Oct 10 - From News 25, Evanston, IN by Alan Cavanna, "Appropriate Behavior for Teachers Online?"
EVANSVILLE - Do you know who Bobbi Billard is? A quick search will show she's an experienced nude model. She's also the main feature on Robert Ewing's MySpace page. Police arrested Ewing last week for domestic battery and confinement of his wife. He's also a South Spencer High School teacher.TT - link for Ewing
It's not illegal for anyone to have a MySpace page. However, this is not private, so it raises some interesting questions about the standards teachers are held to once they get out of school... and online.
One of Ewing's top MySpace friends is a 17-year-old student of his, from last year at Central High School in Evansville. Message posts show the students thanking Ewing for his advice about her boyfriend, and how the two should "party sometime".
South Spencer Superintendent Michael Robinson told NEWS 25, "The corporation has no policy regarding MySpace pages for teachers. But it would be a concern if it is inappropriate and brought to our attention. It's not different from writing letters."
We took the same question to Ewing's former employer, the EVSC. Again, the corporation has no policy when it comes to MySpace, but Marsha Jackson with the school corporation told us, "The same things that would be inappropriate one-on-one with a student are inappropriate on a social networking site."
We asked Jackson when the rules aren't black & white, who determines what's appropriate?
She responded, "It goes on a case-by-case basis. There's not hard and fast rule on any of it."
Jackson said it'd be nearly impossible to keep up with the online activity of every student and teacher in the corporation, but told us anything reported will be dealt with.
We wanted to ask Ewing his thoughts about where teachers need to draw the line, but his phone was not working.
