The proposed social media policy says Wilson County School employees could be fired for violations

LEBANON, Tenn. (WSMV) – On Thursday, Oct. 24, a member of the Wilson County School Board of Education proposed a policy that will affect how district employees can use social media, networking sites, personal websites and blogs.

Earlier this year, in late July, board member Greg Hohman submitted an application ethical complaint against Janie Johnson, who was named ‘Teacher of the Year’ in March 2023.

The complaint was about an event on February 27, 2023 during a parent-teacher conference. According to the report, Hohman said they discussed his son’s academic progress and then discussed how he would leave the classroom to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” instead of “Speak” out loud in class.

Later, during Hohman’s campaign for school board, he said Johnson posted on social media platforms that he yelled at his son’s 9th grade ELA teacher and “made her cry” during the parent-teacher conference.

On August 26, Johnson appeared before the ethics committee. The complaint was dismissed and forwarded to human resources for further investigation.

At Thursday’s meeting, Hohman said there is a clear need to create and adopt a social media policy.

The policy Hohman proposed was similar to Rutherford County’s social media policy.

Under the proposed policy, employees’ personal use of social media must not interfere with official duties, violate district policy or harm the reputation of the school district, its employees, its students or its families.

Some of the guidelines the Board of Education says employees must adhere to include:

Employees are prohibited from posting data documents, photographs, or “inappropriate information” that could disrupt classroom activities.
Employees may not use personal social networking sites for school or district purposes.
- If employees plan to use social media as a classroom or parent resource, the board recommends that employees use dedicated, non-personal social networking accounts. The accounts must also be approved by the school principal or department head of the central office before being created.
Coaches, band directors and other employees who need to use social media sites to communicate information about club teams or other student groups must create a “special, non-personal social networking account with permission of the school principal.”
Employees are also “strongly” discouraged from interacting with students on social networking websites. They are also strongly discouraged from having current students as friends and followers.
Other networking sites representing individual departments, schools, or employees must be approved by the department head and/or director.
The specific social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok that may be used by Wilson County Schools, individual schools and employees will be determined by the Director of Schools in the administrative process.
Employees will be required to ensure that students appearing on social networking sites have received parental permission to do so.

Under the proposed policy, employees who violate social media policies could face “potential ethics violations and/or, depending on the severity of the violation, other disciplinary action up to and including termination.”

An initial discussion took place during the meeting, but no proposal or vote followed.

According to Wilson County Schools, the policy will be discussed again at future board meetings.