A new school district staff policy in Lamar County, Miss., prohibits teachers from texting or communicating with students through Internet social network sites.

The Lamar County school board approved the policy after becoming concerned that a casual rapport between teachers and students would be unprofessional.

Superintendent Ben Burnett said the policy won't keep teachers or students from creating profiles on sites such as MySpace or Facebook.

Burnett said no incident led to the policy, which was enacted at the suggestion of school board attorney Rick Norton.

The board has yet to set penalties for violating the policy.