The big news in Las Vegas has been about MySpace. Our local news had a list of all the new teachers in the Clark County School District, and they searched on MySpace for them. 20 percent of the new teachers hired for the 2006-2007 school year have MySpace pages. One teacher right after another’s profile came up on Myspace. Most of them were okay, but some of them were shocking to say the least. Some of the teachers had their students listed as their friends. Some of the teachers had pictures of themselves in provocative dresses at the local clubs. Some of them had comments from students asking if they could come to their house for some private homework help. Most of these profiles were set to private after the news channel did their investigation, but not before their students found them, saw their profiles, and added them as their friend.

I am a parent, but I am not one of those parents that have no idea about how MySpace works and what trouble my teens can get into on the site. Unfortunately many parents are not as web savvy as I am, and there is help in the form of www.myspacebooksforparents.com. The key is to educate yourself and know how MySpace works. The better educated you are the better you are prepared to react when your child, or their teacher, misuses MySpace.

MySpace, Las Vegas teachers on MySpace, parenting

On this day..

• Stop It - It Hurts - 2007
• Speedier Blog - 2008