What do you guys think of this? Should teachers be prevented from having private relationships with their students?
I have a few opinions and concerns but I’ll put mine in the comment area. I want to know what you guys think first.
what people are talking about
Nunniabiness B on Magic Eye neomama on Cheeseburger Soup Shelley on Cheeseburger Soup Dyahn Darvey on Salisbury Steak from Paula… irene trammel on Magic Eye Julianne on Cheeseburger Soup Vanna on How long do you shower? Michelle Colpus on Your children Tanya on Cheeseburger Soup Heather on Cheeseburger Soup Donna Dillard on Cheeseburger Soup Donna Dillard on Cheeseburger Soup Sharon on Cheeseburger Soup JoJo on Cheeseburger Soup Ellen on Cheeseburger Soup
Us Girls..Our Views 
Yes, I think it protects everyone. Just think of the statistics of broken homes, single parent homes. Even when a teacher has the purest of motives a student MAY read something different into it.
My Mrs. Is a school teacher. They are not allowed to be Facebook friends with current students. Hower she has many graduated students that are her friends.
I hate these “tribute laws”. Most of them go too far and are far too specific. They are trying to right a wrong that happened in a specific time and place and with a specific set of events, and they are extremely reactionary.
With this law, I have a couple problems, first, the “or former” part of the law. A lot of kids go on to college and keep in touch with favorite former teachers.
My second problem is with small towns like mine. Everybody here knows everybody else. It’s not unusual to be next-door neighbors with your teacher! You might know this person your entire life. They might come to your family’s birthday parties! But now, thanks to laws like this, you can’t be on FB with them???
I understand that there are SOME teachers out there (and I’m willing to bet there are very few) who would take advantage, but to ban ALL students from messaging or being friends with a teacher (in perpetuity, even) because someone *might* cause a problem?
I agree that they shouldn’t be friends on facebook. I even know some teachers who aren’t listed in the phone book just for that reason. They don’t want their students knowing where they live. After high school is fine i think.
Law makers need to be careful with stuff like this. It makes me furious when people are branded as
sex offenders simply for dateing someone who lied about their age. There are way too many finer points
to that law – just on the internet it is easy enough to follow, but sometimes getting information into a stressed and stubborn kid’s head, requires being more then a professional robot. I had a science teacher that was tough as nails, but would anomousily send cards to her failing students encourageing them to do better. People like that do not deserve ‘inapproate conduct with a student’ stains on their record.
On the other hand – teachers should not be allowed to play favorites, lavishing assistence on one student
while those that are struggeling harder continue to fail – however since this is not what the law is about, my
defence is pretty weak – in short – many people with the best of intentions can accidently break this law easily. With so many psudopedifiles in our mist, can we spot the real ones? Also, mothers often taught daubters when I was in school – how is that one going to work? I feel a lot of red tape being created.
I’m kind of in the middle on this. On one hand, this is not going to stop teachers and students from having sexual contact. If that were the case, there would have been no such contact prior to Facebook – and obviously that is not the case. I can think of plenty of reasons that students and teachers might want to contact each other online. How about homework help, for example? Should that not be private? It could be done via email, of course – but isn’t email also an “exclusive” contact, and is it also banned?
On the other hand, students and teachers have also managed to get their legitimate work done without Facebook for many moons. And, kids don’t understand boundaries the way adults understand them. When I was in HS, I used to hang around after school and chat with some of the teachers, if they felt like hanging around for that. Some did, some didn’t. None of it was “sexual” in any way, but it probably went beyond the appropriate student-teacher boundary at times. So, why leave all kinds of avenues open for this to happen? It isn’t just sex this could enable – how about “teachers’ pets,” “mature” influences, cheating, and intruding too far into family life?
But again, as a cure for the sex problem, I think at best it just gives people a false sense of security. That problem needs a much more direct approach, in my opinion.
I agree with many points that all of you have made. I was thinking what SKL said about the sexual stuff. That has been going on forever and I’m sure it will always will go on. I think because of the media and the way we all know everything that happens in the world now in a nanosecond, we’re just hearing more about it now. I think it’s always gone on. Facebook did not start or cause any of that. It may nurture it along if you’re prone to do that kind of thing but in no way does it cause anything no more than a song can cause someone to kill people.
Another thing I wonder about are what boundaries do people want to cross? Do people really need to know that much about each other when it’s a student/teacher relationship? I think who you friend on FB should be given thought. I don’t want little kids reading and hearing every little thought I have. Believe it or not, I might say shit once in a while. I want to have fun on FB. Sometimes I don’t want to think about “behaving” and let loose and say what I want. So imagine a teacher dancing at a wedding reception and acting all silly. Would those photo’s be taken out of context and it really is OKAY to have a cocktail but would you want every Tom, Dick and Harry seeing that? I personally wouldn’t.
I remember when I was in 5th grade. My teacher got married and she invited the whole class and I did go.It was so much fun but that was a once in a lifetime thing. I feel sometimes it’s okay to be friends with your students but I do think it’s another to be on a social network with them. Now, after the fact, I think its’ fine. Just not “while” in a student/teacher relationship.
I had a classmate whose mom was one of our English teachers. So does the law have an exception for family members?
That’s a really good question but they’d have to wouldn’t they?
I don’t see any point with students and teachers being Facebook friends. There is no need for that. I, however, don’t see a problem with then having some sort of relationship in person. Like Laura said, a lot of small town have teachers that live next door to you, their parent may have grown up together. That I don’t see a problem with. But there is no need for them to be on a social network together. I don’t even accept requests from Baileys friends (he does NOT have a FB account) I know it’s hard to do, but I think every case is different and should be looked at and judged differently.
Also – note the part of the article that claims the abuse was
discovered via facebook. Could this actually be self defeating?
I’ve heard of this ban going through and while I’m not sure it should be made law, I do think that there’s something odd about teachers and students being “Friends” on Facebook. I think that if a teacher started a group for each class and communicated with them about homework issues and things like that, that’s one thing. But there should always be some sort of barrier between teacher and pupil in a classroom situation, shouldn’t there?