Don’t ‘friend’ the students: Social media policy passed in School District 22

Dec 19, 2019 | 5:08 PM

After months of revisions, a social media policy is now in place in the Vernon School District.

The board of education approved third reading of the policy at their meeting Wednesday.

The policy bars employees from accepting friend requests from school aged students on their personal social media accounts and stresses the importance of self-reporting incidents on social media as opposed to whistleblowing.

“This is about personal responsibility not about worrying about somebody else. This is about giving a guideline,” said superintendent Joe Rogers, who added that he received the most feedback on the policy in his seven years as superintendent.

Schools, individual teachers, and the Vernon Teacher’s Association expressed concerns that previous versions of the policy were too overreaching.

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“During the work week, we strive to be the professionals that we are expected to be. We are also aware that our actions out of school often come under scrutiny. However, while we would never openly talk about alcohol consumption with our students, we are known to enjoy a beverage on our own time and people have been known to take our picture holding a glass of cheer. Now, according to this wording, if this policy is passed, this could potentially be grounds for discipline,” said an Oct 23 letter addressed to the board.

The school district says they don’t routinely monitor the personal social media activities of its employees but complaints may be reviewed and investigated by the school district when appropriate.

The newly passed policy emphasizes the use of good judgement and says “employees should be aware that some content that is appropriate for personal friends is not appropriate for circulation to work colleagues, parents, or students.”

Only district authorized social media accounts are permitted for communication between students and parents. The communication must be “formal, courteous, respectful and appropriate.”

Training for staff on the new policy is expected soon.

The policy was first brought forward in June as a first attempt to tackle the issue.

A full look into the policy can be found here.

by Tiffany Goodwein

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