Gov. Jay Nixon signed a law July 31 that will limit the amount of unsupervised interaction between teachers and students outside of the classroom aiming to eliminate potential sexual misconduct between K-12 students and teachers.

The law, referred to as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, is named after a former Missouri public school student who was molested multiple times by one of her teachers decades ago.

“Our department of elementary and secondary education had found that the problem was prevalent,” Rep. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, said. “I hope that this bill will make our schools safer and protect our students.”

Cunningham sponsored the bill, which was passed unanimously by the state senate and will go into effect Aug. 28. Missouri public schools will not be required to adopt a formal policy until Jan. 1, 2012.

The portion of the bill attracting negative attention from constituents pertains to teacher-student interaction over social media.

“Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian,” according to the bill. “Teachers also cannot have a nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student. Former student is defined as any person who was at one time a student at the school at which the teacher is employed and who is eighteen years of age or less and who has not graduated.”

Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, said he was an early proponent of the bill and worked with Cunningham to help it gain support from Missouri politicians. Kelly served as the house handler for the legislation.

“We have to find a balance. We want teachers and students to be able to take advantage of the Internet and all its strength,” Kelly said. “At the same time we want students to be safe from inappropriate communication.”

Freshman Paul Sponslor, a graduate of the Missouri public schools system, said he’s happy some restrictions have been established, as long as they do not impact the learning environment.

“It’s the teacher’s job is to teach, not necessarily befriend his or her students,” Sponslor said. “Yeah, it is the 21st century and social networking is the new norm, but I still believe there should be some sort of line that shouldn’t be crossed.”

The bill has received widespread media attention around the country for what Cunningham calls a “misconception” about the law. Originally reported by The Atlantic Monthly, the bill has been defined as one that would ban teachers from adding students as friends on Facebook and other social networking sites while also placing limitations on text messages between the two groups.

“Neither ‘Time’ or ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ talked to me and they misunderstood the bill and misreported it,” Cunningham said. “My Chief of Staff contacted The Atlantic Monthly and they agreed to do a retraction of their first story.”

A similar measure was discussed in Virginia earlier this year to help curb the rise of sexual harassment in schools while also clearly stating the rights schools have regarding teacher-student interactions outside of school.

“Anyone who has graduated is not under the restrictions of this bill,” Cunnigham said. “The bill does not prohibit an educator from friend-requesting a student on Facebook or Myspace and it does not stop an educator from emailing or texting. It only prohibits hidden and exclusive access that cannot be monitored by parents or school personnel.”

According to Cunningham, “exclusive access” includes information on a website available only to the teacher and the student by mutual explicit consent, in turn excluding third parties from having any access to the information. Because of recent changes to Facebook privacy and account settings, friend-requesting some students would violate the new law. For other users who keep their profiles public, the law would not impact them.

“Exclusive access is the only thing prohibited,” Cunningham said. “As long as third parties have access, you’re fine.”

As a product of the Missouri public schools system, Sponslor feels the decision to restrict communication could come back to hurt the same students its working to protect.

“This kind of law is unfair to the teachers that have good intentions in regards to using social networking and texting,” Sponslor said. “ Every aspect of society is becoming more technological, including education, and restricting that technology could really hinder it.”

Despite the media backlash surrounding the bill, Kelly hopes that constituents will be patient.

“The bill is only about inappropriate uses of the Internet,” Kelly said. “If there are any minor glitches here and there, we’re very open to working on them.”