New Bethel Park policy sets boundaries between teacher and student
Bethel Park School Board approved a new policy Aug. 23 that limits teachers’ interactions with students, particularly on social media.
Board solicitor Patricia Andrews said Bethel Park’s new policy is based on a sample version that the Pennsylvania School Boards Association provided to all member school districts in the wake of accusations of teacher sexual misconduct locally and nationally.
Two former Plum High School teachers were sentenced to prison earlier this year for having sex with students.
Superintendent Joseph Pasquerilla said the policy protects students and advises teachers on how to avoid placing themselves in compromising situations. The policy encourages all adults to keep relationships with students strictly professional.
Adults are prohibited from discussing private matters with students and from contacting them individually outside of class, through email, text or social media. Teachers should not give a personal gift to a student, and they should not become “friends” or follow one another’s personal accounts on any social media platform. Instead, teachers and coaches should send group emails or texts to the entire team or class when appropriate.
School board member Pam Dobos expressed concerns that the policy would stifle class discussions. A retired English teacher, Dobos said she and her literature students would share personal stories as part of the creative process.
Andrews said teachers who want to lead similar classroom discussions could get approval from the building principal. She said the idea behind the policy is not to prevent all personal interactions with students, but to prevent those interactions from happening in secret.
Certain personal interactions “can lead down a slippery slope that we don’t want anywhere in the state and especially not in Bethel Park,” said Pasquerilla.
District employees will be trained on the new rules before the first day of school, Sept. 6.
The school board also revised a policy on sports booster organizations. The policy sets guidelines for fundraising and the appropriate uses for any money gained through fundraising, such as buying equipment or awards. Fundraising money cannot be used to supplement coaches’ salaries.
The board normally has three readings of any new or revised policy, but the board waived that procedure for the maintaining professional boundaries policy and the booster organization policy. Both were finalized Aug. 23 because of the impending start of the school year.
The board had the first of three readings for several other new policies and revisions concerning student services; travel reimbursement; special, gifted and career and technical education; English as a second language; hazing; employment; and food services. Pasquerilla said most of revisions are minor language changes. Those policies will likely become effective after the Sept. 27 board meeting.
In other matters Aug. 23, the board hired R&B Construction of West Mifflin to repair a hillside slip at the high school property. The company will be paid $464,425 to fix the hill behind the softball field, which started slipping last fall after heavy rains.
The board closed the full-time library-secretary position at Independence Middle School and created a part-time library-secretary position.