.
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Really it doesn't make sense. You can have teachers and students members of the same sports and social clubs, teachers who are after hours coaches, teachers who are members of guides and scouts.
This is really pushing the bounds of making all one on one student teacher contacts risky and being perceived as potentially sexually abusive.
Some adults will abuse any kind of contact with children, crazy over-reaction and banning any contact situation that a bad adult has abused is utterly pointless ie. adult
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But most employers don't have control over impressionable young children for 5 or 6 hours per day.
And in just about every industry where they do, there are rules in place for this kind of stuff, so yeah, any employer in a similar position of authority over , and custody of children WOULD get away with this shit.
(Its pretty obvious you don't have kids and aren't even old enough to do so).
Re:Freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
But most employers don't have control over impressionable young children for 5 or 6 hours per day.
And most people aren't child molesters... And I happen to disagree with collective punishment.
"For the children! For the children! Anyone who disagrees with me is underage/is a pedophile/doesn't have kids! There are pedophiles behind every corner, and since I claim to be a parent, that means I'm always 100% correct!"
I hope you're trolling with those nonsensical assumptions.
Re:Freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
I'd be worried if they WANTED to be my child's friend on facebook.
(Well, actually, my child will not have a facebook account until they are way past the impressionable age, but that's beside the point).
Re:Freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be worried if they WANTED to be my child's friend on facebook.
So anecdotally let me say something about my ex. She taught for a few years and we didn't have children. She still had the instinct to be a mom and I think that made her very engaged with her students. She also taught at some less than desirable schools where a lot of kids are lacking with regard to their parents. Many had one parent in jail and the other working late or not around.
She was friends with some of her students on Facebook. They looked up to her and I think she felt better being a positive influence in their lives when they had so many negative influences. They both got something positive out of it. It's a shame to stop that scenario from happening because there are also bad teachers.
Now I'm biased. My ex was a teacher, my mom is a teacher, my sister is a teacher and my brother in-law is a teacher. They truly enjoy teaching and they become particularly engaged with kids that need it the most. Sometimes a kid really needs someone to look up to and sometimes that person is a teacher.
It should be taken under consideration how many kids will suffer from not being able to have a teacher be in their life outside of school. There are pros and cons to these sorts of guidelines and I think the cons are vastly overlooked. And the pros often exaggerated. I mean will this really prevent a teacher from being inappropriate with a student if that is their intent?
(Well, actually, my child will not have a facebook account until they are way past the impressionable age, but that's beside the point).
I think that's an important point. You're concerned about Facebook so you don't let your kids have one. You're being a parent and that will go much further than these guidelines will. Some kids are so lucky and a teacher can make a big difference in their lives and it's not because they taught them how to add.
Re: (Score:2)
Some kids are so lucky
should be
Some kids aren't so lucky
Re:Freedom (Score:4, Insightful)
I also think parents should not allowed to be alone with their kids. Bad things have been known to happen. Fact!
The issue is about supervision (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope they worked out the boundary cases (teachers that are parents of students, etc). But by and large I think this is a reasonable first step.
No, I'm not trying to deny the inevitable march into social media, but the issues with Facebook friending are:
- possibility of mixing work and personal lives of teachers - there are many things that teachers are expected to not do in and around students in school, including students into their private social media could create problems
- inability of schools to monitor relationships between students and teachers, hoping to detect, if not prevent them from happening
When I last read about this type of issue, the proposed law was very clear - is a school district runs a Facebook-like web site that includes the ability to monitor communications between employees (teachers) and customers (students) that was fine.
Why do teachers need to 'friend' under-age students of theirs? And no, arguing that this is how kids want to communicate with their teachers isn't good enough - there are too many alternatives for teachers to answer questions, distribute class work, etc.
Re:The issue is about supervision (Score:5, Insightful)
- possibility of mixing work and personal lives of teachers - there are many things that teachers are expected to not do in and around students in school, including students into their private social media could create problems
- inability of schools to monitor relationships between students and teachers, hoping to detect, if not prevent them from happening
So basically, an entire group of people should be banned from doing something merely because some people in that group may do things that some people do not agree with? You only speak of possibilities here. This is a perfect example of a collective punishment mentality.
