Redmond Schools Consider Texting Policy

As the Redmond School District looks to put a policy in place about texting between students and teachers, the court of public opinion is weighing in on an issue that is at the center of a child sex abuse case.

If Redmond does adopt such a policy, they would be only the second Central Oregon school district after Jefferson County to spell out rules for social media.

While communicating outside of class can be very helpful for homework purposes, the attorneys, parents and even students we talked to Monday agreed it rides a fine line of being highly inappropriate.

The Redmond district’s proposed policy would require texts between a teacher and student be “appropriate and professional” and could allow them to discipline or fire a teacher over it.

Family law attorney Lori Hellis has represented students caught up in cyber-bullying. She says school districts need a policy in place, but it can be hard for them to define what’s appropriate.

“A teacher needs to decide how accessible they’re going to be with their students,” she said.

“If an adult decides they’re going to have inappropriate communication with a child, I don’t think that sort of statement will make any difference, but it does provide a protection for the school district in dealing with their personnel who’s violated that policy.”

Student/teacher texting has been the subject of increased litigation across the country, because this is such a new problem.

At a recent open house for the Redmond Profiency Academy, administrators told parents they encourage out-of-class communication.

RPA doesn’t have a policy, but has said they’ll look at how other districts deal with the issue.

But it’s texting and home visits that furthered the contact outlined in court documents accusing former RPA director Michael Bremont of sexually abusing a 15-year-old student.

Students like sophomore Lanie Mims would find it odd, at least, to get a text from her teachers, or send one to them.

“Outside of class, texting and Facebooking your teacher — it’s just kind of weird,” she said.

Another student, Zac Tennant, agreed: “I’ve never really e-mailed or texted to my teachers.” Would he think that was weird? “Probably, yeah — kind of weird.”

There are plenty of teachers with class Web pages and who put their lectures on YouTube, and parents we talked to said that’s been helpful. But all said giving out or getting personal cell phone numbers crossed the line.

“That would be very weird,” said parent Taryn Tennant. “Too personal. Texting is for friends back and forth, and if a teacher did it without my being involved, it would be very uncomfortable.”

And more than any policy, that’s where the real protection lies, Hellis said — in parents being nosy and involved in all the websites and texts being sent.

The Redmond School District hasn’t decided on the specifics of a policy yet, but a board member did suggest parents being able to opt their child out of any social media communication.

Our latest KTVZ.COM Poll, on the right side of the home page, asks if you think texts between teachers and students should be allowed. The early vote was decisive: 81 percent of the voters said no.