According to Missouri Senate Bill 54, signed by state Governor Jay Nixon, it is illegal to like your teacher on Facebook, and vice versa. In Fact, any social networking is prohibited between teachers and students.
This ban on liking includes not only Facebook, but any social network that is exclusive and allows for private communication, according to ABC News.
How did this measure come about? Mashable notes that inappropriate contact between students and teachers is at the root of the legislation, which is designed to protect children from sexual misconduct by teachers, compelling school districts to adopt written policies between teachers and students on electronic media, social networking and other forms of communication.
So how has this been received? The law certainly seems to give the peculiar message that teachers are not to be trusted. Mashable reacts that on the surface this sounds like a good idea, although they question how it would be policed: Inappropriate relationships will be hard to detect, especially since teachers and students engaged in such relationships would probably be concealing their communications, electronic or otherwise. Well if we learned anything from Weiner, its to never underestimate how sloppy adults are when concealing inappropriate behavior online. So perhaps even these rudimentary precautions may be preventative?
But some find the law misguided. Randy Turner blogged that the law was signed in spite of the positive effect that teachers and students being Facebook friends had on Joplin Schools effort to locate students after the May 22 tornado.[and] in spite of considerable evidence that social networking has been a positive force in education, and little or no evidence to the contrary.
But the law is not entirely restrictive. The direct contact part is key to the prohibition; ABC notes that, for example, a teacher cannot be friends with a student on a private Facebook profile where you can pick and choose friends and send private messages, but teachers can set up a fan page. Nonetheless, the message sent by this law may discourage teachers from using social networking to interact with students altogether.
From The Atlantic Wire-Read the full article: here
