Teachers are not allowed to accept gifts worth over $50, according to tweaks in Massachusetts Law.
Ethics reforms prohibit any public employee from accepting gifts worth more than $50, according to WBZTV.
While the laws that have existed since 1976, they have recently been updated by the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission.
Under the reformed laws, families are not even allowed to buy group gifts for teachers if they are too expensive. The bottom line is that any gift worth more than $50 has to be donated to the school or classroom rather than to the individual teachers.
Superintendents have sent letters to parents and are trying to educate the public about these revised laws.
For more information, see:
Gifts Over $50 Violate State Law
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Comments
I have always been appauled at the gifts public school teachers receive. The rule should be either a class donation given anomoulsy from an approed list, home made or nothing at all. What kind of a lesson are children getting with a $50.00 limit. Society needs to teach children that charity should be a priority. Shame on all teachers who accept personal gifts.
Kitty, you obviously didn't have good teachers or you would be able to spell.
For years I have sat in our teachers lounge and listen to my fellow teachers joke about what students they will request as students in the next year. Gifts have included use of condo"s in colorado, weekends at spa's, gold jewlery etc... Now I realize most districts are not a well off as the one I teach in. All the same the gifts are wrong.
Seriously!!! Think about it for a moment! Why shouldn't we give a little something extra to those that are with our children 7 hours a day for 5 days a week. They work hard and deserve any little extra bit they receive. Not sure where you teach Cindy but most of us pitch in $5 to $10 to get a group gift and that is perfectly acceptable in my eyes. Why should the state decide who and what we give to others during the season of gift giving?
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