A new bill, written by Senator Dennis Kruse, was recently proposed to the Indiana Senate, regarding the communication between teachers and students through means such as email, FaceBook, text messaging, and other various methods.
The bill states that messages sent from a student to a teacher and vice-versa must also be sent to the students parents, to keep them in the loop.
Principals would also be required to save all records of communication for at least two years. The saved messages could be used as evidence in cases involving inappropriate student-teacher relationships, should the need ever arise.
If school employees should fail to follow the rules outlined in the bill, it would result in a Class A misdemeanor, or a punishment of one year maximum in prison, coupled with a fine of $5,000. If a student violates the rules, they would face disciplinary action from the school, in accordance with the bill.
The bill is currently in the Corrections and Criminal Law Committee in the Senate, and still needs to undergo further committee hearings. If the committee approves, it will be presented to the Senate for debate and revision. Should the bill be passed, it will go into effect on July 1.
Peter Shetler, Bethany’s Technology Director, voiced his thoughts on the newly proposed bill. He stated that, “There are no pros to this bill. Although the concern is obviously not entirely imaginary, this bill offers no solution whatsoever while at the same time burdening schools with both complexity and liability.”
Shetler pointed out that there are multiple ways that teachers and students could communicate, and school emails seem like an unlikely source of contact if they’re intentions are bad.
Secondly, some parents might not appreciate having to wade through all of the emails they’re receiving, as most of it would pertain primarily to class work and scheduling.
The final point that Shetler made was that there would be a significant increase in administrative costs to ensure that parents got copies of every electronic correspondence if this bill was passed. He concluded by stating that enacting this bill would be “lots of real pain with no conceivable gain.”