Province orders ban on private teacher-student messaging

Manitoba teachers are no longer allowed to text or use social media to contact a student – regardless of whether they coach a school sports team or supervise other activities outside typical instruction times.

On Friday, Education Minister Tracy Schmidt announced a universal ban on school staff initiating remote communications with a student, as well as responding to any messages on “unauthorized” platforms.

“There is never a reason for those communications to be happening in private,” Schmidt told reporters during an afternoon news conference inside her office in the legislature.

“Communications must always be done on a platform that is monitored and, ideally, with parents’ consent and direct involvement.”

There’s long been a patchwork of policies across the province when it comes to what kinds of one-on-one messaging, if any, is allowed between employees and students in the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 system.

Schmidt sent a directive Friday morning to provide “crystal clear” directions to leaders of all public and funded independent schools.

Governing boards have until the end of the calendar year to submit updated rules that address the new directive, although the minister said her expectation is the ban will be enforced immediately.

Independent teacher commissioner Noni Classen said the directive addresses a troubling trend identified in her review of professional disciplinary cases.

Classen has cancelled three teaching certificates since the start of the school year because of employee misconduct related to inappropriate after-hours messaging between a teacher and minor.

She also recently ordered a teacher to complete training on healthy boundary-setting after he liked a year-old social media post made by a student during a “rabbit hole” scroll while logged into a school team account.

“Let’s remove some of the grey. Let’s support the good work schools are doing and actually put (policies in place) very clearly stating what those lines are and what the expectations are,” she said.

The government directive prohibits employees from communicating or interacting with students via personal social media accounts, private messaging applications, texting and social media messaging features.

Schmidt said school division administrators need to ramp up monitoring of authorized platforms, such as Microsoft Teams.

A new report published on the teacher registry shows Robert Gregoire used a messaging platform approved by the River East Transcona School Division to contact a girl when she was in grades 8, 9 and 10.

Gregoire was found to have regularly used Microsoft Teams “at all hours of the day.” He called her pet names, including “princess,” and made other inappropriate remarks on the platform.

The education minister, who is a mother of three students, said her new marching orders aim to prevent the use of online tools for grooming and other purposes.

The new requirements are being welcomed by the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, the public-sector union that represents approximately 17,000 educators working in front-line classroom roles and principals’ offices.

“Our members have been asking for clear guidance when it comes to on and off duty communications with students,” union president Lillian Klausen said in a statement.

Klausen, who was out of the province Friday, wasn’t made available for an interview.

Consistent policies, along with professional learning opportunities, will support teachers in carrying out their professional duties and “strengthen the shared commitment to student safety and well-being,” she said in the statement.

MTS has an online safety tool kit that recommends teachers follow their employer’s policies, never use messaging apps “to develop rapport with students” and send only communications about school activities during approved working hours.

The union has also developed a workshop on professional conduct that includes a unit on appropriate communications and boundary-setting.

Schmidt’s office said in a news release that there could be exceptions in which direct messaging is needed to “support a student’s safety, accessibility, well-being or learning needs.”

In those cases, school officials will need to approve communication models in advance and parents or caregivers must be made aware of the setup, if not also included on all correspondence.

School leaders are being asked to update students, staff and parents about the changes to their policies and guidelines.

— With files from Morgan Modjeski

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca