The Glade 4.0

I don't see what any of this stuff about confidants and mentorship have to do with the policy. The policy covers electronic communications. If it's a verbal conversation, there's no record of it, so regardless of the policy if the student and teacher want it to stay between them, it will.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Going down since 1990, it looks like - I've not heard it going down, just remember all the talk about it going up:

http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/reso ... eFrame.pdf

Still, the path to appropriate care for a student can and often does lead through their existing relationships, and in that, teachers can - if they are allowed - have a beneficial impact.

_________________
In time, this too shall pass.

Because electronic communication is the medium of choice for todays students.

If there is no expectation of privacy the student suffers more than if there is. Sorta the way you'd suffer if you couldn't expect privacy between yourself and a chaplain, councilor or lawyer.

_________________
In time, this too shall pass.

Jaffee v. Redmond-esque?

_________________
“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

You are arguing under the premise that there is not special information needed in these cases. Well, not so much with being a homosexual, but with pregnancy there certainly is. What are the options, what are the consequences, what are the costs, what are the dangers, what is the process for having a baby?

Yes, I said process for having a baby. Sure, she's human and the baby will pop out eventually. But that's not the ideal way to handle it, is it? There is a lot of information needed and expertise available in this particular area. Random_Art_Teacher_01 is likely not in possession of it.

It's not required obviously. The human race will continue regardless of this issue or it's implementation.

However, that doesn't mean that a school won't be better protected from potential lawsuit or hopefully provide better responses to their students by leveraging trained professionals.

Hmmmms ...

I still disagree. The litigious nature of America is a problem of its own that needs correcting. I see the responses in this thread, namely yours and Arathain's, Aizle, as indicators of a greater social ill and a larger separation of our society as a whole; that is, because the propensity to think of terms of law suits, "better responses", etc., we're no longer thinking in terms of the human element.

_________________

If a young person doesn't want to talk to their parents or someone in their family, that leaves other kids and teachers, for the most part.

A teacher could just listen or point them in the right direction.

I'm all about keeping teachers out of the students lives, but I don't think putting obstacles the other way is of any benefit

_________________
In time, this too shall pass.

Can you expand on what you mean by the human element?

Hu

Some things to consider.

Texting as a means of communication is prohibited by the new policy - UNLESS - the teacher/sponsor is of an extra-curricular course. Such as band, which I am a teacher of. No core teachers may text students, period, the end.

Someone mentioned dating a student really early on. Dating a student, any kind of sexual relationship with student is against the law in the state of Texas. This applies to all public school students until they graduate from High school. Age of consent is not applicable to this law, there is to be no dating relationship with students, period, the end.

(at the age of 20 something I would have found that restrictive, at the age of 45 I find it just fine.)

As a band director, I am a teacher who is a part of student's lives for literally years. As such, I develop relationships that require a great deal of COMMON SENSE on my part. Band directors (or teachers in general) who don't develop that common sense can come to bad ends, much like a friend of mine did several years ago. He had a sexual relationship with a , student and was in jail for six months, probation for 10 years.

Part of my problem with the policy of my district is the lack of common sense. The technology is out there, kids are using it, teachers are using it, and administrators are hiding from it.

You're still in Killeen, right?

You're right next to Fort Hood. Common sense gets annihilated like it came in contact with antimatter around there.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Copperas Cove, and yes, it is in short supply.

Things like this are a large part of where these kinds of rules come from.

It seems to me that there was already rules in place that handled this ort of thing, no? Didn't you see the part where the guy went to jail for six months and was on probation for ten years? If that in and of itself wasn't enough to dissuade him, I can't see how a comparitively minor legal hurdle like this is going to make a bit of difference.

_________________

Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I wasn't placing any value judgement on the effectiveness at stopping that kind of behavior, just noting that it was that kind of behavior that leads to those kinds of rules.

When people are unable to control themselves in a proper manner, the rest of the population will attempt to do it for them.

Liability. And as the employer for the teacher, I have no problem with them putting conditions of conduct as part of the employment contract, which has the added benefit of providing cause for dismissal in such a heavily unionized system. A teacher objects enough to the conditions of the job is welcome to find another district, or a private school, that is willing to hire under different conditions with different assumed liability exposure.

While I understand the comments, and empathize, regarding the loss of "human" interaction such a litigious society as ours creates, it is of more concern that such things are needed when so many in society play loose and fast with their own personal, and societal, ethics, while demanding so much of others. I'm sure if you had asked Ruidi's friend prior to the relationship if dating students was a good idea, he would have said no. Didn't stop him from making a different personal decision when actually confronted with the situation, for which I am sure he created a myriad of excuses or reasons why the rules didn't apply to him, or this particular situation, etc.

Sadly, as an employer, you have to be cognitive of such potential, the ramifications of breaking the laws, and the liability of hiring others in positions of responsibility. With the quality of the teachers being produced at a lot of the education programs, its no wonder the school administrators are imposing such draconian measures, and updating policies to account for new technologies to limit their liability. After all, a lawsuit saved against these kinds of charges is potentially multi-million dollar... which is ultimately tax payer dollars.

In which case, the real problem is that people can sue the district at all for incidents like this. Rules like this really just compromise the rights of the parents, do absolutely nothing to reduce the chances of a relationship, and create the illusion of protection from liability, when in reality anyone who sues will always be able to argue that more could ahve been done no matter what actually was.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Khross, for clarification, I'm not thinking in "terms of law suits", I'm thinking in terms of parenting. I know far more idiot teachers than positive role models. Luckily, the idiots tend to not give a **** about the students and don't generally develop personal relationships with them (or the students don't get involved because they are idiots). Still, too many idiots out there.

This policy will not prevent relationships from developing. They will simply be more open. If there is something that cannot be open, in general the kid will still go to his role model. Role model will make a judgement on how best to handle it.

This is fine, and the way it should be. Preferably, I'd like to meet these proffs and "approve" these relationships, but that's a bit too far on the parental control side.

You, and many others, constantly talk about personal responsibility and the responsibility for your children. Yet you are opposed to a policy that assists in this. It's a contradiction (arguably less so as the student ages and becomes more responsible for him/herself).

Exactly. However, policies such as this one are widely used and expected, so not implementing them could be construed as creating a "more" unsafe environment for the children.