Sen. Cam Ward On Bill to Thwart Inappropriate Teacher-Student Contact
Recent reports have referred to Alabama as “ground zero” for incidents of teacher-student sex. Whether that’s accurate or not, most agree there’s a serious problem. State senator Cam Ward of Alabaster has sponsored SB-274, a bill to mandate an hour of training for educators on appropriate teacher-student interaction in the age of social media. A house version and Ward’s senate version could come up for a vote this legislative session. Ward says despite initial pushback, he’s hopeful the measures will pass. The interview is above, with a few key excerpts below.
“It’s a problem we’ve seen popping up more and more across the state. I felt like [the training] was something that would be good … because in this day of social media, it’s changed so much, the interaction between students and teachers … And not just sex incidents, but even just social interaction with students.”
“Have we really gotten to this point? Yeah. Times have changed.”
“[The training] is not an additional burden. It’s not an additional cost. It’s something a lot of teachers are doing anyway. Just to have an awareness of proper etiquette on the internet is good in my opinion.”
“Everyone’s really focused on the sexual relationship [side of this], but there’s a lot of other interaction thats probably not appropriate, and somebody may not even realize it’s not appropriate.”
“The fact is we’re here, so you’ve got to deal with it.”
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