DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – The Duval County School Board held a workshop Tuesday where members discussed a potential change to its employee conduct policy.
Board officials are considering adding a section called “Social Media Presence of Employees,” listing expectations of how employees should engage in their social media accounts.
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Mandy Rubin is a member of Public Schools Defenders: Duval County and has one child enrolled in the district.
Rubin believes if there are going to be rules for teachers when it comes to what they do on social media, those same rules should apply to the rule makers.
“If they’re going to move forward with the policy, it needs to be equal across the playing, the playing board,” Rubin said.
The policy under consideration reads:
“Employees must maintain professionalism and uphold the district’s values on social media, whether for personal or professional use as defined in Board Policy 6.84 regarding fraternization with students. Employees should also avoid posting content that could harm their professional reputation or the district’s reputation. Personal opinions must be clearly stated as such and not presented as the district’s views. Employees should not engage in private messaging with students on social media platforms. Violation of this policy will result in disciplinary action up to termination of employment.”
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The language of the proposed policy does not explicitly specify whether this applies to school board members.
Melody Bolduc sits on the Duval County School Board, representing District 7. She was present for Tuesday’s meeting and said technically, school board members are district employees.
“For all employees, I think it’s understood that it applies to everybody across the board,” Bolduc said.
Bolduc went on to say there is more work to be done on the policy to ensure it is balanced. She said the district is receiving guidance from its legal team.
“Also, like for me, I would absolutely not vote for a policy that restricted a teacher’s free speech rights, unless it was something that would be a detriment to students,” Bolduc said. “It’s not appropriate for a teacher to get on and have hate speech against a particular group of people, at all anyway. So, if a teacher had a particular feeling about any particular group, and a student from that group happened to be in that classroom, those kinds of opinions affect how effective you are as a professional in the classroom.”
Rubin said she hopes to see more clarity and equity in the policy.
“If they need to expand that definition to where it’s anyone representing the district, maybe that would shift it to where it feels, where it’s at least more equitable, or could be more equitably applied.”
School leaders are expected to take this back up at a future meeting.
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