LEBANON, Tenn. (WSMV) – On Thursday, Oct. 24, a member of the Wilson County School Board of Education proposed a policy that affects how district employees can use social media, networking sites, personal websites and blogs.
Earlier this year in late July, board member Greg Hohman filed an ethics complaint against Janie Johnson who was named “Teacher The Year” in March 2023.
The complaint was over an event on Feb. 27, 2023, at a parent-teacher conference. According to the report, Hohman said they discussed his son’s academic progress and then discussed how it was going to have him leave the classroom to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” instead of “Speak” out loud in class.
Later on, during Hohman’s campaign for school board, he said Johnson posted on social media platforms that during the parent-teacher conference he yelled at his son’s 9th grade ELA teacher and “made her cry.”
On Aug. 26, Johnson appeared in front of the ethics committee, the complaint was dismissed and forwarded to human resources for further investigation.
During Thursday’s meeting, Hohman said there is an obvious need to create and adopt a social media policy.
The policy Hohman proposed was similar to that of Rutherford County’s social media policy.
According to the proposed policy, employee’s personal social media use must not interfere with official duties, violate any district policies, or damage the reputation of the school district, its employees, its students, or its families.
Some of the guidelines the Board of Education said employees should abide by include the following:
- Employees are prohibited from posting data documents, photographs, or “inappropriate information likely to create” a disruption of classroom activities.
- Employees should not use personal social networking sites for school or district purposes.
- If employees plan to use social media as a classroom or parent resource, the board recommends that employees use dedicated non-personal social networking accounts. The accounts must also be approved by the school principal or central office department head prior to creation.
- Coaches, band directors and other employees who need to use social media sites to communicate information about clubs teams or other student groups should establish a “dedicated, non-personal social networking account with the permission of the school principal.”
- Employees are also “strongly” discouraged from socializing with students on social networking websites. They are also strongly discouraged to have current students as friends, followers.
- Other networking sites representing individual departments, schools or employees must be approved by the department head and/or principal.
- The specific social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok permitted for use by Wilson County Schools, individual schools and employees shall be determined in the administrative procedure by the Director of Schools.
- Employees will have to make sure students featured on social networking sites have been authorized to do so by their parents.
According to the proposed policy, employees who violate the social media policies could face “potential ethics violations and/or, dependent on the severity of the infraction, other disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
During the meeting, there was an initial conversation, however, there was no motion or vote.
According to Wilson County Schools, the policy will be discussed again at future board meetings.
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