Naperville Dist. 203 joins social networking debate

Is it ever appropriate for a teacher to text a student? And if so, when? What about e-mail contact?

Naperville Unit District 203 officials wrestled with those questions and several others Monday night as they began drafting a social networking regulation policy for staff and students.

Chief Information Officer Roger Brunelle presented a first draft of the policy to the board Monday, saying he wanted to be proactive with a policy that wouldn't have to be revisited every school year.

"The growth of electronic devices used in our school district is exploding, from cell phones to laptops to iPads," Brunelle said. "And with that comes some opportunities and also some risks; great opportunities in terms of bringing them into the education process, and risks associated with privacy, misuse of the devices, and unethical behavior associated with the devices."

The draft policy includes restrictions such as teachers only using their official school e-mail addresses to communicate with students. Using personal e-mail accounts would be forbidden, as would be playing online games with students and friending students on social media websites like Facebook.

Text messaging would be frowned upon, but not expressly banned outside of the school day.

Board members said texting often is a common way for coaches to update students on practice time or location changes.

Conversely, teachers are encouraged to communicate with students and parents about grades, attendance and other matters through school-sanctioned software called Infinite Campus that allows the posting of assignments and includes a messaging component.

"The salient point here is how big of a risk are we willing to take? In a way we're trying to provide some cover for that, the event that may or may not occur that puts us in a difficult position," Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said. "There is an adjustment period that we're going through here, and I guess it's trying to protect all the players involved."

The initial draft also includes a requirement for teachers to get both principal and parental consent from students before incorporating any social networking sites like Facebook or YouTube into the curriculum.

Board President Mike Jaensch, however, said the district needs to keep current and understand that students routinely use the new technology available to them, whether it be texting or instant messaging via Facebook.

And, he said, it's not all bad.

"We're taking this new technology and we're demonizing it, basically," he said. "Shouldn't we be teaching proper behavior, just like we do when kids go on the Internet, and expecting it with some guidance from our teachers?"

Board member Dave Weeks, was concerned the district may run into trouble if doesn't limit staff to traceable communication means such as district e-mail or the district software platform.

After about an hourlong discussion, Brunelle said he would take the feedback and revamp the draft for more discussion at the board's next meeting.