Teachers & Social Networking Sites
Teachers Might Want to Re-think Participating in Facebook or MySpace
Middle and high school teachers who have social networking sites may come under fire for what they are posting online. They might even lose their jobs.
Should middle school and high school teachers have social networking sites, such as MySpace or Facebook?
Middle school and high school students are more apt to Google their teachers to find out about them. Often, students have access to the Internet and are curious about their teachers. Once a student finds that a teacher has a social networking site, you can bet that they will check it out.
Is It Wise to Participate in a Social Networking Site?
If a teacher does participate in one of the over 100 social networking sites on the Internet, here are three questions to consider:
- Is your social network site open to anyone?
- Do you allow students to be your “friend"?
- Will anything on your social networking site be embarrassing if found by a student, parent of a student or a supervisor?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may want to re-think participating in the social networking site.
Trouble Brewing for Those with Sites
"Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately? Teachers’ Use of Social Networking Sites" by Heather L. Carter, Teresa S. Foulger and Ann Dutton Ewbank in Phi Delta Kappan [May 2008] shows real-life examples of teachers who have been fired over content on the sites. For positive results, some teachers use the social networking sites to publicize clubs or class projects.
However, an alarming number of teachers are getting into hot water over “racy” content or from “content unbecoming of a teacher.” Some teachers have lost their jobs. For example, a Texas high school art teacher was fired over nude pictures found on her partner’s website. Her partner was a professional photographer.
In The Columbus Dispatch, the article "Teachers’ Saucy Web Profiles Risk Jobs" [November 10, 2007] by Jill Riepenhoff and Jennifer Smith Richards gives examples of inappropriate information that actual Ohio teachers have posted online. One Ohio teacher communicated with his students through a blog that contained violent and sexual information. “…the union [the Ohio Education Association]...pointed out that anything on these sites can be used as evidence in disciplinary hearings by districts and the state Education Department.” The teacher's blog was used as evidence. After being reprimanded by his district for his online activity, he was later arrested and convicted of having sex with one of his students.
Teachers' Rights
Teachers, like all Americans, are protected under the free speech clause of the First Amendment. However, most state teaching licenses have moral codes that teachers need to abide by to keep their jobs.
To keep teachers out of trouble, some teacher unions have made suggestions. The Association of Texas Professional Educators suggests not to post anything that would be embarrassing for a supervisor to see. The Ohio Education Association has advised its members to consider not joining any social networking sites due to an investigation by the Columbus Dispatch over teacher misconduct.
If you are a teacher and participate in an online site, you may want to re-think this activity or maybe double check that everything is "becoming of a teacher" because you can be sure that your students will find the site. The question is -- are you prepared for them to find what is there?