Why do teachers need to 'friend' under-age students of theirs?
Why do you need to get on Facebook? Why do you need entertainment? How about, "Why not?" You just waive off all of their opinions just like that. There are few things that people "need." I'd prefer to not live in fear that teachers will abuse their power. I'd prefer to not punish all of them merely because some of them could do so.
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So basically, an entire group of people should be banned from doing something merely because some people in that group may do things that some people do not agree with? You only speak of possibilities here. This is a perfect example of a collective punishment mentality.
Wrong. This is an example of setting boundaries. It is generally inappropriate for students and teachers to have social relationships. Ethics 101.
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong. This is an example of setting boundaries. It is generally inappropriate for students and teachers to have social relationships. Ethics 101.
Why? It's only a problem if you make it a problem. I knew some of my teachers socially because we were part of the same community. Try watching Être et avoir before seeing wrong where there is none.
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong.
You say I'm wrong, but then you proceed to state exactly what I just spoke out against. You're just punishing an entire group of people for what a few of them could do. Then you label it as "setting boundaries" as if that will change what it truly is.
It is generally inappropriate for students and teachers to have social relationships. Ethics 101.
It's appropriate. Ethics 101. There. My argument is complete, and you are defeated!
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Way too many possibilities, that's the problem. Any time this topic comes up in social discussions everyone in the room agrees it's just dumb. Look, a teacher is an enormous authority figure, and has an extraordinary amount of power. Ever heard of the saying "with great power comes great responsibility"? There's another saying about avoiding even the appearance of impropriety. Teenagers are raging full of hormones and emotions and angst and anger and everything. And they seem compelled to spill hat out on F
Re: (Score:2)
So basically, an entire group of people should be banned from doing something merely because some people in that group may do things that some people do not agree with?
Yes.
IMO, if there's a problem with this policy, it's that it has to be officially articulated at all. It should be obvious to any teacher that it's unprofessional to have social interactions with their students.
Re:The issue is about supervision (Score:5, Insightful)
I would never distribute work or anything important through Facebook. With their ever changing landscape of what they think you do and do not want to see, you can never know if the students actually SEE the postings!
E-mail is far more effective and reliable. And if the student's do not like that, tough. In College if the teacher says to use e-mail, you use e-mail.
Re:The issue is about supervision (Score:4, Interesting)
In university about half my students in classes will tend to befriend me on facebook (it's a bit less than that but close enough). Anytime anything out of the ordinary happens I posted it on facebook, as well as via e-mail.
Students are *far* more likely to get a facebook message than they are an e-mail. Lots of them, and, frankly this baffles me because it's the same device, will check facebook on the bus etc. but not e-mail. I suppose that's in part because the university has a habit of sending out a lot of crap that they don't care about, whereas on facebook the information they don't care about now can be easily skimmed over.
Doing anything 'regular' on facebook, course notes assignments that sort of thing doesn't make a lot of sense. Virtually all universities have some sort of classroom management software (webct/blackboard/sakai etc.) for that stuff, and students need to check that on a daily basis for work stuff. But if class is canceled, or a particular lab is closed, elevator not working, that sort of thing, facebook is much more effective than e-mail. I'm not sure that makes sense in highschool since highschools aren't usually giant tens of thousands of persons campuses with a huge number of people coming and going in dozens of buildings at different times.
The biggest plus I've found to facebook is when the students graduate you get to know what they're doing. And, importantly, you can connect them to the next batch of students looking for work and so on. One of my students from 3 years ago works at amazon, so I sent him a graduate who's super excited about amazon this year sort of thing. Again, I'm not sure that would make as much sense at the highshool level, although it's always nice to know what your former students are up to.
Re: (Score:2)
E-Mail can just as easily be skimmed over. Several of my sister-in-laws college teachers basically told the class, "I do not use Facebook for school. All school related contact will be done via e-mail. No exceptions."
