5) Legal & Ethical Contexts

In 2014, a New Hampshire TV station broadcast the story¹ of a New Hampshire teacher who lost her job after refusing to “unfriend” her students on Facebook. The school maintained she breached their policy preventing student-teacher boundaries being crossed -  teachers should not be students’ friends. The teacher (I love it that she was 79 years old) refused to do so. Watch it (2 mins).

Clearly if there were policies in place that were breached (though no doubt these were open to interpretation) the school had a right to terminate her employment. But what if there are no clear policies? Is it appropriate that teachers “friend” students on social media? Is this such risky ground that we should not go there?

To explore the issue of teachers being Facebook friends with their students, I will be guided by questions from Connecticut’s Teacher Education & Mentoring Program².

1)      “What possible issues or concerns might this scenario raise?

2)      How could this situation become a violation of the law, the “Code”, or other school/ district policies?

3)      In this situation, what are some negative consequences for the teacher, for the students and the school community?

4)      What responses/actions will result in a more positive outcome and/or what proactive measures might be considered?

1)      Possible issues/concerns:

a.      Facebook is an excellent platform for communicating with students. Is it appropriate to use this for school matters? Is it appropriate if the exchanges are not related to school?

b.      May cross the boundaries of appropriate student-teacher relationships making both teacher and students vulnerable

c.      Teacher might see information about the students that affects the way they teach/interact with them at school

d.        Public nature/loss of control of communications - they can be copied, shared, taken out of context.

2)      Violation of law, “Code”, school policies?

a.       Teachers should check whether their school has a policy regarding this. I could not find one for my school.

b.      NZ’s Education Council Code of Ethics for Certified Teachers³ has two principles that may be relevant to this issue:

·         “develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based upon the best interests of those learners”

·         “protect the confidentiality of information about learners obtained in the course of professional service, consistent with legal requirements”

The first of these is dependent on the interpretation of a professional relationship. In the example described, the school clearly thought friending on Facebook overstepped the mark, and had policies about that. The teacher probably thought what she was doing was in the best interests of her students. As for the second point above, as long as the teacher was not sharing information about students or the school to which she was privy as a teacher, there would be no breach. Certainly the teacher is opening her conversations, profile and history on Facebook to scrutiny if there is any complaint made.

3)      1)      Possible negative consequences:

a.       May make the teacher vulnerable to accusations of inappropriate relationships with students. Even the perception of inappropriateness can put a teacher at risk. This could lead to public humiliation or even loss of job if school policies were breached.

b.      Students: may be uncomfortable having their teacher following them on Facebook, but may not feel they can “unfriend” them.

4)      Preferred courses of action:

a.       Teacher might set up a closed Facebook group that students can join to be informed of school related matters (with parental consent)

b.      Schools should provide PD around issues of cyber safety/etiquette so teachers are aware of potential problems

c.       Schools should educate students about how to keep themselves safe in the cyber world

 Is being fb friends OK for teachers? I'd love to hear your views.

Helpful Resources:

DigitalTechnology: safe and responsible use in schools

Netsafe resources on digital citizenship and help with resolving cases of harmful digital communication 

References:

¹CLAREMONT, N.H. (WPMI) (April9, 2014) New Hampshire Teacher Fired Over Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-PwEGrulTc

²Connecticut’s Teacher Education and Mentoring Program. (2012). Ethical and Professional Dilemmas for Educators: Facilitator’s Guide. Retrieved from http://www.ctteam.org/df/resources/Module5_Manual.pdf

³Education Council. (n.d). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0