The Los Angeles Unified School District campaign “Now Matters Later” encourages people to be cautious of what they do online. The campaign is also meant to educate and to not punish students for their acts. This campaign however does not mention adults.

The question of whether or not faculty favoriting explicit photos on their alone time has the ability to dertermine their job has been a topic of conversation around  the school.

Recent events such as favorites of explicit media and posts by certain faculty members, have shown that people can be at fault for their activity on social media whether, it’s on or off campus. Posts that someone favorites or retweets on Twitter do not show the exact time of the action. Therefore, no one knows whether or not it was viewed or shared during school hours and shouldn’t be used against them to determine any consequence.

The renewed cell phone policy allows students to use their phones during nutrition and lunch but they must be used responsibly. If an inappropriate photo or post is posted during school hours, the school is held responsible for that incident. This rule can be misunderstood if the student or staff member is off campus.

If any inappropriate material, such as pornography, is shared by a staff member off campus and doesn’t harm others in any way, should they still be held accountable or penalized?

What faculty does on their free time and in the privacy of their homes should not determine whether they’re left with a job or not. It is ridiculous to assume that viewing explicit photos should be connected with their job performance.

Unless the material was related to child pornography, working around underage adolescents would then raise a red flag. It would also be a negative factor if the account is linked to any school accounts. This allows students to easily view any inappropriate material posted. If students and other staff members aren’t able to view the account, then there shouldn’t be a problem.

On an occasion that students happen to come across a faculty member’s account and is seen favoriting explicit photos or posts and it is deemed harmful, then it should be reported immediately.

However, just about everyone on social media has been exposed to pornograph, whether they searched it or it popped up on their feed.

A simple conversation about social media use should be issued if the staff member didn’t share this content with the rest of their followers. This will allow the person to be educated about social media use and avoid an embarrassing form of disemployment or any other consequence.

“We are expected to be role models for our students,” Principal Deb Smith said. “We are expected to put out to the community, to our students, parents that we are safe for our children to be around. So there’s nothing illegal about it but it can make it very difficult for students and parents to respect someone and that’s just the consequence of it.”

Although we do believe that a small action such as favoriting explicit content should not result in harsh punishment, students and faculty members should be cautious of every action they do on social media to avoid any type of problem.