When teachers and students grow too comfortable with each other, they feel that communicating on social media is perfectly harmless. However, research about the ongoing, worldwide debate of teachers being allowed to interact with students online, reveals that many problems are occurring. *Studies* show that there are hundreds of cases each year of a teacher being terminated for what he or she has posted towards or about their students. The vast amount of unfit teacher to student relationships corresponds with cell phones and/or social media. Teachers first amendment should have restrictions when using social media.
“Any one-on-one private relationship out of the classroom bogs for inappropriate behavior to begin, said Lieberman. A high school teacher was sent to prison for five years when found guilty of having sex with four of her 18-year-old students. An article discussing this case shows that each of her affairs started with casual texting. An experienced counselor, Iris Fanning, states that problems occur when the teacher and student view each other as peers. When teachers simply “friend” their students on Facebook or “follow” the student on Instagram and Twitter, they are opening up a new opportunity for the teacher and the student to look at each other in a new way. 95 percent of all students have access to the internet, and 81 percent of those students use some form of social media. The majority of teenagers are careless, and they more than likely have pictures and statuses that one would think is inappropriate on their social medias. With that being said, teachers should not even want to “friend” or “follow” their students, for educational purposes or not.
As little as ten years ago, when student-teacher relationships started taking place, not many people knew of them; however, in this day and age, everyone leaves some form of evidence. Any text, call or comment one makes using their cell phone is automatically recorded and can be used for later use. Unfortunately, teachers and students fail to realize this. With technology so advanced and social media rapidly growing, at least one person will see the teacher and student’s inappropriate communication, which will then lead the witness to notify the school or police. In fact, a 29 year old teacher was arrested and charged for sexually assaulting a 14 year old student. Shortly after that incident, another instructor pleaded guilty of texting one of his 16-year-old students to ask her for nudes in return for extra credit. Due to these tragic situations, teacher and student relationships should start and end at the classroom door.
Not all people understand the danger of student-teacher relationships. A great deal of the opposing side argues that social media should in fact be used regularly for learning purposes. “Social media is where teenagers are; this is a great tool that allows teachers to connect with students in a way that interests them," said _____ Flemming. Does Flemming’s opinion seems reasonable? Well, sure if opening up a teacher’s personal page and inbox to students appear as a good idea. Once you “friend” a student online, they now have full access to view everything their teachers post- the good and the bad.
