Gov. Nixon Guts 'Facebook Law'

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed into law Friday legislation that eliminated a shortlived ban on unsupervised social media use between public school teachers and students.

The ban on use between teachers and students of internet sites like Facebook was on hold by court order after Chesterfield's State Sen. Jane Cunningham, a Republican, pushed through a bill earlier this year that was seen as antiquated by some but played on parents' fears about potentially predatory school staff.

The ban would not have allowed teachers to communicate through texts and emails with students, unless a third party was involved.

When the state teachers' union objected to the social media ban, a court order stopped Cunningham's legislation from going into effect as the new school year began.

Cunningham's office described the problem as unclear language in her law, and that tweaking it would solve things.

Others, like a Parkway District teacher, said it was anything but that, and the law wouldn't even allow her to chat with her own school-age children on Facebook—on the internet.

The original legislation also inspired Ballwin resident and Marquette High School Graduate Cameron Carlson to , which placed various restrictions on how teachers could communicate with students using social media websites like Facebook.

After languishing on hold for nearly two months, lawmakers put a new bill on Nixon's desk during this special session of the legislature.

“This bill is not as good as it should be, but to veto it would return us to a bill that would be far worse,” Nixon said in a written statement with the signing.

The new bill also will extend an earlier deadline that required Missouri school districts to draft their own policies for student-teacher social media use; under the new proposal, the deadline will be March 1, 2012.

Editor Chase Castle contributed to this report.