If you are Facebook friends with teachers, school employees, school volunteers, coaches, assistant coaches or school resource officers among other people, then chances are you have seen their posts about Senate Bill 181. I think it is fair to say that most are not a big fan of it. They have valid reasons to be upset.
For those that don’t know, Senate Bill 181 went into effect on June 27 and sets new requirements for how school employees and volunteers communicate electronically with students.
Teachers, school employees, volunteers, assistant coaches, school resource officers and a few others can no longer text students. They can’t be friends with them on social media or exchange messages with them on social media. They can’t send them e-mails from their personal e-mail accounts.
In other words, there are no more messages on students’ social media accounts congratulating them on winning a big award or signing a scholarship to play football at the next level to name a couple of things good educators want to do to support their students and former students.
There are also no more direct messages on social media applications for educators, coaches and others to check on students, who they might be worried about, or encouraging messages for students that they know are struggling with one thing or another. Yes, sometimes those in education are the only support system some of these children have.
In other words, there are a lot of good people working in education, who have legitimate issues with this new law.
What I am about to write won’t be very popular with a lot of these folks, but despite these shortcomings, Senate Bill 181, which was unanimously approved by the Kentucky General Assembly and signed into law by the governor, is necessary and needed.
Too many kids are being abused, groomed, and molested by teachers and others who work in and around education, such as volunteers and coaches. Many, many times these perpetrators are using text messages and social media to do it.
The statistics are clear and overwhelming.
According to an Op-Ed by Senate Bill 181 sponsor Senator Lindsey Tichenor (R-Smithfield), the Kentucky Department of Education reported 135 educator sexual misconduct cases between 2023 and 2024, excluding cases involving other staff and other volunteers. A separate study found that 70 percent of offenders used technology or social media to access students.
It is happening here in Whitley County and the surrounding area too.
In recent years, there was a case of an area coach charged with first-degree sexual abuse for allegedly sending girls pictures of his penis and of having the girls sending him sexually explicit content among other things. In another county, a coach was indicted for first-degree sexual abuse, prohibited use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities, first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor, use of a minor in a sexual performance and third-degree rape.
In another area case, a school administrator was charged with third-degree rape, unlawful transaction with a victim under age 16, and solicitation to commit third-degree sodomy. The outcome of some of these cases are still pending in court.
Many times, sexual predators take jobs such as teachers, coaches, clergymen, etc. to put themselves in a position to find victims.
Someone known and trusted by the child or the child’s family members, perpetrates 91 percent of child sexual abuse, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
There are those out there who argue – quite correctly I might add – that criminals and child sexual predators are not going to abide by the new law and will still be texting their would-be victims and sending them private messages on their social media apps.
In the past, some would-be predators have been caught sending private messages to students, which were suspicious and maybe flirty, but didn’t cross a line, at least not yet. There wasn’t a lot that local authorities could do about it many times aside from ENCOURAGING them to seek employment elsewhere.
Then they sometimes would start over someplace where nobody knew them, and the cycle of communicating secretly with would-be victims started again, only this time nobody found out until it was too late.
Under the new law, a teacher just getting caught secretly communicating with students electronically is something that the licensure board can act upon. With no teaching certificate, then there is no teaching job to move along to in another school district for would-be sexual predators.
Think of it like having a security system and deadbolt locks on your doors at home. This won’t prevent a criminal from trying to break in, but it does put up obstacles for a criminal to overcome and acts as a deterrent.
Senate Bill 181 isn’t perfect. It will probably need some tweaking. However, it will allow for school officials to communicate with students through a district approved messaging app that parents can access and monitor.
