Students must not communicate personally with their school teachers via social networking websites

OK, the personal communication between students and teachers via social media must be unacceptable!! First of all, a private communication between a student and a teacher is not ,obviously, very trustworthy. No one can know what they are talking about and we can not check the content of their conversations. I know that a lot of the private discussions are innocent but unfortunately we can not be sure. Nowadays, the phenomenon of teachers who have an inappropriate sexual interest in their students is very frequent.It is very difficult for a child to realize that he is being groomed; they are unlikely to know the risk. After all, a teacher is regarded as a trusted adult. But, if the child is aware that private electronic contact between teachers and students is unacceptable for the society or even prohibited by the law, the child will immediately know the teacher is doing something he/she is not supposed to if he initiates private electronic contact. This will therefore act as an effective warning sign to the child and might prompt the child to tell a parent or another adult about what is going on. Social networking websites have proven to be particularly effective for child grooming by pedophiles. Teachers are already in a position of power and trust in the relationship with their students. Being allowed to communicate with students via facebook would greatly facilitate misconduct by a teacher who wants to start an inappropriate relationship with a student, by giving him virtually unlimited access to the students after school. In fact, many such relationships do involve some form of electronic contact. According to Carol Shakeshaft an expert in sexual misconduct by teachers: "educators who use social media for personal and intimate conversations and contact are not much different from those who spend their time hanging out with students at the beach. You have to ask why a teacher would do this. The honest answer is that it rarely has anything to do with student learning.[*]" And for those of you who believe that this is something unusual that is almost impossible to happen: "A teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old-student had groomed him for a up to a year, according to police. Chrystal Miller is alleged to have sent the teen phone and Facebook messages before the relationship turned physical." (http://www.dailymail.co.uk...) "In January the 15-year-old victim told special unit detectives about his relationship with his dance teacher at Dance Effect Studio in Coral Springs.Detectives then confirmed details of Deberry's relationship with the teen via communication on the victim's Facebook account, email, and through 117 pages of texts. The two exchanges messages such as "I love you so much" and "Making love with you was the greatest feeling in the whole world," according to the arrest report." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com...) And if you haven't got convinced yet: In their 2002 survey, the AAUW reported that, of students who had been harassed, 38% were harassed by teachers or other school employees. One survey, conducted with psychology students, reports that 10% had sexual interactions with their educators; in turn, 13% of educators reported sexual interaction with their students.[9] In a survey of high school students, 14% reported that they had engaged in sexual intercourse with a teacher. (Wishnietsky, 1991) In a national survey conducted for the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation in 2000 found that roughly 290,000 students experienced some sort of physical sexual abuse by a public school employee between 1991 and 2000. And a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education found that nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students reported having been targeted with sexual attention by school employees. Indeed, one critic has claimed that sexual harassment and abuse by teachers is 100 times more frequent than abuse by priests. (http://en.wikipedia.org...) If you search a little bit, you will find more affairs.. Furthermore, teachers are not only educators but also ordinary people who have their personal lives that might undermine educational messages. Access to a teacher"s private information and photos may lead to weakening her position as an educator. How can a teacher convincingly speak against smoking or substance abuse if students have access to pictures portraying the teacher themselves drinking or smoking[**]? For example, a principal from the Bronx, who had been trying to impose a strict dress code at her school, was branded a "hypocrite" by her students when a photo of her was found on her facebook page[***]. And even if the teacher will be careful not to post anything inappropriate on her page, a friend or acquaintance might thereby undermining the teacher. A strict separation of personal and professional life would prevent such incidents from happening. Of cource, since teachers do not something illegal they can not be considered as a bad example for their students but they have to teach to avoid some things that can harm or put the in danger and the teaching would not be very effective if children saw their teachers doing things they had told them not to do. Finally, interacting with one"s teachers the same way as with one"s friends, sharing personal information, can only erode the respect and distance that a teacher needs in order to be an authority figure and a mentor for her young charges. Even if such "friendships" were entirely innocent, they would still cast enough suspicion on the teacher-student relationship to put considerable strain on the teacher"s role as educator and their ability to do the job. If a teacher wants to help their students understand something or answer some of their questions, he/she could do it in a pulic forum for example, during a school break the next morning or even in class. But the personal and intimate communication between students and teachers is harmful not ony for both of them but also for the society as a whole. sources: [*] Shakeshaft, Carol. "Using Social Media to Teach: Keep it Transparent, Open and Safe." The New York Times. 19 December 2011. http://nytimes.com... [**] Preston, Jennifer. "Rules to Stop Pupil and Teacher from Getting too Social Online". The New York Times. 17 December 2011. nytimes.com/2011/12/18/business/.../rules-to-limit-how-teachers-and-students-interact-online.html. [***] Keneally, Megan. "Pupils at scandal hit school post sexy Facebook shot of principal over hallways." The Daily Mail. 5 December 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk......