Stressing the danger of posting personal profiles online, Ohio union discourages educators' MySpace participation
Primary Topic Channel: Policy
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The memo strongly discouraged teachers from using social-networking web sites such as MySpace and Facebook to create personal profiles or communicate with students.
“OEA advises members not to join [these sites], and for existing users to complete the steps involved in removing their profiles,” the memo said. “While this advice might seem extreme, the dangers of participating in these two sites outweigh the benefits.”
An investigation by the Columbus Dispatch into educator misconduct underscores the reasons for the union’s concern.
The newspaper’s recent probe has revealed questionable or inappropriate content on at least three MySpace profiles belonging to people who say they are Ohio teachers.
One says she’s an “aggressive freak in bed,” another says she has taken drugs and likes to party, and a third describes his mood as “dirty,” the Dispatch reported Nov. 10. The guy with the dirty mood, who claims to be a 35-year-old middle school math teacher in Cleveland, reportedly listed students among his MySpace friends.
The profiles could be the work of malicious pranksters, but the three examples appear legitimate, with all types of personal and professional information, including full resumes, the Dispatch reported.
If those three postings are from teachers, they’re inappropriate, said James Miller, director of the Office of Professional Conduct at the Ohio Department of Education. Even worse, he said, “It does sound like something that could be 'conduct unbecoming'.”
That’s a broadly defined violation of educator behavior that can result in license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimands.
Teachers need to review what they’re sharing online, Miller warned: “It’s their right to have it up. But I’d make sure it’s appropriate for my students to look at.”
The OEA sent its memo to teachers on Oct. 16, two days after the Dispatch launched its investigation. However, union officials said they had been planning the memo for months.
“The fact that a student can attempt to contact an OEA member who has a profile on these sites lends itself to the possible interpretation of an improper relationship,” the memo told teachers. “Because of the high standards placed on school employees and the risk of job and career loss, the OEA recommends avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.”
The union also worries that students will create “impostor” sites, pose as adults and engage in conversations with teachers, or use online communication to make allegations later against educators.
“[There are a] lot of potential problems of false allegations, false pages, postings that have absolutely nothing to do with the intention of the teachers,” said Rachelle Johnson, the union’s legal services director.
Anything posted on those sites can be used as evidence in disciplinary hearings by districts and the state Education Department, the union warns.
OEA says it drafted the memo without help from the National Education Association (NEA), the national organization of which it is a state affiliate. Attempts to reach the NEA were unsuccessful as of press time.
Links:
Ohio Education Association
Ohio Department of Education
National Education Association
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use your head!
this is a ridiculous subject. i mean yeah it shold be ok for a adult/teacher to have a myspace. but when your chatting with students and have un-appropriate things being said and shown..it's DISGUSTING! teachers that are trying to more less date a student. and i guess if there are actually teachers that just have this stuff than atleast block it! put privacy. IDK! use your head i thought you where a teacher!
Posted By: highschool08, 2007-12-03 9:43 AM
Seriously folks....
Bluntly, those three teachers stated in the article are rediculous. Social networks have privacy settings for a reason. Set those things to private and don't put a degrading photo or name with it. Secondly, why is there no compromise? Sure the bad out weigh the good when teachers wish to leave their information open instead of opting for privacy, and/or invite students to be their "friends". Teachers should take these steps Set the profile to private Don't add students Don't contact students even to tell them why you are declining their invitation. Only add people that you know and wish to keep in contact with. I don't see why a legitimate educator should be expected to remove their profiles when they use them to maintain personal and professional contacts. Otherwise, they should also be expected to forfeit any personal email addresses, remove their phone number from the phone book, and hide in a cave.
Posted By: walker81, 2007-11-27 11:20 PM
salary
Just curious--how is it that conservatives and the religous right are keeping salaries down? What has that to do with this post? Keep the political commentary where it belongs.
Posted By: conrads, 2007-11-27 1:35 PM
Use your head: Shut the door!
C'mon teachers...use your heads. Protect your privacy--and integrity!--by using the tools that MySpace and other social networking sites have built into their sites to protect their users. I have a MySpace page that I use to keep in touch with family and friends, and only certain people can access this page. And while I agree with the some of the comments made by twinkie1cat, I also believe that we educators--in fact, all professionals-- need to exercise common sense and personal responsibility when using social networking sites. A teacher that brazenly announces that she's an “aggressive freak in bed," on her MySpace page, knowing it's a public site, is foolish. Too many people today bare their indiscretions on social networking sites and then cry "Foul!" when it comes back to bite them in the tail. And shame on OEA for discouraging teachers from using MySpace. The problem is not MySpace--it's the teacher. Instead of demonizing these sites, let's demand that our teachers use wisdom and better judgement when posting their lives online. After all, shouldn't adults know better?
Posted By: sydney_HATCHER, 2007-11-23 1:50 PM
Like an Ostrich with its head in the Sand
Rather than advise teachers not to use MySpace and Facebook, teachers will be better served if they are advised on how to effectively use these incredibly valuable and relevant communication tools. These sites are where students ARE. It is silly to advise teachers to steer clear. To say that since a few teachers have posted inappropriate profiles is a reason for all teachers to delete their profiles and shun these sites is like saying since a few teachers made sexual advances to students they were tutoring all teachers should stop tutoring students. Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Social network sites ARE the state of the art for using the internet. It is how a whole generation of Americans are communicating with each other. Teachers must have a presence in them in order to connect with students and provide better role models for them. Burying heads in the sand is a foolish strategy. Stop giving teachers bad advice.
