Are Students Your Friends?

Mine aren't, at least on Facebook. But I know a lot of people who feel and act differently, and that's potentially troublesome. When you read about teachers losing their jobs simply because they were seen drinking alcohol on a European vacation, and when you read that the geniuses at the DOE have seen fit to get involved:

New York City, the nation’s largest school district, has been at work on a social media policy for months, and expects to have one in place by spring.

You have to wonder how they will take a troubling situation and find a way to make it worse. I've absolute faith their policy will consist of the same draconian nonsense they've been spouting for the last decade. Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg, in his zeal to fire any teacher earning more than minimum wage, will simply declare he needs to lay off anyone on Facebook or Twitter. That will pretty much give him that blank check to which he's felt entitled forever.

Meanwhile, I'd advise you not to share photos like the one above on your Facebook page. As the woman pictured is a principal, she may fare better than you or I would. Nonetheless, it's not precisely the sort of photo I'd like to see of myself in the local tabloid. Are we entitled to private lives? Of course. But relying on the good folks at Facebook to protect our privacy is not what I'd call the very best judgment.

Kids can mistake their Facebook friends for real ones. Working people can't. While I've yet to hear of a city teacher being dismissed over some social media nonsense, I do know of one now-unemployed paraprofessional, for no good reason I could discern.

I'm friendly with my students, and I help them whenever I can. But I do it in person. Thus far I've friended precisely one graduate of my school. That's probably too much. But I never post anything truly private. If it were really private, why on earth would I be posting it on the internet?

Friend Your Students?

No thanks.  A lot of teachers seem to do so, but not me.  Three teachers just got fired over some rather extreme allegations, and I know people who've been sent to the rubber room for way less.  It's hard  to understand adults in positions of authority who hit on high school kids.   There's not a whole lot you can say on their behalf.

Fortunately for outfits like the NY Post, which love stories like these, NYC teachers don't actually need to do anything to be accused of such actions, and since 05, they can be suspended without pay for simply being accused.  I've heard of at least two instances of teachers being falsely accused, being suspended without pay, and then cleared.

Innocent though you may be, the 05 contract renders city teachers guilty until proven otherwise.  Judge Judy asks, "How do you tell if a teenager is lying?"  The answer--"Her lips are moving."

I don't friend students on Facebook, and I'd advise you not to do so either.  Simply having done that could potentially bolster a false claim against you.  Now that there's no rubber room, I suppose they send you to file papers somewhere.  But in the case of a sexual accusation, you could be sitting home without pay or health insurance.  To me, it's not worth the risk.  Also, I don't really want to know what my students do on Facebook.  That's their business.  Mine is making them learn English.

Do you friend students on Facebook?  Is it really worth it?