They had Facebook accounts, and you could friend them, but any discussions, questions, or classwork was to be sent via e-mail only. Some student's complained, but the teacher wanted what was easier for them.
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Can be - but isn't. that was my point. As an instructor you are certainly under no obligation to even try and use facebook, nor should you if you aren't comfortable doing so. I was merely relaying my single data point of experience.
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University is not K-12 - this is the NYC Public School System.
You can't assume that every student in a public school has internet access at home.
Absolutely, I think I differentiated a number of places where my experience would probably not translate to the non university experience. I specifically said "In university" to clarify I wasn't suggesting my experience applies to dealings with people who aren't adults.
Have you never heard of the Alumni Relations and Career Development offices at your college? The world somehow functioned before Facebook, and it will some how get by after Facebook is gone...
I have, have you? Suggesting they're good at building personal relationships doesn't really connect to anything in my experience. I'm sure different countries and schools have different experiences, but around here alumni relations is basi
Re: (Score:2)
I concur.
And while we're at, because there has been a rampant rash of accidents leading to kids losing parents, I propose we ban all parents (or teachers) from driving a car. And since accounts have been stolen, no more online banking. And because utorrent is used for piracy, forbade U.S. citizens from visiting it. And playboy is sometimes seen by underage students too, so I recommend that & all other nude sites be forbidden.
I'm sure you have no problem with my modest proposal. (Or..... we could st
Re:The issue is about supervision (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder where this idea that teachers shouldn't be part of the lives of students came from. I think all the media attention has overblown the issue so far that people think teachers should just be robots regurgitating facts and giving standardized tests. I remember growing up and teachers in high school would stay late or be part of extracurricular clubs. Hell, I learned Linux through a work shop, we'd all bring in computers and throw on Slack or Red Hat back in the early days. It wasn't an issue for our teacher to be there, he lined up a lot of resources for us.
As for "needing to friend," no one needs to friend anybody but a lot of people do it and it's a great way to collaborate on homework for schools that don't have the resources for real virtual assistance services. More to the point though, why not? How is a teacher accepting a student as a friend on Facebook detrimental? As stated before, as long as any student who asks gets accepted there is no appearance of impropriety or favoritism.
This looks like another administration stab at limiting liability rather than trying to protect students or teachers. Fear of lawsuits is the biggest problem with public education, it's also a huge issue with the healthcare system driving up costs for both.
Re: (Score:2)
When I last read about this type of issue, the proposed law was very clear - is a school district runs a Facebook-like web site that includes the ability to monitor communications between employees (teachers) and customers (students) that was fine.
That does not sound "fine" to me -- it sounds like you are teaching students that there is some grand authority in the world that watches what they do and who they talk to. That is not something I would want my children to be taught in school.
Why do teachers need to 'friend' under-age students of theirs?
Some teachers have "fan clubs" -- I remember seeing that sort of behavior all the time when I was in high school. Telling teachers that they cannot have students friend them on Facebook is basically saying that there cannot be an expression of these fan clubs onl
Idiotic Luddite shitheads (Score:5, Insightful)
Why don't you also ban teachers from talking to students if they see them in a mall or on the street? This smacks of some luddite shithead who dislikes Facebook deciding on behalf of other people who should use it and how they should use it.
The real issue is that people use their personal social networking accounts to broadcast inappropriate information to all their "friends" (who are really aquaintances). I'm afraid that's dangerous no matter what your profession. 200+ people do NOT need to know that you got drunk, took drugs, got laid, are depressed, like inappropriate jokes, hate work, that your kid vomited, or that your pet did something cute. Thing is it should be self-policed, not regulated.
So what happens if the Facebook profile is public? Is the teacher automatically fired? And if it's not public how the hell do you police this? How do you determine a breach has occurred? Do you force them to reveal their passwords to you regularly? Do you force all students? Are we talking NYC or China here? Perhaps you want teachers to stay off the social networks. Anti-social teachers are the new gold standard.
The sad thing is teachers who use social media for outreach, to post interesting things, to share education resources....they just get left out in the cold because they are drowned out by the hoard of immature ego-centric Facebook addicted teachers with no life who won't use any resource appropriately no matter how you govern it.
