Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Principal Donna Redmond Jones recently began following back those who followed her on Twitter, an interaction between users of the social media platform so typical that some consider it a common courtesy.
But some students who suddenly found their personal tweets easily accessible to their principal didn’t feel the same way, according to an editorial in this month’s edition of The Tattler, the school’s student newspaper.
“However, in recent weeks, the new principal has begun following students, and in the process has caused discomfort among many who feel that this is an invasion of privacy,” the editorial read. “Many students responded by blocking her from seeing their tweets. This presents an ethical dilemma: is it appropriate for a teacher or school employee to follow a student’s personal Twitter account?”
Jones, in a response published next to the editorial, said “any distress caused” by her following of students on Twitter “was unintended,” and that she has unfollowed students and will limit her follows to accounts of student leadership groups and other school organizations.
“What was meant to applaud students’ efforts and forge stronger relationships with them has instead rattled a few,” Jones wrote.
As more teachers and administrators in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) use sites such as Twitter and Facebook to inform students of schedule changes, remind them of assignments and show off interesting things happening in their classrooms, it’s an issue a school system spokesperson said will likely merit more attention in the future.
“We have a generation of teachers now who are coming in and are really avid social media users. They are digital natives,” said MCPS Public Information Officer Dana Tofig, who has more than 3,000 Twitter followers. “It’s something that MCPS and other school systems are having to adapt to. But our point is always this: The expectations on how you interact with students are the same regardless of how you are interacting with them.”
The MCPS official Employee Code of Conduct instructs staff: “Do not use personal e-mail accounts, social media networking sites, or other electronic communications to communicate or become ‘friends’ with students.”
Tofig said a memo goes out each year to principals to remind them of social media policy and that MCPS recommends “our staff not follow students and not allow students to follow them.”
The Tattler editorial on Twitter use by Principal Donna Redmond Jones and her response, via The Tattler
At Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, that recommendation was seen by student Sarah Hutter as “too extreme considering how helpful online student-teacher interactions can be.” In an opinion piece published in the October edition of Blair’s Silver Chips student newspaper, Hutter also spoke to a teacher at Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville who interpreted the recommendation as meaning teachers couldn’t create even “special teacher accounts.”
But the Code of Conduct makes the distinction between a teacher’s personal social media account and a professional account, Tofig said.
At Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, some teachers who use Twitter as a classroom tool “abide by the unspoken rule that ‘students can follow teachers, but teachers shouldn’t reciprocate the follow,’” according to The Tattler editorial.
In her response, Jones also told students that it’s their responsibility to be careful about what they share on social media.
In perhaps the most well-known example of an interaction between students and an MCPS staff member gone awry, many students used their Twitter accounts in December 2013 to berate and insult then-Superintendent Joshua Starr over the school system’s decision not to close school during a stretch of wintry weather.
Starr took the opportunity to create a Cybercivility Task Force to talk about curbing mean tweets, Facebook posts and other internet activity. The school system also called in Andrea Weckerle, author of a book about online “haters, trolls bullies and other jerks,” to speak at a public event on the topic.
“However, beware of an illusion that privacy exists when one tweets to hundreds of followers who in turn re-tweet to thousands,” Jones wrote in a response to The Tattler editorial. “The boldness Barons assert on social media must be matched by the courage to engage face-to-face.”
