School District 54 is taking on the question of how — and even if — students and teachers should converse via social networking sites after one teacher used Twitter to discuss her social life and another posted student artwork on a personal website.
There also have been teachers “friending” their students on Facebook. While not serious transgressions, these and other uses of social network sites led district officials to think guidelines might be in order. They’ve already addressed appropriate use of the Internet in policies.
“There were some incidents of what we considered inappropriate communication,” said Terri McHugh, community relations director, who helped draft the policy which is up for final approval Thursday. “Nothing criminal in nature, just things that (the district) didn’t think was appropriate.
“In situations like that, (the district) is not disciplining, the principal just talks to the teacher,” she said, adding that, for example, after such a conversation, the teacher deleted her Twitter account.
“When you’re a school district employee, you’re in the public eye at all times,” McHugh said.
While the district drafted some guidelines last year, which teachers signed off on, the subject was never addressed in policies until now, she said.
Under the proposal, it will be okay for teachers to communicate with students – only about educational matters – but only through district e-mail accounts and websites. Teachers should not use personal e-mail, blogs, websites or social networking sites to communicate with students, according to the drafted guidelines, and teachers should not disclose any student information on such sites.
The proposal also says teachers cannot use District 54 logos or e-mail addresses on their sites and should not say anything defamatory about the district, its employees, students or parents. It does not say teachers cannot have Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, but teachers are advised to use the highest available privacy settings, limiting who can view their sites, McHugh said.
As enforcement, the district will mainly rely on spotted violations, and has asked parents to monitor their children’s Internet activity, McHugh said.
Teachers can decide for themselves whether to participate in social networking sites, but Carmel Cottrell, president of the teachers’ union, thinks it may be better just to avoid them.
“We’ve told everybody not to mix the two, and asked if they could not even use Facebook at all,” she said. “The media is just not safe for us because of so many things that can happen and be misconstrued. In order to be safe, don’t use it.”
Cottrell said while that might be seen as infringing on teachers’ rights, their job always comes first.
“I think we have to put our professionalism first because we are out there and we are public workers,” she said. “We really need to safeguard our jobs because of the (financial) climate today.”
Paul Beranek, special education teacher at Margaret Mead Junior High in Elk Grove Village, avoids social media. Although Beranek, 52, is not philosophically opposed to Facebook and the like, he said he tries to always be aware of his public role.
“As a teacher, I think we’re in the limelight a lot. We just need to be very professional with people,” he said. “Things can come back to bite us, be it an e-mail or a Facebook account.”
Beranek said whenever possible, he even avoids communicating with students and parents via district e-mail.
“I really prefer talking to someone in person,” he said. “Once I put something down in writing, it’s there forever. There’s no taking it back.
“As a teacher, the liability is huge,” he said. “Teachers really are public employees and need to be careful in how they are presenting themselves.”
kthayer@tribune.com
