Hernando school leaders contemplate social networking guidelines

BROOKSVILLE Teachers across the nation are facing more restrictive social networking policies and rules of what can and cannot be posted on sites such as Facebook or Twittered to their friends - and particularly to students and parents.

Now Hernando County School District officials are looking to join the trend as they consider what should go into a social networking policy and how restrictive it should be.

Stemming from issues raised by Hernando Today concerning a lack of cell phone policy pertaining to teachers calling or texting students, Superintendent Bryan Blavatt said he's taking it a step further by discussing an overall social media policy to address those issues along with other forms of electronic communication. However, he and School Board Attorney Paul Carland agreed that they were in the beginning stages of researching a potential policy and added that nothing was in place yet.

"All we've done thus far is begin looking into what other school districts have done - such as Manatee School District and Lee County," Carland said. "But there's still a lot of planning and analysis to be done and a lot will also depend on what everyone wants to include in there."

Carland said school districts need to be careful when creating a policy to ensure that what's created doesn't infringe on teachers' First Amendment rights. And there's always a risk of facing a lawsuit.

Manatee County School District officials have put on hold approving a social networking policy in light of the teachers' union filing litigation challenging its constitutionality.

John Bowen, school board attorney for Manatee, said the policy didn't go as far as to prohibit teachers from including students in their social network, although it does prohibit posting anything online that is negative toward students, parents or the school district. And a key change, he said, is a requirement that if teachers are going to talk to students outside of class, whether by phone, e-mail or social networking website, they would be required to inform parents of exactly how they would be communicating and how parents could supervise.

He said the intent of the policy is more to remind teachers that in and out of the classroom, they are responsible for how they conduct themselves. Bowen said teachers often forget that nothing posted on the Internet is private and could come back to hurt them professionally.

"If it affects their job, then it's our business," Bowen said. "But pictures and things they've written years ago don't necessarily disappear. People can get hold of teachers' pictures or quotes and what happens is that it becomes public and parents sometimes respond by saying, 'I don't want them teaching my child' and that's when it becomes a problem."

The policy is much less restrictive than what school districts have tried elsewhere. In Rupert, Idaho, for example, a school district created a policy that banned teachers from interacting with students or posting inappropriate photos or comments, along with referencing drugs or alcohol.

Even when teachers are honored for good works, what they put on the Internet can be used against them.

Following a story about Nature Coast Technical High School math teacher Ed LaRose receiving the Teacher of the Year award, Hernando Today received e-mails from at least one person claiming LaRose had inappropriate items on his Facebook.

The accusations turned out to be untrue, with only photos of him and some friends at a Halloween gathering. But Bowen said it's a perfect example of how teachers are always in the spotlight.

In February, school board members expressed interest in a policy addressing electronic communication following an investigation of Ryan Wilson, a physical science and career development teacher at Nature Coast Technical School, who was texting a teen-age girl.

Although cleared of any wrongdoing with the student, Wilson was reprimanded for not reporting earlier to administrators that he was receiving inappropriate texts from the girl. He was also removed from coaching girls' sports.

Other incidents between coaches and students haven't been so innocent. For example, in 2008, former Hernando High School football coach Eric Riggins left the school district following allegations that he sexually touched two female students and sent sexually inappropriate texts to them.

Meanwhile, Carland and Bowen agree that with ever-changing technology, it's unlikely a policy can be created to address every problem.

However, Bowen said outlining a common sense approach and reminding teachers about the potential pitfalls will help bypass most of those issues.

"Who knows what will be invented later on? We can't predict the future," Bowen said. "But there's one thing that holds true, there's no expectation of privacy. We can't tell teachers not to talk to students outside of the classroom, but we can say that when you do, the same standards of conduct apply."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.