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Social media made it unbelievably easy for teacher Alberto Morejon to establish a private channel of communication with his 14-year-old student. He looked her up on Instagram.

The student told police the messages were innocuous at first but turned sexual. Morejon, who was instrumental in organizing the teacher walkout in 2018, was at the time a history teacher at Stillwater Junior High School. He pleaded guilty in 2021 to sexual communication with a minor.

Sexting the student violated school policy, but district policy doesn’t prohibit connecting with students on social media (though it advises exercising caution when doing so and says messages should be related to schoolwork.)

House Bill 3958 takes it a step farther by prohibiting any electronic messages that don’t include a parent or guardian. The only exception is for an emergency.

The proposal, by Rep. Sherrie Conley, R-Newcastle, stipulates that school staff prioritize school-approved platforms that automatically include parents or guardians in messages.

Violators would be placed on administrative leave while the district investigates and notified the local school board and state Board of Education. If misconduct occurred, the employee would be fired and reported to police. If not, they would be reinstated with a warning.

“This protects the student from receiving inappropriate content from an educator, and it protects the educator as well from any allegation of impropriety,” Conley said in a press release.

On Wednesday, the bill passed the House of Representatives. It now moves to the Senate, where it’s authored by Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, who chairs the education committee.

Comments, questions, story tips? Please reach out via email or direct message.

— Jennifer Palmer

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