It was clear after the bill was passed that Missouri teachers, students, and parents clearly wanted to keep the lines of communication open without overreaching efforts by Mrs.Cunningham to prohibit all communication in order to stop the few teachers who bring disgrace to our profession.
What is hard to understand is why the organizations which are supposed to represent teachers are dealing with Mrs. Cunningham, who has repeatedly offered legislation designed to damage classroom teachers, especially since this case was already a slamdunk win for the teachers, on legislative, constitutional, and public opinion grounds.
Instead, the teacher organizations, which failed their membership by signing off on the bill in the first place without letting their members know about the Facebook Law's onerous provisions, are now setting up their membership for even more grief (Why else would Mrs. Cunningham be so agreeable toward amending her bill? She has never shown any inclination toward compromise in the past.).
It is true that all language prohibiting Missouri teachers from communicating with students through Facebook or other social networking sites has been stripped from the bill, but the provision mandating that every Missouri school district create a policy for communications between teachers and students (this time by March 1, 2012) could be opening the door for even more problems.
MSTA and MNEA have apparently signed off on the changes to Mrs. Cunningham's bill, which sound like they are giving control back to the school districts. Essentially though, the control will now go to the Missouri School Boards Association, which takes care of writing the policies for school districts across the state.
MSBA is also known as an overly cautious organization which goes overboard in its efforts to prevent anything that might lead to a lawsuit against a school district, often at the expense of common sense.
Hopefully, Gov. Nixon will make it be known that this defiance of his clear call to simply repeal the entire section of SB 54, which is the only thing the legislature is supposed to legally be able to do during this special session is not going to stand.
The following legislative update on the Facebook Law was issued by MNEA Thursday night:
Sen. David Pearce, Senate Education Committee Chair, reported SCS/SB 1 (Jane Cunningham) to the floor on September 8th and the bill is on the Perfection Calendar for floor debate. Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer announced his intention that the Senate would take up SCS/SB 1 for floor debate when the Senate convenes on Monday, September 12th at 4 p.m., preferably as the first order of business before debating and voting on any House bills. This means that SCS/SB 1 may be taken up and acted upon prior to Senate action on SB 8 relating to tax incentives begins the following day.
SCS/SB 1 revises and simplifies existing law regarding school policies on employee-student communications as contained in section 162.069 from SB 54 (Jane Cunningham), a bill enacted in the 2011 Regular Session and signed into law by the Governor. The existing law provision creates confusion regarding a teacher's ability to communicate that needs to be addressed legislatively.
Missouri NEA appreciates the Governor's action to include the issue in the special session. SCS/SB 1 maintains local control so teachers, parents and students can provide input regarding board policies that effect them. At this time it is the only bill moving on this topic. The Association supports SCS/SB 1 as a way to enact a legislative fix to the major concerns raised by SB 54 and will continue to work with legislators and the Governor's office toward the goal of consensus around a legislative answer to the issue during the special session.
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