The district office HR representative explains to us at the staff meeting, "From now on, teachers must avoid any site that allows for social networking with students."
"I can't believe this," Ms. Jackson says. "I . . . I've volunteered in my church's youth group for years. It seems that the best way to model appropriate adult behavior is to interact with kids and be a positive role model."
"No can do, Action Jackson! Churches can have creeps. Do we want you to seem like a creep?"
"What about the grocery store? I run into students at the grocery store all the time. It can be a real network of social interaction."
"Nope. You can be on the site, but you can't greet students. Just avoid eye contact and pretend that they don't exist."
"I coach baseball."
"Is it the school's team?"
"No."
"Then, you'll need to resign immediately."
"I'm a family friend of one of my students. Her whole family has been over for dinner."
"That might be misconstrued as a date. Just tell her family that you cannot be friends with them until their daughter is in college."
"But she's in the fourth grade!"
"Well, they'll have to take a rain check, then. Any more questions?"
"Can it be an anti-social networking site? I mean, can I go to a riot where my students might be attending? To me, that's pretty anti-social," I add.
"Good point. We might need to revisit that. Let's go to the Board with this. Perhaps we'll simply pass a rule that you cannot interact with a student at all outside of school."
