Gov. Jay Nixon signed the fix to the social networking portion of Sen. Jane Cunningham's SB 54 into law today.
The law rejects the language of Mrs. Cunningham's bill, which banned communication between students and teachers through Facebook and other social networking sites, and many thought it would totally ban teachers from social networking.
Under the revised law, which was arrived at following talks between Sen. Cunningham and representatives from Missouri's teacher organizations, all school districts will be required to develop policies for communications between teachers and students by March 1, 2012.
The fix went further than Nixon had asked when he placed it on the agenda for the special session. Nixon said the Facebook part of the law should be repealed and mentioned nothing about "a fix."
So the school boards, mindful of litigation issues, will pass policies largely curtailing unsupervised contact with public school teachers and students. This fix took it out of the state's responsibility and placed it locally.
ReplyDeleteSo what is not to like about this revised law?