Instagram accounts are one way that student clubs, sports, and organizations communicate their plans to the student body.
An Instagram post made by “WHS Student Section,” an account not affiliated with Watauga High School, on Sept. 30 raised questions over the presence of school-affiliated social media accounts and their place in representing Watauga High School.
The post, a picture of former President Donald Trump embracing an American flag for Spirit Week, had many students wondering what guidelines, if any, were in place for official Watauga High School social media accounts, such as those run by Watauga clubs or organizations.
“I don’t know that we have really good guidelines for what [school affiliated] accounts can post,” said Assistant Principal Rachel Shepherd.
While guidelines for student-run accounts are not enforced by the school unless they cause a disruption, there are implied rules for faculty and staff-run social media accounts and accounts that directly represent Watauga High School.
“Any school club has to have a faculty sponsor who should monitor their social media accounts,” Shepherd said.
While faculty accounts have limited guidelines, the lack of official guidelines for student accounts has clubs and student organizations making their own rules.
Advisor Adrienne Stumb, an English teacher at WHS, monitors the yearbook and The Powderhorn social media accounts. To her understanding, she has not received any official guidelines from administration regarding her organizations’ social media accounts.
Both yearbook and The Powderhorn have students who run the accounts. Their posts receive monitoring but are not heavily policed by their advisor.
“I do have a student who is in charge of the account,” Stumb said. “Those students are chosen the year before [...] and chosen based on my prior experience with the student.”
“I have not worked in a school system before where you have to do a fair amount of school oversight. We have students [at Watauga High School] who tend to rise to the occasion,” Stumb said. “But being proactive is not necessarily a bad thing.”
Shepherd said many clubs operate in a similar fashion, despite no set guidelines. Most school-affiliated accounts have a student who operates the account while an advisor monitors its activity.
“A student runs this account,” said sophomore Zoe Lee, the Public Relations Officer for National Art Honors Society. “We have an advisor for the account and that is one of the art teachers at Watauga.”
The NAHS account, which posts relevant information about the club and school events, is one of the many accounts that has been left to create its own rules in the absence of guidance from administrators.
Members of the Student Council also weighed in on school accounts and how they use theirs.
“I run the account, but Ms. [Brittany] Wood has access,” said Student Council’s Public Relations Chair Carlton Dyer.
Despite the lack of official guidelines, Student Council has established its own rules for what its social media account posts.
“It must go through Ms. Wood and I before it's published,” said Ella Carroll, Student Council President.
Dyer also asserted the importance of correct information being put out by school-affiliated accounts.
“We’re the people who plan a lot of stuff and we go hand in hand with the administration, so whatever is posted on the account is accurate,” said Dyer. “ I think in high school there's a lot of rumors that go around. Because we are the official Student Council we have to push out real stuff. Dr. [Chris] Blanton usually knows about it, and Ms. Woods and Ella always know about it.”
The lack of specific social media guidelines is forcing student clubs to develop their own rules and guidelines.
“It may be that we try to develop some of those in the near future,” said Shepherd.
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