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Schools

Board Restricts Social Media Use for School Employees

Danbury Board of Education adopts a policy with specific rules for mentioning anything school-related when staff are using social networking tools.

Employees of the Danbury Schools will need to be cautious in their use of social networking sites from now on, and follow specific rules in adopted unanimously by the Danbury Board of Education.

"We have learned, anecdotally, of quite a few situations lately where people are commenting on the administration out on Facebook, and that's exactly the kind of conduct we're trying to prevent or restrict," said Kim Johnson, the school district's director of human resources, who will oversee the new policy.

"The Board of Education recognizes the importance of social media for its employees, and acknowledges that its employees have the right under the First Amendment, in certain circumstances, to speak out on matters of public concern," the five-page policy (http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/bbadmin/bdmeetings/11-15-10.pdf, pp. 26-30) begins. "However, the Board will regulate the use of social media by employees, including employees' personal use of social media, when such use: 1) interferes with the work of the school district; 2) is used to harass coworkers or other members of the school community; 3) creates a hostile work environment; 4) breaches confidentiality obligations of school district employees; 5) disrupts the work of the school district; 6) harms the goodwill (sic) and reputation of the school district in the community; or 7) violates the law, board policies and/or other schools rules and regulations."

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If an employee violates the policy, "discipline up to and including termination of employment" can be the result.

Comments made on social media sites can hurt employee morale, Johnson said. Personal e-mail is not the target of this policy, she said, just web pages in the public realm. The policy names the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and MySpace.

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"This is mandated from the state and we have to do it," said Board of Education member Robert Taborsak. "It was the recommendation of our law firm… They have to defend us if there's any question legally on the matter."

"Does the state have the right to mandate what people do off school property?" asked Vice Chairman Richard Jannelli.

The policy says that employees may not mention the Board of Education, schools, programs or teams on personal social networking sites unless they state that this is a personal communication, and not the views of the district. There are also specific rules about creating links to school district sites.

Further, employees may not mention other employees or members of the school community without their consent, unless the subject is of public concern and the speech "falls under applicable constitutional protections."

"Friending" of students and parents by teachers is forbidden under the policy as "inappropriate." Personal posts also must use "appropriately respectful speech," and "refrain from harassing, defamatory, abusive, discriminatory, threatening or other inappropriate communications," the policy reads. "Such posts reflect poorly on the school district's reputation, can affect the educational process and may substantially and materially interfere with an employee's ability to fulfill his/her professional duties."

Johnson said that training on the new policy would be presented first to building principals, then in a "second wave" to additional employees who are in supervisory roles.

"The day-in-day-out [oversight] would fall to the building principals," she said, who would report violations to her office. "As a practical matter, [reports] would most likely come to us anecdotally."

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