Internet Boundaries

This is a good article, check out the whole thing:

Web sites cross teacher-student lines

A handful of teens posted messages about grades, extracurricular activities and substitute teachers on an embattled Jackson Middle School teacher's personal Web site in the months before she was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student.

The teens, who identified themselves from Titusville or anonymous Florida locations like "SomeWhere," freely commented on Janet Lea Hughes' MySpace.com page. Several more were listed as "friends" on the page.

Internet experts say social networking sites like MySpace.com and Facebook.com ease conversations between students and teachers. But the technology usually does not push adults over the student-teacher line.

"A professional educator does not cross those boundaries in physical space and they do not cross them in virtual space," said Dianne Lynch, dean of Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y. "When you are a professional, you are a professional. Sometimes we overestimate the power of technology."

Showing a little too much pompom?

Thx to Trench for the link:

Parents Not Cheering Over Pom Coach's Photos

A Waukegan High School pompon coach is under fire for posting what some parents consider lewd photos of herself on MySpace.com.

Natosha Shaw, 25, an aspiring dancer and model, was hired last fall to lead Waukegan High School's 28 pom dancers. Team parents and students hope to pressure school administrators to fire Shaw.

Rachel Albarran was critical of the photos and other entries on Shaw's MySpace site.

"They're indecent," Albarran said. "When you're a coach, you become a role model and you're setting an example. She should know the kids are all over the Internet. It's embarrassing."

The photos showing Shaw posing in scanty outfits are just one of a barrage of complaints from parents who insist Shaw is inexperienced, incompetent and immature.

"It was like she was sitting back doing nothing but collecting a paycheck," Albarran said. "The captain of the varsity team ran the practices while she sat in high-heeled shoes."

Myspace Again

Teacher due in court still using MySpace site

A Rialto High School teacher who was arrested more than a month ago on suspicion of lewd acts with a girl is apparently communicating with his students via his blog on MySpace.com as he awaits his court date.
Matthew Cepican, 31, was arrested Feb. 26 after Fontana police found him with a 16-year-old Rialto girl in his car in a remote area in the north end of Fontana.

The popular history teacher, called "Mr. C" by students at Rialto High, was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on suspicion of committing lewd or lascivious acts with a minor.

Cepican has posted bail and is scheduled to appear Monday in Fontana Superior Court, though the District Attorney's Office has yet to file charges against him.

Myspace

MySpace teacher sacked

THE teacher at the centre of an internet blog row has been sacked.

Earlier this week the Manchester Evening News reported how psychology teacher Catherine Young-Southward, 37, had been suspended from her post at Hyde Clarendon College, part of Tameside College, after being accused of sending `inappropriate messages' to her pupils through her personal MySpace internet page.