Missouri Teachers Sue to Block Social Media Law

A new law going into effect in Missouri the first of next year is being challenged by a group of teachers on grounds that the law violates their first amendment rights. The new law prohibits teachers from communicating privately with students over the internet.

That language on social media contact is just one part of a larger bill intended to discourage private relationships between teachers and students that have sometimes led to sexual abuse.

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I believe this law is definitely unconstitutional.

More importantly, I think it's unenforceable. How is Missouri really going to monitor private Facebook communications, e-mails, etc.?

It would be nice to eliminate the possibility of a inappropriate teacher-student (who is a minor) relationships from occurring, but I don't see this law preventing it; I only see it as changing the avenue in which it happens, by moving it off the Internet. I also think it paints thousands of good teachers as potential pedophiles, when in reality, the number of offenders is quite small when compared to those who would never do such a thing.

I hope the law gets struck down, and that the state legislature gets a lesson in Constitutionality. The intent of the law may be good, but the reality of it is not.

A bad law all the way around. Half of the foster kids I have email their teachers for missed assignments and things of the sort. I understand why they want this law in place, but a bad teacher will do whatever it is they are going to do regardless of whether or not they can legally email children or interact with them on social networks. This is only going to harm students/teachers who follow the rules and use the internet as an extra instructional/tutoring aide.

And certainly not what I would consider constitutional either. (but I am not a scholar so what do I know?)

As was pointed out when this first came to light about the inforcement of this law. this isn't a new law, teachers weren't supposed to be doing stuff with kids outside of school and socializing with them already, the schools just decide to "remind" teachers not to friend their students.

We should make illegal anything that has the potential to end badly. I guess that would make everything illegal.

Another overzealous attempt to fix something by only punishing those that would obey the law in the first place.

Exavior said:

As was pointed out when this first came to light about the inforcement of this law. this isn't a new law, teachers weren't supposed to be doing stuff with kids outside of school and socializing with them already, the schools just decide to "remind" teachers not to friend their students.

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*enforcement

Yes, it is a new law. This is why people are angry because it's a new law.

This law will prohibit the teacher from making facebook groups, twitter groups, or other social media extensions of the class room. Besides all the other stuff the teachers are claiming. It's pretty ridiculous and it's a typical band-aid solution that Americans like to pass for political or popularity gain.

Its social media... anyone under the age of 18 shouldnt be allowed to us it anyway.. period...hell.. if people werent so ridiculously shallow.. this wouldnt even be an issue... no one would use it for any reason... all social media is... point blank.. is a way to make money off YOU... the moron.... and your personal info you throw up there.... CONGRATS ON HELPING PROMOTE SLAVERY! lol

Json23 said:

A bad law all the way around. Half of the foster kids I have email their teachers for missed assignments and things of the sort. I understand why they want this law in place, but a bad teacher will do whatever it is they are going to do regardless of whether or not they can legally email children or interact with them on social networks. This is only going to harm students/teachers who follow the rules and use the internet as an extra instructional/tutoring aide.

And certainly not what I would consider constitutional either. (but I am not a scholar so what do I know?)

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I'm guessing they send the email to their teacher's school address and not on Facebook.

LoneWolf said:

I believe this law is definitely unconstitutional.

More importantly, I think it's unenforceable. How is Missouri really going to monitor private Facebook communications, e-mails, etc.?

It would be nice to eliminate the possibility of a inappropriate teacher-student (who is a minor) relationships from occurring, but I don't see this law preventing it; I only see it as changing the avenue in which it happens, by moving it off the Internet. I also think it paints thousands of good teachers as potential pedophiles, when in reality, the number of offenders is quite small when compared to those who would never do such a thing.

I hope the law gets struck down, and that the state legislature gets a lesson in Constitutionality. The intent of the law may be good, but the reality of it is not.

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don't hold your breath. we are about 20 years behind here. about 3/5 of everyone that voted on this really didn't understand the issue. so the issue is less to do with legalities and more to do with lake of understanding the technology.

Parents complain that teachers are behind the times, technologically ... and then when we try to keep up and use technology to communicate with their children ... parents complain that we are developing inappropriate relationships.

We can't even give a kid a pat of the back anymore, for fear of getting in trouble ... soon we won't even be allowed to speak to the kids.

Why haven't they banned dodge ball in gym yet? I mean, it involves throwing your balls at other people. Sometimes, they -willingly even- CATCH them.

There's gotta be something inappropriate about that right there.

A lot of old relationships are being broken down by facebook. Manager-employee, teacher-student, and even more relationships that are not as clearly defined.

These neo-Luddites need to stop declaring every new technology or communications medium evil.

Dreaz said:

*enforcement

Yes, it is a new law. This is why people are angry because it's a new law.

This law will prohibit the teacher from making facebook groups, twitter groups, or other social media extensions of the class room. Besides all the other stuff the teachers are claiming. It's pretty ridiculous and it's a typical band-aid solution that Americans like to pass for political or popularity gain.

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New law based on existing rules then, a teacher can't have a kid come over to their house for a study session and have them there alone. same concept just differnet location of the meeting.

Did you fully read the article? they can do every single thing there that you said.

They can NOT have private conversation on those sites with students, or send them private emails. but they can do stuff were the parents and others can see what they said and can send them emails as long as somebody else is copied. So they can make a facebook group as long as they don't send personal messages to the kids. They can send out emails as long as they aren't just sending private emails.

I'm a little split on this myself. Its for the teachers protection as much as the student's. Teacher post something "bad" on their facebook page and it is only their close friends and it is locked down so that nobody can see it then its "no harm no foul" in a way. Do that when your students are all your friends and you can get fired, sued or something along those lines. You also run the risk of a student saying something happen when it never. maybe something you say can be taken out of context, or its know that you have been messaging the kids so when one of them accuse you of something its a little easier to think that is "could" have happen. On the other side you have the kids. If they are online emailing, IMing and on social networking sites with their teachers they can get more of a bond with them which for the perverted ones could lead to them having an easier time getting kids to do stuff.

fattypants said:

A lot of old relationships are being broken down by facebook. Manager-employee, teacher-student, and even more relationships that are not as clearly defined.

These neo-Luddites need to stop declaring every new technology or communications medium evil.

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They aren't so much as declearing it as evil, just trying to stop it from being used in that way.

I can almost promise you that this has already been used for the things that they are hoping to stop. I know of a few teachers in the area around me that have "dated" highschool students. I know of some that were pervs and i could easily see using something like facebook or email to get girls to send them nude / seminudes of themselves to get better grades. Until they can come up with a better way to solve these types of issues the only real solution is to say that they aren't supposed to have private conversations with kids.

I think that law is going to get shot down.

If they really want to do something, mabey make it required that the teacher have permission (signed of course) from the parents stating that their aware the teacher is communicating with their child so atleast they can DO THIER JOBS and watch what their children are doing.

My grade 11 math teacher use to chat online wiht us all the time. He was very big into video games like diablo 2 and we use to cht and play games wiht him all the time. He was also always willing to answer qustions about any kind of assignment you had any day of the week. Having him available after school hours to help you when you were truley stumped on something was invaluable and helped me learn alot more and prevented me from ever falling behind in class so when I see laws like this I get very sad. Their ruining potential for alot of good and help for these kids because a few bad teachers are fucked up.

Dreaz said:

This law will prohibit the teacher from making facebook groups, twitter groups, or other social media extensions of the class room. Besides all the other stuff the teachers are claiming. It's pretty ridiculous and it's a typical band-aid solution that Politicians like to pass for political or popularity gain.

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fixed your racist statement for you.