Saying that it was moot since a "fix" was put into place by the legislature during the fall special session, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem dismissed the Missouri State Teachers Association's lawsuit against the so-called Facebook Bill March 23.
Beetem also ended the injunction against enforcing the social media portion of Sen. Jane Cunningham's bill.
The fix to the bill, which removed the part banning Facebook communication between students and teachers, was not what Gov. Jay Nixon had in mind when he asked legislators to eliminate the section of the bill, but Nixon signed the bill into law anyway.
Though its proponents saw this as a win for teachers and for children's safety, I can still see many problems on the horizon as school boards are following the requirement to implement policies for teachers communicating with students. However, you look at it, these policies are automatically labeling teachers as sexual predators as a Newton County News article about protests about the new policy in the Seneca School District noted.
it should be mentioned also that the Seneca policy is virtually the same one most school districts have put into place- the policy recommended by the Missouri School Boards Association which has always had more concern about the possibility of school districts being sued than the First Amendment rights (and educational concerns) of students and teachers.
My guess is we will see test cases in court in the near future.
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