Deleting friends off of Facebook has been known to be a huge offense in teenage society.

Now there’s a great excuse for students to offend their teachers, because the Missouri state government may enforce our school district to restrict all student and staff contact outside of the classroom.

The new law revolves around the sexual harassment case of a woman named Amy Hestir Davis, who claimed she was sexually abused by a teacher as a junior high student.

In response, Missouri created a public policy to protect students, hoping to prevent sexual harassment and abuse situations from happening again.

Overall, the bill is a necessity for school districts so that students may be protected.

But many criticize “MO SB 54” for crossing the line of regulating communication. Senate Bill 54, nicknamed the “Facebook law,” has gotten a lot of media coverage.

All contact between students and teachers/staff is heavily restricted in the clause “162.069” under the bill. If a student would like to reach a teacher for educational reasons, the bill requires that the conversation must have a third party, the school administration. Also, it forces teachers to not have non-work related social websites where the school cannot reach the address.

When the student is 18 years of age or older and has graduated, the student and teacher are allowed to make contact. The student is no longer categorized under the clause as a “student”.

It makes teachers and students jump through hoops just talk about school concerns. Understandably, a teacher shouldn’t want to contact a student (or vice versa) for social reasons.

Everything said outside school via Internet and text messaging should be morally and mentally limited.

Yet he government should not overstep its bounds so far that it watches over conversations in the public school system. If any group should make regulations, it is the school district and board who rightfully have the final say.

“The theory behind the bill is great, because a sexual pedophile should lose their certificate of teaching for committing a crime. But the only problem in the bill is the communication restriction clause, where contact between students and staff is removed, which is ridiculous. We need communication between our students and staff.

“If anyone is in the right position to decide how to regulate communication, it is the school board and voters, not state legislature. But if the bill is shown as constitutional by a judge, then of course the policy will be enforced because rules are made for safety,” Assistant Principal Bates said.

Of course students should be the highest priority in a teacher’s career, so they should not even have the idea of harming a student. The trust between teachers, administration, staff, parents, and students is a strong bond where it is enough to have the capability of communication. For many students and teachers, technology improves the school relationship.

Out of a small survey of 38 students, 36 have made contact outside of school in the past week.

With multiple answers, 18 have contacted a school staff member (teacher, school coach, etc.) via text messaging, eight contacted a school staff member via non-school related websites, and nine have contacted a school staff member via a school-related website.

There is so much contact between students and staff in our school, shown by so few numbers. And communication is a great value of Northtown!

Thankfully, MSTA, Missouri School Teacher Association, was granted an injunction for the courts to determine the constitutionality of the clause.

Then, on Sept. 14, the bill was revised and passed by both the house and the senate. The revision takes out the clause “162.069” and replaced it to where the school district must create their own electronic communication policy by March 1, 2012.

I hope the school board realizes the necessity of communication between teachers and students and creates an appropriate policy.

If we maintain the current status, Northtown will progress greatly into a better school. Students and teachers should voice their opinions to school board administration.