Jackson board approves student/staff communication policy

Jackson's school board approved new district policies covering communication between students and staff at its meeting Tuesday.

The changes and additions to the policies came in response to state legislation passed in 2011 that requires school districts to create a policy concerning staff-student communication by March 1.

Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, is named after a Missouri student who was abused by a teacher when she was in junior high school. The law has also been called the Facebook Law due to controversy over a section of the bill that would have prevented connection of school staff and students via social media sites.

Legislators made revisions to the law in a fall 2011 special session by creating and passing Senate Bill 1, which removed the opposed mandates and requires school districts to create their own policies that include rules about electronic communication.

Rules on electronic communication, such as calling, texting and interacting online, are just one section of the new policy, which states that its goal is to protect students from harm and staff members from allegations of misconduct by requiring staff to maintain professional boundaries with students. Under the new policy, staff members may only communicate with students using district-provided electronic devices and accounts. Other sections of the policy include new requirements on training staff for reporting suspected and actual misconduct, list actions that are prohibited in student-staff relations, set consequences for misconduct and list exceptions to the policy in case of emergencies.

Dr. Beth Emmendorfer, assistant superintendent in the Jackson School District, said in an interview following the board's approval of the policy that the board adopted the policy recommended by the Missouri School Board Association, with the only exception being language that set certain hours staff could contact students via electronic communication for educational purposes. The reason for this, she said, is that some situations could arise where staff and students needed to contact one another outside of the hours set in the policy, 6 to 10 p.m., for schoolwork purposes.

Emmendorfer said the new policy will provide guidance for staff if they need to know what methods of communication with students are appropriate. Principals will address the new policy with staff, and the district will conduct necessary training, she said.

The board also approved a policy requiring parent notification if a staff member's supervisor gives the staff member permission to communicate with a student via electronic communication using a personal electronic device or account for the purposes of a school-related activity.

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