Before now, students and teachers could do what they wanted regarding Facebook and text messaging outside of school…but that’s all changed.
Recently, a set of guidelines were proposed by the Virginia Board of Education which would ban students from contacting teachers via text message, Facebook and Twitter.
Currently, the safety concerns of misconduct occurring between teachers and students are that any sort of contact that is not for educational purposes may lead to inappropriate behavior. The recent online relationships forming between teachers and students have led to beliefs that they can lead to misconduct.
“I think it’s pretty obvious that when a teacher and a student Facebook chat or text, there’s definitely something going on,” said senior Patricia Lindholm. “That kind of stuff should be done with friends, not teachers or else it’s just weird.”
With Facebook and texting on the rise, teachers and students are turning to technology to communicate with each other. Even though concerns have arisen about personal relationships forming and misconduct occurring between teachers and students, technology is not what is leading to inappropriate behavior. Misconduct will occur whether or not they are Facebook friends.
Banning texting, Facebook and Twitter from a teacher and a student’s relationship “makes it hard for teachers to communicate with kids,” said Principal Matt Ragone.
These advances in technology are meant to make it easier to talk to someone, which is something that we need in this day and age. An email response just isn’t as prompt as a text message or a wall post because let’s face it, most people check their Facebook and phones before their email.
There are also special circumstances in which text messaging is pretty much a necessity.
“As a coach of academic teams it can be helpful to [text],” said chemistry teacher Leah Puhlick.
Students who are in clubs or on sports teams need frequent updates on meetings, practices and games which wouldn’t be efficient to do over email.
In general, inappropriate behavior between teachers and students is going to happen no matter what. Setting guidelines that prevents teachers and students from communicating efficiently outside of school will not prevent this problem, it will only annoy those of us who need help with homework.