New Missouri 'Facebook bill': Let school districts make their own rules

The Missouri legislature wants to limit 'improper communications' between students and teachers, but its first 'Facebook law' was blocked by the courts. Now, it's trying a toned-down version.

 

Lawmakers are considering a simplified version of Missouri’s so-called “Facebook law,” which was blocked last month by a state judge for being too broad in its restriction of social media contact between teachers and students.

The new version would drop controversial requirements, such as the ban on teachers using websites that enabled “exclusive access” between a staff member and a student. The provision would have prevented students and teachers from "friending" each other on Facebook, because communication between "friends" is private.

Instead, the revised bill would leave it up to districts to come up with policies to “prevent improper communications” between school employees and students, including on electronic media. It also gives districts an extended deadline – March 1, instead of Jan. 1 – to adopt the new policies.

The original social-media restrictions, which were a section of the broader Amy Hestir Student Protection Act targeting sexual abuse, were so broad and vague that they would have prevented even normal contact between a student and his or her own parent, if the parent was a teacher, free-speech advocates and educators say.