Mo. Senate panel OKs repeal of school Internet law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri senators took a step Wednesday toward repealing a new law limiting online conversations between teachers and students, but stirred opposition from the governor by still attempting to mandate that schools adopt their own policies about online chats and text messages.

The action by the Senate Education Committee comes a couple of weeks after a Missouri judge blocked the new law on teacher-Internet communications from taking effect because of concerns it infringes on free-speech rights.

Gov. Jay Nixon then added the law's repeal to the agenda for a special session that began this week. Nixon's proclamation stated it should not be construed to allow lawmakers to enact revised or new language in place of the repealed section.

Yet lawmakers appear poised to do that. The bill endorsed by the Senate panel would repeal the original law's provision that barred teachers from using websites that give "exclusive access" to current students or former students who are 18 or younger. The revised bill still would require public school districts by March 1 to adopt policies on employee-student communication, including "the use of electronic media," in order "to prevent improper communications."

Unlike the original law, the Senate bill does not specify the details of those local policies. The new bill was praised Wednesday as a compromise by various education groups, including the Missouri State Teachers Association which had filed suit against the original law. If the new legislation is enacted by Nixon, the MSTA likely will drop its lawsuit against Missouri, said association lobbyist Mike Wood.

Nixon spokesman Scott Holste said the legislation goes beyond the scope of the governor's agenda for the session, but he added: "It's too early in the process to speculate on the prospect of a veto of a bill that hasn't passed."

The Missouri Constitution gives the governor the authority to determine which matters lawmakers can consider during extraordinary sessions.

But Cunningham contends that does not mean the governor can limit how legislators act on those matters -- for example, by restricting them only to repealing a section of law instead of amending it.

She cites a 1922 Missouri Supreme Court opinion that says the Legislature, when summoned in a special session, "does not have to follow the views of the governor and legislate in a particular way upon the submitted subject." In that case, however, the Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers had gone beyond the governor's prescribed subject of establishing justice-of-the-peace districts in St. Louis to also establish constable districts. Though the governor signed the bill into law, the court stuck it down because the legislation exceeded the governor's original subject matter.

That contention could come into play for Missouri's newly proposed measure only if someone affected by it raised that point in a lawsuit. The prospects for another lawsuit are iffy, considering the state's main education groups support Cunningham's latest measure.

Cunningham contends the policies on Internet communications are an important part of a broader law enacted earlier this year that seeks to stop school personnel who have sexually abused students from quietly resigning and getting hired by other districts. That law requires schools to share information with other districts about teachers who have sexually abused students and allows lawsuits in cases where districts fail to disclose such information and teachers later abuse someone else.

Among those testifying Wednesday before the Senate committee was Thomas Wright, a police officer who works at the Eldon school district in central Missouri and previously was employed at Versailles schools. Wright said he has investigated at least four cases of school employees who had inappropriate sexual relationships with students over the course of his career.

"All of the contacts originated from text messaging or Facebook or other social media," he said.

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School Internet bill is SB1.

Online:

Missouri Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov

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David A. Lieb can be reached at: http://twitter.com/DavidALieb