Few pieces of legislation have caught the eyes of students and teachers the way Senate Bill 54, or the “Facebook Bill,” has. However well-intentioned the law might have been, it still stands as an overreaction that could have devastating effects on relationships between students and their teachers.

Over a period of five years Missouri has been witness to 87 sexual abuse cases between high school students and  faculty. Use of social networking websites and email addresses has come under scrutiny as some people perceive those electronic mediums to facilitate unrestricted access to adolescents private lives.

Despite the good intentions of SB 54, the implementation of the bill has received stout opposition, and rightly so. The idea that students should not be able to contact their educators is illogical. Students depend on emails and text messaging to coordinate with teachers, club sponsors and coaches on anything ranging from the status of an essay or absence to the rescheduling of a team practice. It is irrational to try shutting down these methods of communication out of fear that they will be exploited.

Additionally, the vagueness of several components of the bill leaves many teachers and educators wary of establishing any kind of connection with students, even graduates. Here at Ladue, we are fortunate enough to have teachers who not only instruct, but mentor. So many lives are changed by the staff at this school, making it a crime in itself to try inhibit sustaining these friendships.

The injunction to freeze the implementation of SB 54 is fortunate, and hopefully it will allow legislators to make necessary alterations. No one contends that the bill seeks positive reform, but it must make changes that don’t ail the health of communication between students and staff, and more importantly, the life-long relationships that can be achieved. #