WHEREAS social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc) are used by students, parents, guardians, teachers, administrators and staff to communicate, promote, discuss, and share all matter of professional, educational and personal material, and

WHEREAS the nature of social media is, in general, that anything that is posted and shared is available to the general public, forever, and,

WHEREAS the dividing line between the personal and the professional, and the appropriate and the inappropriate, on social media is less clear than in older forms of communication, and

WHEREAS there are not currently policies for the effective, appropriate use of social media by administrators, teachers, staff, students and home and school associations; 

THEREFORE IT BE RESOLVED that the PEI Home and School Federation work with the Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture, the PEI Teachers Federation, the Canadian Union of Public Employees education locals, and other education partners to jointly draft a policy for the use of social media, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the goal of the social media policy be to ensure that, to the greatest extent reasonably possible, social media is used in a way that maintains standards of professionalism for educators, that youth are protected from harm, and that the maximum positive educational use can be made of social media tools.