Collectively we all get what we deserve...and at the moment that is a society in steep decline.
Re: (Score:2)
Why is this modded flamebait?
Because of foul language? He brings some valid points to the discussion.
Especially this: So what happens if the Facebook profile is public? Is the teacher automatically fired?
Yeah, I would like to know too.
To whoever modded this flamebait: untwist your panties, and undo your mod.
--
BMO
Re:Idiotic Luddite shitheads (Score:5, Insightful)
>Seriously, how can an intelligent person equate a meeting in a mall or on the street with a stream of clandestine facebook messages between "dreamy" Mr Larson and your 14 year old daughter?
Seriously, the key to the Constitution is "protect the children"
Never mind the fact that my 6'th grade science teacher ran off with one of his students to another state where marrying her was legal.
In the 80s.
This is scapegoating the Internet for something that has gone on for centuries and shame on you for falling for it.
--
BMO
Re: (Score:2)
Because while transporting a minor to another state to have sex with her under different state age of consent is a felony as defined by the Mann Act.
How he did not run afoul of the Mann Act is beyond me, but he was never prosecuted.
She eventually divorced him when she grew up.
--
BMO
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously, how can an intelligent person equate a meeting in a mall or on the street with a stream of clandestine facebook messages between "dreamy" Mr Larson and your 14 year old daughter?
That is not how I read this situation. I see the city trying to ensure that a common phenomenon in high schools and even middle schools will not be paraded around for all the world to see: teachers who have "fan clubs" of students. My guess is that the city was worried about parents complaining about such things, especially when their perfect angels who are not in the fan club do not get those A+ grades they "deserve."
You know why I think this is not really about students and teachers having sex? T
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Given you are posting AC, and hand waiving the problem away, I suspect your 7th grade girlfriend is really familiar with the back seat of your 82 toyota.
the days when we were not all afraid. (Score:5, Insightful)
I went to school in the 1960's, and obviously social networking and the internet were not a factor. I can't say there were any fewer problems then, but the major difference I see is that were not all afraid.
I'm sure there were unethical and inappropriate contacts between teachers and students then just as now, but it seems like if there was a problem, it was dealt with, but we didn't feel the need to live paranoid lives where everyone was a potential predator and rules about who could talk to who, when, and where had to be put all over the place. If you wanted to see a teacher 1:1 outside of school, you were free to do that. Some students did who were having family problems, sometimes with abusive parents, and they had no one else to turn to.
These days... everyone is afraid of their shadows. How the world has changed.
Re:the days when we were not all afraid. (Score:4, Insightful)
You're paranoid of the statistically unlikely. There aren't pedophiles and evil teachers hiding behind every corner.
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Wait till 2629837 seems like a low number here on Slash Dot and you have a 14 year old daughter of your own. I suspect your view will change radically.
You seem to be assuming I don't already have a kid. I do. Frankly, I'm insulted that you'd insinuate that people become retarded once they have children.
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It's not willful blindness but rather it's recognizing facts.
So lets look here:
http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/sex-offender-map.pdf [missingkids.com]
So for some arm chair math.. lets say you have (what seems to be the upper but of the mid block) and keep it round.. and say worst case is 300 per 100,000 people.
so 0.3% of the pollution is a sex offender, keep in mind this list does not filter only for pedos but also has rapists and people of that nature.
So then we look here:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/edu_ele_ [statemaster.com]
OK, we get it: you have a daughter (Score:3)
Here is what I will grant you: pedophiles do exist. Sometimes teachers are pedophiles, and they use their position of power to take advantage of their victims. Fortunately, that is not a very common situation, despite what the news media tells you, and most teachers really do care about their students (in an
More idiocy. (Score:2)
This collective punishment mentality is great.
Even though it shoud probably not be illegal... (Score:2, Insightful)
....using social networks is still vain and silly.
Re:Even though it shoud probably not be illegal... (Score:5, Insightful)
But it's a medium that the kids use, so if a teacher wants to effectively communicate them it seems like an obvious choice.
