+ Legal Issues Article Presentation Leah Howard Sexting, Teacher Negligence, and the Law By Michael D. Kelly

+ Schools are Agents of Change In the realm of technology, teachers and administrators must continually keep pace with the latest advances introduced to them through students it is imperative that administrators, teachers, and school board members understand their legal responsibilities when facing difficult choices brought about by the digital age

+ Consider this Scenario Stephanie and Jacob are both 8th grade students at a local middle school. At the beginning of the year, the two started dating. During their courtship, Stephanie took a few “inappropriate” pictures of herself and sent them to Jacob on his cell phone (much to his delight). As the Thanksgiving holiday approached, Stephanie decided to break up with Jacob, and told him so during a bus ride home one afternoon. Infuriated, Jacob sent the pictures to several of their friends’ cell phones as a way to get back at her. The next morning, Stephanie was informed by her friends at school that Jacob had sent the pictures to numerous people. She soon realized that students were talking about the pictures, as many began to make fun of her in the hall, clearly creating a disruption. Distraught and crying, she reported the situation to her homeroom teacher, explaining everything that had happened. The teacher informed Stephanie that since the incident occurred after school, nothing could be done. Stephanie

+ How should teachers respond in this situation? Thoughts?

+ Consider the story of Jesse Logan …. a tragic ending to an increasingly common story. 44% of boys indicated having seen sexual images of girls in their schools About 15 % of this group said they had disseminated the images upon breaking up with the girls Sexting: texting lewd messages or pictures via cell phone

+ Sobering Statistics

+ As technology advances, the law remains consistent Was the teacher correct, according to current school law, in not taking action? No. May lawfully take action & administer discipline for incidents that happen outside the school, if the incident creates a significant disruption in the school had something happened to Stephanie as a result of the photos  Negligence a lack of action by those in the school could have dire consequences

+ Negligence: an injury caused to another person by the unreasonable conduct of others if a person’s action, or failure of action, causes another person to be injured (physically, emotionally, or financially), he or she may be found guilty of negligence in a court of law schools cannot guarantee the safety of all students Ask: “Would a reasonable and prudent person have anticipated harmful results in this situation?” state legislatures have established governmental immunity for teachers and administrators in cases of simple negligence

+ Four-Pronged Test for Negligence (1) a duty to protect others (2) failure to exercise appropriate standard of care (3) the existence of a causal connection between the act and the injury (4) an injury, damage, or loss

+ In Stephanie’s Fictional Case… the teacher had a clear legal duty to protect her the teacher failed to exercise an appropriate standard of care a reasonable person would report the incident to the administration or refer Stephanie to the school counselor if there was some form of injury to Stephanie due to the distribution of the pictures, it could be argued that the teacher’s lack of action served as the proximate cause of the escalation of the incident Stephanie and/or her parents would need to demonstrate that an injury did in fact occur

+ Implications it is often not a question of what serves as a catalyst to create the issue, but how the issue is handled clearly defined policies dictating how employees should handle situations such as this If employees conduct themselves as a reasonable person would in any given situation, the law is designed to protect them

+ Reflection the safety and well being of our students is a legal obligation must create policies that address the implications of emerging technologies school employees and students must be made aware of these policies and their respective responsibilities + “Policy Team” comprised of students & teachers + educate all students & staff about district policies & impact on lives + interactive and informative workshops that involve simulations, role-playing + high school level to the elementary levels with age-appropriate content + educate young people on the pitfalls and risks involved