A new Missouri law is making it illegal for teachers to correspond privately with students via social media. For instance, Facebook chat between a student and their teacher would be considered illegal while a wall post would be fair game. What’s Trending Live raised the question: Are private student/teacher interactions online all bad?

Panelist Trend Hunter TV’s Jeremy Gutsche found this particular law a good thing, saying private interactions “gets a little weird” and that he doesn’t think “it’s really necessary for a teacher to have private conversations in that social setting of Facebook.”

Actress Brea Grant disagreed asking, “Can’t we just trust our teachers? If we don’t trust them then they shouldn’t be in the school system.”

Shira pointed out that some the concerns about one on one online conversations might stem from fears over how new social networking tools are, “starting to infiltrate our lives more.”

Of the teacher opinions online, a Missouri teacher named Randy Turner rang loudest when she wrote a blog post arguing that she and hundreds of teachers will have to “trash years of work because all teachers are potential criminals” in Missouri Senator Jane Cunningham’s view.

The law will go in effect in a few weeks, and it will be interesting to see how and if it affects the education system in Missouri and if outlawing private interactions will stifle education or protect students. Viewers were pretty split on the effect of the law with 58 percent saying that private conversations crossed a line and 42 percent saying that it was a necessary way to inform and educate on our What’s Trending poll.

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