Staff/students & Facebook

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michelle Andreoli on June 4, 2010 at 10:49am

Marion,
Thank you for your reply. There are just such huge concerns about this and I would think any employee at a school would respectively decline a child's offer to be friends on FB or other such sites, just to protect themselves. As stated on the news the other nite concerning the teacher in the public board who is accused of child porn ( I think) communication between teachers and student should be only about school matters and only at school. There have been issues with a staff member at our school and I see this person has over 30 children from our school on FB as friends and they are as young as gr. 1 up through gr. 8's and I did not even get 1/2 way through this persons friend list. Now I realize there may be not real conversations going on, but like you said it is a really bad idea to be friends with students on these sites - even if just for the really obvious. To me it has to be crossing, at least, areas of professional conduct.

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Permalink Reply by Gay Stephenson on July 6, 2010 at 1:28pm

Hi Michelle - thanks for raising this question here! I have read with fascination your expanded comments about a teacher in your school being friends with so many kids. This is one of those new problems for the 21st century! I'm going to invite Lorna to comment on it too. She is in contact with teachers across North America on this topic and I suspect that others may be using it as a tool to communicate with students too. I need more time to think about this. I agree that if teachers are using their Facebook pages for their personal lives, there may be issues about having students as "friends" and as Marion points out, it could create issues for teachers if they see pictures of students they know partying etc. There are social networking sites set up especially for schools and students. We have a vendor of these products as a member here. I think that as we move forward, we are really going to have to examine questions like these. Facebook is a communications tool that is a natural one for students. I'm wondering if we might want to add this topic to a session for discussion at our conference in November and bring in some experts to talk about it, or have a workshop.

By the way, did you ever talk to the teacher about it? Are you going to talk more about it in the fall at a school council meeting? Just wondering if you decided on any next steps or decided to let it go for the time being...
Gay

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Permalink Reply by Sunil Singh on July 6, 2010 at 8:07pm

I have many former students on my Facebook. To keep in contact with students after they graduate can be a normal process in maintaining those bonds formed in the classroom. It depends on the comfort level/personalities
of the teacher and students. Some teachers don't believe in any "friendship" at all with students and simply spend
all their time delivering curriculum--they think they are dispensing gospel, when in reality they are just delivering
milk. Teach the student, not the subject. That is what my first principal told me...best advice ever. The bonds
of friendship/mutual learner continue sometimes well past the fixed positions of space and time in a institutionalized box of learning...

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Andreoli on July 8, 2010 at 1:31pm

Hi Gay, You are so correct about this being one of those new problems for the 21st century! I believe policy will be in place sooner than anyone thinks! I personally believe that any teacher/EA/staff member at a school who truly thought through the ramifications that a simply misconstrued conversation, or "friendship" between a student and a teacher could ruin their career in a heartbeat - would not even want to put themselves in that position. I think the board emails for teachers to communicate with students concerning things related to school are the best and safest options for teachers, staff, and students.
I did not talk to the staff member at our school about the FB, but I did bring it to the attention of the principal and he in-turn said he would consult with HR about it - and that is where it has been left.
You might also be interested to know that children must be 13 to have a FB page - many children put in the wrong birth year to get a page - this comes down to parents policing what their kids are doing. I do also know that a Scarborough public, elementary school was having some issues with children and FB (I think threats or bullying - but not 100%) and many of the students were under 13. The principal and police got involved and made all of the children shut down their pages. I am not clear on all of the details, but heard this first hand from my friend who is on the council and a parent at this school - very interesting!

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Permalink Reply by Gay Stephenson on July 9, 2010 at 12:04pm

Wow - that is very interesting Michelle. Thanks for providing the info about needing to be 13 years old to be on Facebook too. That's very important to know. I think we definitely need to have a session to talk about this issue at our conference in November... I'm wondering about trying to do some research on which boards and federations have developed policies on this and what those policies are. Back to your original question! ... I may know a graduate student who might be interested in volunteering to do that...

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Permalink Reply by Frank Loreto on July 6, 2010 at 9:34pm

If there is a policy, it should be "Absolutely Not!" Connecting with former students may be okay, but current students? No. No. No! From a union point of view (OECTA--Dufferin-Peel Secondary) the suggestion is Be Wary. Be Wise. That would imply no.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Andreoli on July 8, 2010 at 1:32pm

Frank, this is excellent advice for any staff member at a school with children under the age of 18!! To me it is common sense - why would you want to jeopardize your career!
Thanks,
Michelle

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Permalink Reply by Kristine Garcia on July 7, 2010 at 11:35am

Hello Michelle!

I also don't think that there is a policy about this but even if there was I'm assuming that students may still have their teachers as friends on those social networking sites. I agree with Sunil, I think it depends on the comfort level between the teachers and the students. I am in post secondary right now and I did have some of my teachers as friends on Facebook in high school (primarily for the reason of being able to connect with them after I graduate --- and I still do!) I guess the main issue is just on privacy for both sides. It's just astounding for me to hear that students as young as 1st grade already have their own Facebook profiles -- maybe that should be more of a concern.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Andreoli on July 8, 2010 at 1:37pm

Kristine,
I agree there is certainly an issue with children under the age of 13 on FB because they are not supposed to be there and this boils down to parental controls! I do not however agree that it is comfort level between a teacher and student. This day and age there are so many crazy things going on - why would a teacher or EA want or need to be "friends" outside of school with an under age child? Friendly they can be, friends - I think is only puting their own career in jeopardy. Many grade 6-8 students at our school have a crush on this staff member, it would take one misconstrued word or conversation between him and a student and a broken hearted teen who had the wrong impression for her to get this person in great trouble. The board provides email addressed for teachers and their students to communicate about school issues and this is where it should remain.

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Permalink Reply by Nima Basharat on July 8, 2010 at 8:24am

Our union recommends that teachers don't go on Facebook. I am not on Facebook and I don't e-mail parents. I did try that once with a parent who was also a teacher in the same board as me, but my wording was misconstrued.

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Permalink Reply by Sunil Singh on July 8, 2010 at 7:57pm

Our union recommends a lot of things. Our administration recommends a lot of things. Our Ministry of Education recommends a lot of things. All of these bodies only represent the concern of their members. Sorry. I like to think on my own...

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Permalink Reply by Kate Tagseth on August 31, 2010 at 11:33am

Suni, with all due respect, if you consider these multiple recommendations and then disregard (because you thought on your own), who do you think will "represent" you if a problem arises? It makes it very hard to put together an acceptable defense when the information was provided then ignored. Your union is the only body that truly has your interests in mind. They are also the only ones that will defend you. That's why you pay dues.

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