Schools debate rules for teachers on social websites

It also points out that teachers are already required to maintain professional boundaries, such as by communicating with students only on school-related activities and not giving a student excessive attention.

The same standards apply to electronic communication, the Norton policy states.

Patricia Ansay, school superintendent in Norton, said it was a challenge to create an effective policy without discouraging legitimate communication.

It’s difficult from an administrative point of view, too, she said, “because you want teachers to be part of the community, and many of them go so far out of their way to make sure their students are successful.’’

In Cohasset, School Committee member Jeanne Astino said electronic communication should be part of an overall policy on professional conduct.

The committee has been working on a policy and will resume discussing it soon, probably in September, she said.

Not all school officials oppose social-media contacts between teachers and students.

Teachers sometimes create Internet pages to communicate with a club as a group, said Mitch Blaustein, a member of the Sharon School Committee.

Sharon’s draft policy says club advisers and coaches must send communications to all team or club members, unless doing so would compromise medical or academic privacy.

Under the draft policy, coaches and advisers must send copies to the principal and, in the case of sports, to the athletic director, as well.

The draft also has an exception for principals to approve the distribution of telephone numbers when doing so improves student safety, such as during field trips or exchange programs in which students are not in sight of chaperones.

Blaustein said he does not necessarily want to see friending forbidden.

“I think the staff should be smart enough with what they do and say on Facebook,’’ he said.

But Blaustein said he would probably vote to ban such friending as part of an overall policy.

Astino, too, does not believe in completely eliminating social-media contacts between teachers and students, but she said staff members’ behavior must be guided by standards of professional conduct.

“You have to keep that moral compass switched in the on position,’’ she said.

Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said the state has seen a few “media squabbles’’ in which teachers unions objected to school districts adopting policies that address what they do outside of school.

“A lot of people take a libertarian view,’’ he said.

Some policies, including Braintree’s, warn that nothing posted online is fully private and that Internet activity can affect how staff members are perceived in the community and at school.

The Braintree policy adds, “Posting items with sexual content and those exhibiting or advocating use of alcohol and/or illegal drugs is inappropriate.’’

Koocher praised communities for engaging in “incredibly healthy debate’’ on the subject of social media.

Jennette Barnes can be reached at jennettebarnes@yahoo.com.