Social media has quickly evolved into a daily part of nearly everyone's lives - whether it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok, coaches and players are spending time on the platforms connecting with one another, and sharing updates about their own lives and about their programs.
However, in part because social media has evolved so fast, a lot of schools have policies that prohibit coaches and teachers from following (or "friending") their student athletes on social media.
According to KSDK 5 out of St. Louis, Roosevelt HS (St. Louis, MO) head coach Trey Porter, who had been doing a remarkable job building up the program, has been dismissed for following a school policy that says he can't keep tabs of his kids on social media.
After Porter's dismissal, some players showed their support with the local TV station, sharing that they approved of Porter's method of connecting with them on the social platforms, and that it showed that he cared about them off the field.
"However they need to get ahold of me, they have that access," Porter shared. "For me, I'm going to do what's best for those kids."
Chances are your school has a similar policy created as social media became popular that hasn't been updated in years. While the policy was created with student safety and protecting both sides against sticky situations, social media has become an increasingly prevalent way of all of our everyday lives and some of those dated policies deserve to be resisted and tweaked to more accurately represent the role social media plays in today's culture while still protecting both sides.