Thanks for the add, teach.

No thanks, says a Missouri legislator trying to stop teachers from privately communicating with students on social networking sites, like Myspace or Facebook.

The measure didn’t go anywhere this year in Jefferson City, but it’s picking up speed and may surface again in 2009.

Adding someone as a “friend” on MySpace or Facebook permits the user to see that person’s personal profile, which the general public may not be able to view otherwise.

Ashley Mattox, 13, said she’s added her teachers at Cameron (Mo.) Middle School as friends to her Facebook account.

“Yeah, but I text them more than anything,” Ashley said. “... Lately, we’ve been talking about if we’re ready for the school year and things like that.”

When asked if they were friends with their teachers online, Jessi Croder, 12, and Kelsee Brady, 11, both said no with “no way!” looks on their faces.

Kelsee’s mom, Jennifer Brady, added, “I don’t think it’s cool to be friends with teachers online.”

Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, agrees.

CNN recently featured a bill she pitched to the state Legislature this spring that essentially would’ve made such online friendships illegal.

Earlier this year she proposed that every school district be required to create a policy regarding teacher-student and employee-student communications. While some of the specifics would’ve been left up to the district, HB 1314 would’ve prohibited teachers from establishing nonwork-related Internet sites with current or former students that school administrators and parents couldn’t see, too.

That means unless both teachers and students are willing to make their personal MySpace and Facebook accounts open to the public, being “friends” would’ve been a no-no, Ms. Cunningham said.

“Sometimes it starts innocently, but this communication vehicle is often times escalating into more than we ever dreamed,” she said.

The St. Joseph School District has no policy that specifically addresses the issue, but human resources director Doug Flowers points to its staff conduct policy, which requires teachers to “maintain courteous and professional relationships with pupils.”

“It’s fair to say the school district would frown on any type of relationship outside of the school setting that’s not on the up and up and not out in the public and not out in the open,” Mr. Flowers said. “Teachers should be very cautious in using Facebook or any other communication that’s not open or public.”

Once teachers and students leave school walls, though, he said it’s hard to enforce or monitor.

If successful in her bid to the Missouri Senate, Ms. Cunningham said she will re-file her proposal.

Unless she’s successful, the St. Joseph School District isn’t moving to put the issue in black and white.

“We’d be walking on very thin ice as far as First Amendment rights,” Mr. Flowers said.

Nancy Hull contributed to this report. She can be reached at nancyhull@npgco.com. Alyson E. Raletz can be reached at alysonraletz@npgco.com.