• Staff members should be encouraged to establish separate sites and pages for personal and professional use, if possible. However, all material on the internet should be presumed to be public—and nothing should be posted if it’s considered truly private.
• Staff members should maintain separate eMail accounts for professional/school and personal communications.
• Staff members should exercise care with privacy settings and personal profile content. Privacy settings can be changed at any time to limit access to profiles and searchability, and changes should be made when necessary.
• Staff members must be mindful of not just their own profiles, but the profiles of their friends as well. Photographs and comments on the profiles of friends that reflect poorly on the staff member must be considered as well. “The permeating and permanent effect of social networking cannot be overstated,” she wrote.
• Staff members utilizing social networking sites, either for school or personal use, should always bear in mind that they represent the school in all interactions at all times. Staff members should avoid any use of such resources in a manner that could reflect negatively on the school.
“If schools have these discussions with teachers and staff, cover these issues in staff development, and draft workable policies, they can prevent a multitude of problems (and avoid legal liability),” Bissonette wrote. “They also will demonstrate to the legislators of their respective states that they are taking responsibility for the issue of student/teacher electronic communication and legislation is not needed.”
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