Note: I’m in Pennsylvania.
I work in non-profit education and my employer won’t get me (or any of my coworkers) a staff phone or pay my phone bill. I kid you not, hundreds of students have my phone number. I was in charge of intakes and orientation, so students not only have my number, they give it out for people who are interested in classes. For example: I have a student in another country asking for classes and wants me to teach them. Students call and text at all hours of the day.
Our population (primarily refugees and some immigrants) generally uses WhatsApp. I used my phone because I truly believe it is not fair for students to be unable to access our classes due to my director’s decision. Looking back, I know I enabled my director, but I can’t change the past.
However, I’m changing careers, so I’m teaching part-time while I’m in grad school. I actually use WhatsApp all the time with my friends so I won’t be able to just delete it off my phone when I leave.
I have it in writing where I asked my supervisor if I could get a staff phone and it was denied. Other staff members feel the same way and have been advocating for us to have staff cell phones, too. Several of us bring it up constantly in meetings. They tried to remedy it with an app to block out numbers, but it a.) doesn’t work on WhatsApp and b.) says our number is unknown. I don’t take unknown phone calls, so I don’t know why you would expect a student to answer their phone, let alone a student who doesn’t speak English. For language learners, it’s far better for them to see a text.
Not only that, it’s a huge data breach in my opinion. I’m curious: are there any legal actions I could take?