by JESSE SCACCIA
Summer vacation! Finally teachers can sleep in past 6 am, go to the bathroom whenever they feel like it, and cruise the Internet for hours and hours everyday.
I love the Internet, but it is totally sin-spiring. You start out going online with your best intentions: reading the newspaper, doing serious research, writing emails of affection, beauty and longing.
But that only lasts for a few clicks. And that’s when we realize this God-send of technology is really a devil, and it is singing its siren song from weedy rocks like MySpace and Facebook.
If only the descent into indecency ended there! It gets worse, my teacher friends. It’s bad enough we end up on Facebook and MySpace… but then the angel/devils, they sing too loud, they sing too perty… and we end up… (gasp!)
On. Our. Student’s. MySpace. Pages.
C’mon. Like you’ve never been there.
So this isn’t necessarily a creepy or pervy thing to do. We like our students. They become our friends, like nephews and nieces or some other relation of affection. It’s only natural that we would be curious about their personal lives.
(Gulp… right?)
The problem is what we find there. Inevitably you’ll find pictures of drinking, drugging, and all sorts of immoral/illegal/give-you-the-chills activities. The question then becomes, what do we do with this information?
Are our moral obligations as teachers still in play even as we’re cyberstalking our students?
The New York Times Magazine’s “Ethicist” Randy Cohen took on this very problem. Well worth the read.
But what do y’all perv-ass teachers think?
I’m.wondering.if.you’re.collecting.legal.defenses.and.also.wondering if commenting means admitting to being a “perv-ass” something.
I’ve already mentioned on your FB page (because I am a perv-ass something) that I think it could actually be part of lesson planning to find out what interests your students so that you can tailor your teaching to that. But I guess that’s my Candide way of looking at things and that was before I saw the post in which you specifically mention party pictures.
My other thought is that these kids are posting this stuff and it’s not like you’re doing anything extreme to find it. I don’t know about MS, but on FB, either their settings are for ‘everyone’ or they’ve friended you (I suppose you might slip in as “friend of a friend” but even then, they’ve allowed you and other perv-asses access).
Actually, your school system probably has some legal guidance on whether you have a duty to report this stuff. More importantly, though, I’d say you’re failing to teach your students to set privacy blockers and/or consider the potential ramifications of posting this stuff. Okay, putting that on teachers was a pot-shot, but someone needs to tell them. As a homeschooler, I’m already teaching my kids not to take nude photos of themselves.
There was a brouhaha in Fairfax County for an admin who had a topless pic on his cell phone as a result of investigating a sexting incident in his school. I thought it was really sad (a male student texted the pic to the admin who was too hapless to know how to remove it). Well, I believed the admin.
“If only the decent ended there! ”
Jesse, did you mean “descent” as in, the act, process, or fact of descending, or “decent,” as in, conforming to the recognized standard of propriety and good taste?
Ah, language. Such delight. Half the fun is getting it right.
It’s okay, Jesse. We all make mistakes. And typos.
Oh, an “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves” fanatic as homeschool parent? What could be better?
Want a job as our copy editor, Judith? I have corrected the mistake, and was inspired to make conscious use of what was probably a subconscious mistake. Enjoy.
- Jesse
it definitely struck me as a Freudian typo but I mistype all the time. My typos send me messages, just like Facebook and my dog. God I wish I had a dog.
Yes! Hire me, I’d love the job
.
It seems a bit odd that a teacher would feel the desire to ‘stalk’ their students’ web pages.
It also seems a bit odd that a teacher would even have to ask what should be done when they find that their students are engaging in illegal and risky behavior.
Hi Mom,
I know, it isodd. These social networking sites have created such an odd, unnatural amount of access to other people’s information, be it our students, our children, our friends, or our significant others. So many questions arise: Doesn’t a good teacher want to get to know and understand his/her students as much as possible? Is a social networking site the perfect way to do that, or does it betray a trust? Is the information on these sites to be treated like diary entries or cries for help? It can be a tricky thing to navigate.
To move on to your second point, there can be a big difference between illegal and risky behavior. We are not police; we are mandated reporters. But in the end, if something is risky, that comes first. We must protect our students as humans above all.
The fact that you feel comfortable addressing them as “perv-ass teachers” and imply a camaraderie with such a group is shocking.
Two things. One, it is because of comments and situations like this that I homeschool my children. I don’t want them being socialized by peers who drink, do drugs, and have sex. Two, I encourage them to socialize with people of all ages, appropriately. As a result, both of my children, who have Facebook and MySpace accounts have had to “unfriend” caring and not caring adults who have requested them as friends.
I made a point of talking to them and asking them why they want these accounts. The answer was to talk to and keep in touch with friends. That’s a good thing. I asked them how often they would normally call any one of these adults up on the phone to talk (this included relatives). Their response was rarely if ever. So, they “unfriended” them because in the end it really is kind of creepy…no matter who the adult.
Hi Lisa,
I don’t think you quite get the tone of how I write. Any adult who is actually a pervert toward children should be locked in a box. The loose style/tone here is meant to impart inclusion and familiarity, not to excuse or laugh off abhorrent behavior.
I understand being concerned about your child socializing with peers who do things like drink, do drugs, and have sex. I know that I would not be okay with that as a parent. At the same time, there are risks involved with isolating the young person from these temptations. I’ve seen enough sheltered high schoolers go off to college and go off the deep end with vices to think that, just maybe, helping the young person navigate the realities of the real world might be a better method than isolation from these vices. Leaving the child around the bad apples is like a vaccination, of sorts.
But I would only be okay with so much exposure. If I thought my kid was falling into a group of kids who had sex, did drugs, and got drunk, I might lock him or her in a box. It’s a tough choice, a tough world.
Aside from evidence pointing toward inappropriate behavior from an adult toward your children, I think you might be on the wrong track with the unfriending thing. Young people (30 and under) kind of add anyone to their MySpace pages. Most people you never even contact. But keeping those people can be useful down the road. I know that I’ve contacted people I haven’t seen for ten years through MySpace/Facebook, and it has ended up being both socially and professionally fruitful.
Thanks for reading and caring enough to share your thoughts.
- Jesse