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or you could tell them what you want them to know ...when they're in class. It worked fine in the 'old days'.
But... (Score:4, Interesting)
How does this square with the federal legislation wending its way through the system that would prevent employers from looking at social networking data of employees?
I'll say. My small community had a teacher busted for sexting a student. And when I was a kid, way back before the 'net and cell phones, there were rumors that certain teachers would give certain students "extra-curricular" attention. One teacher in our local district ended up marrying a student. It happened after the student graduated, but there were rumors that "stuff" was going on between them while the student was still in school.
I'm not sure technology has much to do with it: if teachers and students really want to hook up, they'll find a way.
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Well, historically, a lot of legislation of this sort has had an exception for government employees.
Which, if it's not obvious, public school teachers are....
Freedom of Association much? (Score:2)
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I guess you didn't pass the section on the Constitution. "Freedom of Association" isn't mentioned there.
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I guess you didn't pass the section on the Constitution. "Freedom of Association" isn't mentioned there.
It's an inherent prerequisite for freedom of assembly. See NAACP v. Alabama.
You can argue "judicial activism" if you want, but you'd then also have to argue that assembly is somehow possible without association, which would be a neat trick...
Why would a teacher want kids as friends anyway? (Score:3)
I worked at a high school for a couple years and I wanted my job and the kids kept far apart. You friend your students and now they're a part of your social life whether you like it or not. Anything anyone else does on your list is now associated with your career as a teacher, and that could be extremely disruptive to your classroom. It annoyed me to no end to go out for a night on the town and see underage girls who the bouncers had allowed in (they'd scurry like cockroaches when they saw a teacher).
Why? (Score:2)
Not a bad idea at the university level either. (Score:2)
So the next burning question is... (Score:5, Interesting)
Does Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ [khanacademy.org] count as a "social network" according to the New York City Department of Education?
-- Terry
I'm curious about one thing. (Score:3)
The rules also state that teachers have no expectation of privacy online, and that principals and other officials will inspect teachers' profiles.
Does this mean that teachers will be required to accept friend requests from principals or other superior school officials so they can inspect their Facebook profiles and examine their friends lists? I understand having no expectation of privacy online as far as publicly posted material goes, but will teachers be required to give their superiors special access? For my own Facebook profile, if you're not a friend, all you can see is my name and profile pic, nothing else. I'm curious if teachers would be required to make more available to their superiors under this rule.
They tried this in Missouri (Score:2)
Crazy (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
That was an issued raised here, in Georgia. Apparently you can not prevent parents from friending their children.
Re:What about parents of students who are teachers (Score:5, Informative)
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is subject to an exception in the case of relatives.
So is it a sold defense that both religion and science believe we all have the same family tree and there for are all related? i know one half of my family tree is exceptionally wide and we can follow it back ~150 years and many generation, and they are all "related"..
i know i'm being nit picky by why not when you have things like this that try to have a work place govern the personal lives of people outside work.
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And that doesn't apply to just teachers - your right the responsibility for professionalism applies to everyone, teachers, politicians, doctors, police, you, me, every single person.
But at what point to we need to make rules/laws and punish people? Normally the limit is placed at the point where the person crosses the line and has legitimacy done something wrong, but i feel in this case you may have far less than 1% of the time that this action is inappropriate, and therefor they are at the point of punish
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Generally you need to police behaviour in two cases: (a) when the people being hired have no sense of social responsibility or (b) when the hierarchy over their heads is so oppressive, bureaucratic, and unloved that they resent it and do not believe the importance of its image exceeds their desires. Guess which one is more likely to apply to people who deliberately chose to enter a career that's basically nothing but social responsibility?
Predictably, this describes almost everything in the US.
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Huh? Education of children is a social responsibility because without someone being responsible for it, society would collapse. Other social responsibilities include helping those in need, defending from invaders, and keeping living and working areas from overflowing with trash. All of these tasks (well, garbage collection less so) bestow trust on the individuals carrying them out (the ability to warp childrens' minds, resources to distribute to the poor, weapons to fend off enemies, the means to deposit ga
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Unfortunately, this is not something should have to be governed in the first place.
