Last year the hardworking staff noted the controversy over what the Boston Herald called on its front page:

ACEBOOK FLAP

Herald lede:

Teachers could be disciplined or fired for friending students on Facebook and school administrators would be encouraged to comb the Web for cyber-transgressions under a new policy being pitched to Massachusetts districts.

(Other Massachusetts stories here.)

Latest wrinkle (via techPresident):

Teachers Say Missouri ‘Facebook Law’ Stops Them From Doing Their Jobs

Missouri teachers are up in arms about a new state law that prohibits them from connecting with students on social networks:

The new law forbids teachers from having “exclusive access” online with current students or former students who remain minors, meaning any contact on Facebook or other sites must be done in public rather than through private messages.

Lucinda Lawson, an English teacher at Hartville High School in southern Missouri, expects to purge nearly 80 current and former students from her Facebook account, and she worries that doing so could leave some students vulnerable.

Private messages give “truly supportive teachers the chance to get help for them when they’re in dangerous or compromising situations,” Lawson said.

The law, the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, calls on school districts to draw up regulations concerning what are and aren’t acceptable interactions between teachers and students. It also leaves “exclusive access” undefined.

Once again, here’s the hardworking (and college-teaching) staff’s guideline: “Handy rule of thumb #1: No teacher should ever friend a student on Facebook. It’s just plain creepy.”

For everything else, just use your God-given common sense.