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Student-Teacher Relationships Going Too Far?
By News Desk | August 13, 2008
Ever since they both got increasingly popular, Myspace and Facebook have had surrounding controversy. The yare both widely used with Mypace having 72.8 million registered users and Facebook having 37.4 million registered users. One teacher, Randy Turner (52 year old teacher from Missouri) noticed the gap in technology between students and teachers. Turner created a Myspace and his students asked to be able to add him and he agreed. The only communication between him and his students online is about school and discussion of assignments, so therefore Turner doesn’t see anything wrong with social networking between teachers and students. But in Missouri in particular a shocking number of teacher-student sexual relationships has caused restrictions on social networking friendships. I don’t think students and teachers should communicate in such a way considering there are school sites where a student can contact a teacher. Even though Turner is a good and respected teacher we cant possibly let every teacher have the freedom considering how many have already done wrong by his or her students. On BadBadTeacher.com, which is a website that keeps record of teachers disciplined, convicted, or arrested for inappropriate behavior with students, has 11teachers from Missouri listed in just the past two years. That is why state legislature Jane Cunningham is sponsoring a bill in the Missouri House of Representatives that would ban elementary school teachers from having a social networking relationship with students. I think that bill should be passed everywhere and not just for elementary school but for all the way up to high school. We have to protect our children and we cant possibly risk exposing them to a pedophile.
Topics: Discuss Amongst Yourselves |
August 14th, 2008 at 2:48 am
As the teacher who was mentioned in the CNN story, I should mention that one thing that the story forgot to mention is that the original bill filed by Rep. Cunningham had no mention whatsoever of MySpace or Facebook. It was designed to remove predators and criminals from the classroom. As far as I know, there may not be more than one or two cases (if that many) out of the 11 that had anything to do with a social networking site. That was added to the bill in committee, and came about the time of the incident in the St. Louis area where a mother (not a teacher) pretended to be a teenage boy and ended up causing a young girl to commit suicide. You have some valid points and I have expanded on my reasoning for supporting the social networking sites on my blog, The Turner Report at this link:
http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2008/08/teachers-and-myspace.html
Thanks.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
While I find it important to protect our children from pedophiles, I think any bill that restricts our freedoms (as people) — should be carefully scrutinized.
That having been said, I really don’t see why an elementary student would be on myspace or facebook to begin with… Yes, it’s true that you can find everything on the web. It’s out there. (Pedophiles inclued.) But I think it’s our responsibility to educate and monitor our children.
While this bill might seem like a step in the right direction — like you said, “Why stop there? Why not highschool?” — I say, “Why not college? Why not all teachers?” I think it’s only a matter of time before it comes to the point of ridiculousness.
Honestly, if a pedophile is teaching your children, what difference does it make if they’re online or not? They see your kids everyday. If they want to take advantage of them, then I doubt this bill is going to stop them from getting what they want, if you know what I’m saying.
And what about all the good teachers? The ones that don’t want to take advantage of your kids. Is that fair to them? Just because one’s a rotten apple, does it mean the rest are?
COME ON PEOPLE! And for crying out loud, stop being lazy, and talk to your kids.
August 18th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
wow I’m very glad my article has been seen by you of all people, Mr. Turner. I do think there are great teachers out there (like you) who just want to close the gap between teachers and students and I think thats wonderful. But for me personally, I worry that letting the walls down with social-networking might open bad doors too. I’m not sure its a risk I’d take, but I’m just 17, I don’t have kids so I’m too positive on which direction I’d go.
regarding Akari:
I know for a fact though being a teenager and having a myspace that girls at younger and younger ages are acting more and more inappropriately and lying about their age on the internet. Just about every day i see a girl on there that is probably 12 in her underwear as her default picture for all to see. I do think your right though, that parents need to be more strict with their kids.