Should social media be part of school background checks? |
On Board Online • January 12, 2015
By Russ Moore
Idaho High School Coach Fired for "Immoral" Facebook Photo
Teachers' Saucy Web Profiles Risk Jobs
When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web
- Recent headlines
It's a different world today than it was just a short 10 years ago. News items frequently report that someone has suffered a serious consequence because of something he or she posted on Facebook or Twitter. The three headlines above are a small sampling of what you'll find if you Google "fired for Facebook postings" or "fired for Twitter comments."
In the education community, we have to face the fact that virtually all young teachers spent their adolescence and young adult lives on social media. Many have been used to sharing whatever comes to mind with online friends. Of course, they need to change that behavior when they become educators. And they truly need to understand that a youthful, naive, funny comment can have serious consequences in the adult world.
Some young teachers adjust better than others. How else can you explain the teacher in the state of Washington who lost her position for writing in a personal blog that one of her administrators was ". a smug know-it-all creep ." with ". a reputation of crapping on secretaries ." Or the Pennsylvania college senior and student teacher who was deemed to have engaged in unprofessional conduct because of postings on her MySpace site, which was accessible to her students. Her comments included criticism of her supervisor and a photo of her wearing a pirate hat, drinking from a plastic cup, with the caption "drunken pirate."
Like most school administrators, I have not explored candidates' social media background in the hiring process. I have had the impression that this is just not part of the standard practice, but I didn't know why. It turns out that there are legal concerns (see story).
It's a little absurd. As soon as someone is hired, students, parents and anyone else can do a Google search on the new teacher and find out whatever. But, apparently, we take a legal risk if we do a Google search before making the hiring decision. Let's just hope there are no photos on the Internet of the person marching in Nazi parades, or we'll look pretty foolish.
There ought to be a way for a district to protect itself. A more complete "background check" would include questions asked of candidates on application forms or during the interview process like, "Is there anything posted on any media site that could be an embarrassment to you or to this district?" If a candidate tells you one thing and contrary evidence surfaces later, appropriate action can be taken based on that misinformation. Perhaps reference checks could also include a question about the candidate's activity on social media.
A candidate might object to such questions as overly intrusive. Districts must weigh those objections against the possibility that social media postings contain racist, sexist, misogynistic, or culturally inappropriate remarks. Do we want unhappy candidates or unhappy parents?
Consider the "drunken pirate" mentioned earlier. If she became a teacher, would she be a threat to children? Probably not. But is that the type of person you want as the face of your teaching staff?
There is no question that everyone makes mistakes and that an ill-advised social media posting doesn't mean a person has no value to a district. Highly valuable and talented people can commit errors in judgment. But do you want to take on as an employee someone who has demonstrated such an error in judgment? It begs the question, why? Why hire someone who has shown poor judgment when there could be equally talented candidates who have not done similar acts?
While there is no law prohibiting school districts from doing social media checks, that may change. During the last session of the state Legislature, two bills sought to remove a district's option to pursue social media background checks, according to NYSSBA. One bill, A443B/S0243B, sought to prohibit an employer or educational institution from requiring or even requesting that a student, employee or applicant provide any user name, password or any other manner to access a personal account or service through specific electronic communication devices. Another bill, A08890/S01701, would have protected the privacy of employees' and prospective employees' social media accounts. Neither law, if enacted, would make our jobs easier. All of us want to hire the best possible candidates, and these potential laws would only shield candidates with a "past" from our vetting process.
The problem is that no school district wants to see headlines about "Teachers' Saucy Web Profiles." Nor do parents want to put their trust in people who have demonstrated poor judgment in their personal lives. We ought to be able to consider how people present themselves online when evaluating candidates. Our school attorneys - or possibly our legislators - should help us find a way to do this.
Asking about social media may make people on both sides of the interview table uncomfortable. But given the age in which we live, this needs to be a part of the hiring process. We owe that to our professionalism and to our profession.
Russ Moore is principal at North Colonie's Shaker Junior High School. He blogs at mooreperspective.wordpress.com.