Liberty Public Schools staff members who have Facebook and Twitter accounts specifically for school use, such as communicating with students about a class, are now being watched.

As part of a state mandate, the Liberty school district is working on a policy that outlines social media rules for staff members and students. District administrators are beginning to keep closer tabs on school-sponsored social media sites as part of the changes.

“This way, we can say that we are doing the best we can to monitor those communications. If someone accidentally posts something they shouldn’t, or something inappropriate gets posted one way or another, we can quickly remove it,” Trey Katzer, the school district’s director of technology, said.

Katzer is an administrator of Facebook and Twitter accounts that staff members have for school purposes, which means he can view all communication that takes place through those accounts. He also monitors those pages. He said staff members have been receptive to the change.

District administrators have been working closely with staff groups on drafting the policy. The policy must be approved by March 1. The Liberty Board of Education is expected to approve the policy during its Tuesday, Feb. 21, meeting.

Staff members are supposed to keep the content of the school-sponsored pages limited to school-related communication, not personal communication.

The proposed policy also places restrictions on communication between staff members and students through staff members’ personal social media sites. For instance, the proposed policy says staff members should not allow students to access any personal social networking site if it discusses or portrays sex, nudity, alcohol, drugs or other behavior that would be inappropriate to discuss with a student at school. The proposed policy also says staff members can’t give students access to any portion of a personal site that is not accessible to the general public. This means that if a teacher’s Facebook page is private, the teacher can’t be Facebook friends with students.

State lawmakers had originally sought to require tougher restrictions for staff members’ personal social networking sites. However, a Missouri State Teachers Association lawsuit changed that. Last year, when state legislators were moving to limit all private electronic communications between students and teachers, the restriction was deemed a step too far and a violation of constitutional rights by MSTA and other teacher groups.

MSTA then filed a lawsuit to overturn the rule, prompting state lawmakers to change the language to make it more relaxed — adopting the so-called “Facebook Fix.” The Facebook Fix required merely that districts adopt a policy on social media use, but not necessarily one that prohibits closed communications.

Liberty’s proposed policy says that in this digital age, the line between personal and professional uses can become blurred. The policy offers a reminder in walking that line:

Your online behavior must reflect the same standards of honesty, respect and consideration that you use face-to-face.

Tim Sampson of Missouri News Horizon contributed to this report.