Social media seen as 'slippery slope' for teachers

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Facebook is a great way to keep up with friends and family. But should it be a way to keep in touch with your child's teacher?

"Our advice to teachers, whether they are new teachers or seasoned teachers, is that using social media to communicate when there is a student-parent-teacher relationship is probably not a good idea," said Pat Kennedy, president of the Muncie Teachers Association. "It can be a very slippery slope."

Kennedy said that it's "too easy for things to be misrepresented." Comments, she said, could be made that could upset the teacher or the parent.

"And for teachers today, there is so much scrutiny," she told The Star Press, adding that even a misspelled word in a Facebook post could be used against them.

Some school districts are creating official Facebook pages, where everyone related to that school can communicate without "friending" each other.

Muncie Community Schools has not created an official page, according to MCS Communications Director Ana Pichardo-Delk.

"We've been looking into it, but we are not there yet," she said. "We would want to have some policies in place before we do anything like that."

The district did mention the use of Facebook, however, in materials teachers received at the start of the school year.

"The use of Facebook for MCS classrooms is not an approved form of communication between MCS teachers and students."

Students "friending" teachers seemed to be a bigger issue than parents "friending" teachers, Pichardo-Delk said.

Parent Krista White said she had a bad experience in the past with Facebook and a teacher.

Some comments were made on a teacher's Facebook page, she said, after a teacher conference. "That caused a lot of hurt feelings," she recalled. "I probably would now wait until the school year is over to be friends with the teacher on Facebook if I wished to continue correspondence."

White said she's currently friends with "a few" of her kids' former teachers.

Some parents have created closed Facebook groups for local schools. Those groups provide a way to get information out about upcoming events, request volunteers or post photos from field trips. Most of these pages state clearly that it is not a place to complain or attack others. Here, you'll often find parents, teachers and school administrators sharing the space.

Parent Steven Lovell is active on a page dedicated to Storer Elementary School.

"Each school is a community, and giving its members a way to keep track of event information without much effort is a requirement for keeping parent involvement high," he said. "As long as all participants in any group keep the community atmosphere in mind when posting, I think it's a healthy way to keep everyone informed."

He said that, in general, he thinks it's best "to friend only those people you know personally."

"Learning about your child's teacher by 'Facebook stalking' them is probably not a good idea for anyone involved, including the school district," he said.

He did say that he and his wife are friends with some of the teachers at Storer, "but we've only become Facebook friends after building relationships through volunteering at the school or sharing common interests outside of school."

Teachers we spoke with said they will usually keep parents at a distance, at least until the parents' students are out of their classroom.

Some have set up other ways of communicating with parents. They establish Twitter accounts. They set up pages on Teacher Web. Some even create their own web sites or classroom blogs.

Teachers at Burris Laboratory School encourage parents and student to sign up on Edmodo, which is a secure social media site where teachers can post homework, links to online resources and a calendar of upcoming tests.

Parent Joy Ewing said she prefers to steer clear of social media when it comes to staying in touch with her son's teachers.

"I prefer face-to-face over Facebook any day," she said.