Board proposes online restrictions from teachers to students

Lakeland High School drama director Sara Sims sends text messages to remind her roughly 50 students about rehearsal times and field trips. Sometimes after a performance, she congratulates them on a job well done.

"It's for convenience, not for socializing," Sims said.

But new guidelines under consideration by state education officials send a clear message to teachers tempted to text or interact with students online: Don't.

For the first time, the state Board of Education is set to make recommendations for how teachers and students should interact over social-networking sites. Next month, the b oard is scheduled to vote on the model policy, designed to prevent sexual misconduct and abuse. Local school boards could decide whether to adopt any of the guidelines.

The proposal includes traditional guidance forbidding "flirtatious, romantic or sexual" conversation and inappropriate physical contact between school division employees and students. It also addresses newer platforms, such as texting and social networking.

Education department spokesman Charles Pyle said the proposal goes beyond what's typically covered in policies related to child abuse and neglect and sexual harassment.

"Our goal here was not to be overly prescriptive but still to provide some guidance on how and where boundaries should be drawn," Pyle said.

For example, school employees and volunteers are encouraged to avoid being alone with an unrelated student. The guidelines prohibit the exchange of "expensive gifts or gifts of a personal nature, such as jewelry or clothing."

The guide also says: "Physical contact between an adult and student that is expected and appropriate in preschool and in the early elementary grades - such as a spontaneous hug between a teacher and a child at the end of the day - is not appropriate with older children."

The state requires criminal background checks for all public school teachers and other school division employees. Even so, the Board of Education has taken action against 169 educator licenses since 2000 - 120 in response to misconduct involving minors.

Educators have long been trained to recognize and report abuse that takes place outside the schools. Appropriate teacher-student interaction isn't typically covered in much detail in school division policy, Pyle said.

That's especially true for electronic communications.

"Technology is evolving so quickly that it's really hard to keep pace policy wise," said Patricia Wright, the state's superintendent of public instruction. "... I think some general guidelines on how and when educators communicate with students will serve a valuable purpose."

The state's model policy says teachers and other school employees should use accounts and systems provided by their division to communicate electronically with students. They "must decline or disregard invitations from students to interact through texting and social-networking sites," such as Facebook or MySpace. The policy also forbids knowingly participating in online games with students.

Pyle said some minor changes will be made based on public comment received after the guidelines were presented to the state board in November. For example, one tweak will allow for teachers to use social networks for instruction as long as several adults are involved and all communication takes place in the open.

In South Hampton Roads, school division policy is much more vague. Most divisions provided copies of policies related to Internet safety, sexual harassment and the use of their technology resources. In Norfolk, for example, "unprofessional social, sexual, or romantic relationships with minors" is prohibited.

Virginia Beach schools recognize sexual harassment may be "verbal, non-verbal, physical, written or visual," and all employees are required to complete online training in that area.

Policy also cites "inappropriate social networking on Internet sites or other public mediums" as an example of misconduct, Beach schools spokeswoman Kathleen O'Hara said in an e-mail. The employee handbook prohibits social networking activity "that causes or that has the potential to cause negative exposure for the division."

In Chesapeake, employees aren't given specific rules about texting, online gaming and social networking, spokesman Tom Cupitt said. Some things they should know are off limits: posting pictures of students online and mentioning them by name on a personal site.

"In this cyber age you've got to be so careful about everything," Cupitt said. "We welcome direction from the state on what they would want to do in terms of that."

Suffolk schools spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw said teachers can communicate with students and parents using a blog platform provided by the division. She called social networking a "gray area" and added that employees are cautioned to use good judgment with personal pages and websites.

In the Suffolk division's regulations governing use of school technology resources, staff members are advised to "avoid open social networking websites" with blogs, groups, photos, personal profiles, music and videos.

Portsmouth school officials didn't respond to questions sent earlier this month.

Sims, the Suffolk teacher, said not being able to text message her drama students would be an inconvenience. Just the other day, she had to move rehearsal from the school theater to a classroom, so she sent out a mass text. Also recently, a student sent a message saying she was sick and wouldn't be able to make it to practice.

Parents know Sims text messages their teens about drama club, she said, and no student has abused the privilege.

"It's quick and easy," Sims said. "I can reach everybody just about, and there's a record of what was written."

As for Facebook, that's where Sims draws the line. She declines requests from students to be her online "friend."

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com