Augusta County Schools move to ban social media comments. One board member says it violates free speech.

VERONA — A proposal to put into policy what Augusta County Public Schools has already been practicing sparked a debate Thursday night at the school division's monthly board meeting.

The change brought before the board dealt with limiting comments on social media accounts. School officials want the accounts to simply be platforms to share news and information with students, employees, families and the community. Most of the talk Thursday focused on Facebook, although the way the policy is written it would cover all social media, including the division's Instagram, Twitter and YouTube pages.

"What we decided is we want to turn off all comments on our social media sites," Deputy Superintendent Doug Shifflett told the board. "If you leave it up on Facebook then anybody can make comments about anything that we post there."

That has been the current practice on both Facebook and Instagram, where no comments are allowed on the official school division pages. Augusta County Public Schools' Twitter account appears to allow only those mentioned in the post to reply. The school division's YouTube page doesn't typically allow comments, although there were comments on some of the the graduation live streams.

None of this has been part of official school board policy, which is why it was brought before the school board Thursday.

Pastures District representative Tim Simmons said the change brought up a question of whether or not this was a suppression of free speech, although Shifflett said it had been reviewed by legal counsel.

Simmons asked Shifflett why there is a need for turning off comments, to which the deputy superintendent told him that occasionally people make comments "for or against certain things and we don't want to have that," telling Simmons there are other avenues to contact staff with comments or concerns.

"Our Facebook page is something for us just to post what is going on. It's for information out there," Shifflett said. "It's not for a conversation and dialogue."

Neighboring Staunton City Schools currently allows comments on its social media platforms.

"Central office staff monitors and moderates the main SCS Facebook," Ruth Jones Turner, the director of strategic planning and partnerships, told The News Leader. "Each school has staff members that monitor their respective school pages."

Staunton does not have anything concerning social media comments in its school board policy manual, although it does post the following comment policy statement on its Facebook page:

Shifflett said to be fair to everyone, Augusta County chose not to delete some comments while leaving others.

Waynesboro moderates its social media accounts using an algorithm that automatically filters profane language or sexually explicit content, said Assistant Superintendent Ryan Barber.

"The filtered content is not deleted, it is just hidden," he said. "Obviously, our school division does not want to be a vehicle for comments that disrupt our learning environment through language or content on our social media platforms. The filter was put in place when our accounts were created."

If comments are posted that target an individual or a group of people with hate-filled content, those comments are also hidden," Barber said.

However, a recent post on the official Twitter account for the Waynesboro Public Schools Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion does show where issues could arise.

The post on May 24 read: "Huge shoutout and heartfelt thanks to @GLSEN for the incredible books from the Rainbow Library! Your dedication to promoting LGBTQ+ representation and inclusivity in education is making a real difference. Let's keep empowering and educating the next generation!"

The post resulted in several homophobic comments, including one that read, "Groomers and pedophiles have no place around kids." That comment was still visible as of Monday night.

A quick look at Facebook accounts for other surrounding school districts —Rockingham, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Albemarle, Highland and Rockbridge — shows that comments are allowed.

School Board Chairperson Nick Collins said the board has heard criticism over the years that the division doesn't do a good job of communicating what is happening in schools. Facebook gives them a platform to do just that, he said.

"Our board has discussed in the past that we don't want a child going home who has access to this, seeing comments that adults get politically wound up about," Collins said. "So that's been part of the board's preference in the past to do it in this manner. Do it more as presenting what's going on in our schools.'

Simmons responded to Collins that it should fall to the parents, not the school division, to decide what the children see on social media.

Shifflett said that Facebook pages for individual schools are asked to follow the same practice as the school division's page. Vice-Chairperson Donna Wells asked if the policy would apply to school-affiliated organizations like PTOs and PTAs.

Miranda Ball, the school division's executive director of communication, said the only social media accounts falling under the policy would be those marked as being recognized by Augusta County Public Schools as official. Therefore, at least at this time, pages for clubs and activities like PTAs, bands and athletic teams are not being monitored by official staff and may allow comments.

Eventually a motion to table the proposed policy changes for social media for future discussion was made by South River representative Mike Lawson and seconded by Simmons. It was passed 4-2, with Wells and Tim Swortzel voting against it. David Shiflett was not in attendance at the June meeting.

There was no decision about when this would be discussed again. It appears, at least for now, Augusta County Schools will continue its current practice of limiting comments.

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— Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Contact Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @Patrick_Hite. Subscribe to us at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Augusta County Schools move to ban social media comments. One board member says it violates free speech.