Is it appropriate to be FB friends with your kids’ teachers?

[Anonymous]

What do you think?

I say it’s not.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it is appropriate for the teachers to be friends with parents.

[Anonymous]

No, but after your kid leaves the school I think it's okay. If you were actually truly friends, then you'd want to at that point.

[Anonymous]

No.

I've used Facebook to stay in touch with 1-2 teachers, but only after both my children moved on from that school.

[Anonymous]

Not until your kids and any siblings have gone through their class.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't send a teacher a friend request because I wouldn't know how they'd feel so I wouldn't want to put them in that position to feel awkward, but I have accepted a friend request from a teacher. Essentially everyone in the class who on FB, is friends with teacher on FB. I don't think it's a big deal.

[Anonymous]

Its creepy.

[Anonymous]

I am friends with one of my children’s specials teacher (art, music, PE). She is a person that is in tune with all sorts of unique things to do around the area. She also has kids the same age as mine. Every Sat morning she posts a list of interesting things to do that weekend. Many parents are friends with her and we comment that we’ll go to Asseteque or the Balt Light Show or the art museum. All of a sudden there is a group of 5 families doing something together over the weekend. The kids are having fun because they’re with their friends. Sometimes the teacher and her kids join show up and sometimes they done.

I don’t know a quarter of the things she posts. They’re things I would never find on my own. And I certainly couldn’t organize the kids friends to come on a random outing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is appropriate for the teachers to be friends with parents.

This. I’m an elementary principal and tell teachers not to be social media friends with parents. If a parent makes a request, they should decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you think?

I say it’s not.

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it is appropriate for the teachers to be friends with parents.

This. I’m an elementary principal and tell teachers not to be social media friends with parents. If a parent makes a request, they should decline.

One more thing...all of this refers to personal accounts. A teacher can have a “professional” account where s/he posts just about education, class events, etc.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s fine. We are in MCPS which is a huge county but people seem to be connected in various ways. I know some of the teachers at my kids’ school through synagogue, etc. why would we not be friends? Not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Ok, but only after your kid leaves and you genuinely want to be friends with them.

[Anonymous]

No, not until after your kid leaves their class or (even better) the school. (But even then...why?!)

I guess if you’re friends with the teacher in a way that’s totally unrelated to school I could see it though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you think?

I say it’s not.

Everyone is presumably an adult, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. Teachers are allowed to have friends with people who have children. It is not appropriate for a teacher to be facebook friends with a student, when they are their student.