Posted By: drdigipol, 2007-11-21 1:35 PM
Why Teach, twinkle1cat?
I am a teacher because I truly care about the students I teach, regardless of their abilities. I cannot imagine doing anything else with my life. Yes, my students come from a variety of backgrounds, but they are each unique. If I can make a difference in their lives, then I have accomplished a great deal with mine. Teaching them to set their own goals to be the best that they can be helps them to succeed. Success will come because they want it. In my life I have discovered that what I think and believe about others is exactly what I get from them. A wise teacher will focus on the students and their needs. This should help keep everything else in perspective and the attitude of being cynical from reigning.
Posted By: doriel, 2007-11-20 9:08 PM
re personal lives of teachers
First let us Ignore the terrible grammar you have used in posting. Your comment that the elimination of conservatives and religious right will remedy education is laughable. The main problem with education today is the liberal's aim to make school the all powerful entity. Monitoring studentand teachers off campus behaviior . The generation teaching that feels that self esteem is more important than actually learning, i.e. no failing grades,no bullying, no games like dodgeball or tag because someone might get their feelings hurt. Counselors at school any time there is a tradgedy in the community. When will these students learn to cope in the real world? Certainly not in public school! I could go on for hours. A big part of the attrition rate is due to the fact that conservative type's feel excluded and have no say in the liberal games that educators play so they move on to jobs where there is a more balanced community.By the way your rant about people earning more money than teachers have no respect for them is so off base that it's really no worth another word.
Posted By: khigggs, 2007-11-20 2:40 PM
Personal lives of teachers
In any profession except possibly politicians and celebrities, a person can keep their personal life out of their professional life. But teachers are not only treated like idiots at work, but are presumed guilty unless proven innocent and even then can lose their job even if not found guilty of any crime---kind of like when OJ was found not guilty in criminal court but then assumed to be in civil court. This is part of why we cannot find enough real teachers and our attrition is so high. The schools should be protecting their teachers and assuming that they are honest and decent unless their is convincing evidence to the contrary. But in this day when we are valued little more than illegal day labor, even in special education, once a true family, the almighty test score and politics take precedence. Teachers do need to keep their pants up and their lust to themselves when it comes to relationships with students, however. But one of the reasons I stay out of mild disabilities and regular education is that students who can talk can also turn on the very people who care most about them. And some will tell a lie to serve their own ends real quick---especially middle and upper middle class kids with educated parents because they are "little darlings who can do no wrong" Parents don't teach respect like they used to and kids come to school with no home training and folks who believe everything they say, partially because they know they make more money than the teacher does (a situation that could be remedied quite readily if the conservatives and religious right could be eased out of political power). These parents, on the other hand, won't accept responsibility for their kids misbehavior and make repairs or just home school them, instead, so they cannot prey on their teachers. We cannot fix kids who have been damaged behaviorally and emotionally by their parents teaching them that they are God any more than we can fix the brain of one who has been shaken or bashed into a wall, although a brain damaged child is much easier to teach. At least they want to learn! Appropriately equipped school systems now offer webpages for teachers to communicate with families. Those should be used for professional communication. Otherwise, if you want to do social networking, a wise teacher does not give specifics about her job, location or full name and you certainly should not put up a video of yourself in a compromising position.
Posted By: twinkie1cat, 2007-11-19 7:55 PM
This seems to be counter intuitive
How do we expect students to learn these things - ignorance is not a good idea. The NSBA just came out for the use of these tools (please see Social Networking in Schools Gets a Boost from NSBA - http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/social-networking-in-schools-gets-a-boost-from-nsba/ ). If teachers are doing inappropriate things by all means they should be disciplined - whether online or face-to-face) Ignoring a technology or tool for instruction because it can be abused is why Doug Johnson had his wonderful post on "A proposal for banning pencils" - http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/columnists/johnson/johnson004.shtml I worry when we protect those who should not be in education. And by doing so stop people from using tools that can assist learning and children.
Posted By: ljloeffler, 2007-11-19 3:21 PM
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A point being missed by all.......
I teach at a rural high school. I also have a Myspace page and many students are 'friends' on the site. I do consider things that I post there carefully, with the majority of my page dedicated to harmless tongue in cheek humor and my own family. The reason I created the account though, was to give students a venue to contact me specifically around official channels. I chose to do this not for some dubious or ethically questionable personal gain, but to give students a relatively annonymous method of reaching me. In my several years of teaching I have prevented several suicides by intervening with students that felt they had no one else to talk to. I have also seen countless times when troubled students wanted to reach out for guidance and help, but could not muster the courage to do so in person. My account on myspace is nothing more than another avenue for those troubled teens that need to reach out to me, to do so. I think we as professionals need to conduct ourselves as such, but we should never place barriers between ourselves and our students or society as a whole. Not only does it eliminate important and timely forms of communication, it does nothing to enhance our public image to appear unreachable. I did find it interesting that the Board in question was more concerned with covering its hind-end legally than with doing what is relevant to the times and best for the children. The assinine actions of a few educators that should not be in the classroom, is no reason to dictate such policy.
Posted By: mrsledge77, 2008-07-22 11:59 PM