Facebook + Teachers = privacy questions

By Anna Douglas  

JULY 16, 2010 5:00 a.m. (0)

Tagging, poking and friending may be fine on Facebook, but private information from school district employees' social web pages can end up in the district e-mail system.

Spartanburg District Five Director of Technology Tom Taylor said signing up for sites like Facebook with a work e-mail is opening the door for private information to be seen.

"(District staff) may do it innocently," he said.  "But if that service has any type of e-mail notification system, at that point they have no control over the (content)."

Facebook requires an e-mail at set-up and log in.  And the site sends its users e-mail notifications of various activities that occur on their page, including private messages.

In Spartanburg school districts, Facebook notifications end up in the spam folder, which is visible to some district staff members.

Taylor said blocks can filter e-mails with certain keywords or from any domain into the spam folder.

Content in the spam folder is visible to two technology employees in District Five, he said, and the information is subject to Freedom of Information Act requests by anyone.

Technology staff members do not randomly check spam folders or e-mail accounts for misuse of district e-mail addresses, Taylor said.

He said he only looks when he is asked to see if spam has incorrectly snagged a legitimate message.

Taylor has 12 years of experience as technology director and before that spent time in the classroom as a teacher.  He said he has seen the popularity of Facebook and other social networking sites rise, causing private information to inadvertently enter the district e-mail system.

The district's acceptable use policy of e-mail and technology states that employees may use their e-mail "only for educational and professional or career development activities...and limited, high-quality, self-discovery activities."

No mention is made of specific web sites, Taylor said, because that would limit the district's ability to address the variety of issues that may come up.

Some incidental use is tolerated such as sending an e-mail from school to a spouse or friend, he said.

New staff members are made aware of the e-mail policy when they are hired but violations of district policy, even those involving Facebook content that has made its way to district e-mail, could be potential personnel problems, Taylor said.

"It could rise to that level, but I don't want to speculate as to what that might be," he said.

In District Seven, the policy is similar, allowing e-mail to be used only for "educational and educational support activities," said Erika Shoolbred, director of information services.

There have not been any cases of Facebook content entering the district e-mail system by way of a staff member sign up, Shoolbred said.

Brian Calsing, director of technology in District Six, said he is familiar with Facebook's notification system and he signed up for the site with his personal e-mail.

District Six has not had any known cases of Facebook content winding up in district e-mail.

“I’m not going to say it’s not happening, but I’m not aware of it," Calsing said.

He said he does not routinely check the types of messages going in and out of the nearly 1,000-e-mail account system.

“We treat them as professionals until we see the need to otherwise,” he said.  “For us to expend those resources to do somewhat of a witch hunt would just not make sense.”

The district's e-mail policy does outline the district's right to retrieve content from an employee’s work e-mail for “legitimate reasons, such as to comply with investigations of wrongful acts or to recover from system failure," according to the district's web site.

District policy mandates that work-issued e-mail accounts be used only for work-related matters.

The policy defines misuse of e-mail in several ways including the use of e-mail “to set up personal businesses.”

It does not specifically mention Facebook, Twitter, Myspace or any other social networking site. Those web sites are addressed at the beginning of each year, Calsing said, and staff members are reminded to think carefully before posting content online.

“But there is a freedom of speech issue you have to be careful of," he said.  "We can’t tell anyone they can’t set up a Facebook.  We just encourage them to not be friends with students.”

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