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Facebook misstep gets Abington substitute teacher fired - The Boston Globe
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11/1/2014
Facebook misstep gets Abington substitute teacher fired - The Boston Globe
Use of social media starts early, too, and is often unsupervised, according to a survey appearing in
the June 2011 issue of Consumer Reports. According to the publication, 7.5 million of the 20 million
minors using Facebook are younger than 13 and more than 5 million are younger than 10. And 1
million of those have reported being the victim of cyberbullying or other unpleasant experiences, the
report says.
Every year we have more episodes exposed, and we fear that for every one we find out about there
were probably many we didnt find out about, said Koocher.
He said that while some may argue that free speech isnt checked at the schoolhouse door and
prohibiting it might not withstand legal challenge, many schools south of Boston have either adopted
the associations policy or developed their own guidelines to address the issue of appropriate conduct
for school personnel.
The Weymouth School Committee voted last December to make official the associations
recommendations regarding online friendships between students and teachers, amending it slightly
two weeks ago to permit employees to share in social media with Weymouth Public Schools students
who are family members.
Otherwise, the Weymouth school administration prohibits electronic communication by district
employees that isnt appropriate, professional, and for educational purposes and advises against
sharing of personal accounts, web pages, or social networks with students.
Cohassets Schools Policy and Standards Subcommittee is in the process of putting that policy in
place, as well, according to interim schools superintendent David DeGennaro.
Social media [have] the potential to be an incredibly powerful educational tool, enabling
collaboration and communication that is unprecedented, but it also allows unsupervised
communication that can lead to real problems, said Matt Ferron, acting superintendent of the
Weymouth Public Schools.
Some teachers in Weymouth have used Facebook as an effective teaching tool, which is an
appropriate use, but its the stuff that goes on in private lives that causes trouble, said Ferron.
Hingham Public Schools Superintendent Dorothy Galo said her administration doesnt specifically
have a policy for social media but has other policies that address proper boundaries between staff
and students.
In Abington, School Committee chairman Russell Fitzgerald pointed out that the situation in
question was not about Facebook but a teacher making an inappropriate decision to contact students
on a nonschool issue.
Constance Lindner can be reached at cl0734@gmail.com.
Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2011/05/26/facebook_misstep_gets_abington_substitute_teacher_fired/?page=2
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