Teachers can not be friends with students. They have to be leaders and educators, not friends. There are numerous other examples of hierarchical structures where inter-hierarchy friendship is generally... a bad idea.
Re:What about parents of students who are teachers (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes god forbid that they should not be indoctrinated into the hierarchical order. They might get to thinking that all men are equal or some other such stupidity. And it would be a truly terrible thing if a younger person develops a friendship with a more mature person and as a result they picked up some of the maturity themselves.
Provided these relationships are not secret, where is the harm? If you do not trust students and teachers to behave responsibly then what do you see happening when the world is run by the students that have been taught by those teachers. If you think you can't trust anybody to act responsibly and think that more authority is the answer to this then who do you envisage administering this authority and why do you think you can trust them any more than anyone else?
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I wish you hadn't posted AC, it's not often you find people with common sense posting..
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The guidelines say no DOE employee my have any social media contact with any DOE student who they are not related to. This effectively means that ALL DOE employees may not user personal accounts to communicate on social media sites with ANY student under 18 living in their district boundaries.
So, if you're a kindergarten teacher with a 17 year old son, it is not appropriate to use social media to (for instance) plan a birthday party for you
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First you say:
The guidelines say no DOE employee my have any social media contact with any DOE student who they are not related to.
Then you say:
So, if you're a kindergarten teacher with a 17 year old son, it is not appropriate to use social media to (for instance) plan a birthday party for your son.
Which leaves me questioning my reading comprehension, or yours.
Care to try again?
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Yup, missed the word Invite, saw the word Plan.
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Re:What if the teacher is the child's parent? (Score:4, Funny)
It's obviously disgusting and deviant that the teacher is boffing the kid's parent. Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.
People should get fired over this. It's almost as bad as teaching evolution.
Re:What if the teacher is the child's parent? (Score:5, Interesting)
They would be violations of school policy, not misdemeanors / felonies.
Well, that depends a lot on what they mean by "principals and other officials will inspect teachers' profiles."
If they just look at the profile, fine, whatever.
If they log in AS the profile, there's a problem: everyone on that teacher's friend list who has a non-public profile is now visible, and accessing their friends-only profile info under that circumstance is, potentially, a federal crime.
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It's a guideline, not a law.
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In technical parlance, it's probably an "administrative rule" and if it's being put forth by a public entity as a binding policy, it's just as susceptible to a lawsuit as an actual law.
Re:In this thread.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Slashdotters who overwhelmingly reject the usefulness of Facebook and consider it a useless marketing platform that only idiots would use will communicate their furious anger that somebody would dare to tell someone they can't use Facebook however they wish.
Welcome to the USA. Just because only an idiot would want to doesn't mean that those same idiots shouldn't be allowed to.
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We've had 'rules' like this in Ontario (at least my school board) since I joined high school. You have to wait until you leave the school to friend your teachers. They explain it as affecting the teachers opinion on a student (Or the other way around). At are school Facebook is unblocked and we have facebook groups for classes, but teachers make different accounts for those things.
Shitting in the teacher's coffee and turning in your homework on time both affect the teacher's opinion of a student.
I should be allowed to do both or neither.
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why was this guy moded troll they do get healthcare, 3 months of paid vacation and tenure what other job has tenure? and because of unions if they have been employed long enough it is impossible to fire a teacher unless you fire every teacher that has been employed after them. that was a problem they had at my old high school they had several bad teachers that they could not fire because they would have fir everyone else firs because their union contracts stipulated it. and most teacher do work for public s
Re:no fun (Score:4, Informative)
In what world do you live in where teachers in NYC get lifelong healthcare or tenure? They can be "fired" at the drop of a hat simply by not renewing their contract. I have no idea where this image of teachers comes from. Also, pensions don't exist for the majority of new teachers. Most of this information is 20 years out of date.
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Until there's a law prohibiting it, they do... and they even have the right to fire you if you refuse.
Yes, I know a law is currently in the pipe for this... but until it passes, employers can probably still do this.