Last month Houstonians and the rest of the country learned about Alexandria Vera, the 24-year-old teacher accused of entering into a sexual and romantic relationship with an underage male student at Aldine Independent School District's Stovall Middle School.

Vera’s story made national news and was profiled on CNN. Photos from her Facebook page also began to proliferate.

According to court documents related to the case, Vera and the young man began chatting on Instagram and the relationship progressed from there, leading to alleged sexual abuse and even Vera at one point becoming pregnant by the young man.

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With just three months to go until the fiscal year is over, as of last week some 162 cases of educators in Texas engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a student have been reported to the Texas Education Agency.

In the 2014-2015 fiscal year, 188 cases were reported, according to information obtained from the Texas Education Agency. Senate Bill 9, passed in 2007, made it so educators across the state were fingerprinted and now, every time an educator is arrested, the TEA is alerted.

Many began to wonder after this latest Houston-area case if educators should be barred from interacting with their students via social media, a practice which seems innocent enough, but can have consequences that can sometimes prove a bit more problematic.

With more and more millennials who have grown up with social media entering the teaching force, sometimes very important boundaries can get crossed.

Michael Keeney with the Aldine Independent School District, where Vera taught, noted that the district's administrative guidelines indicate that only district-approved means of social media are to be used in communicating with students and only with a parent's permission.

Employees are also held to the same professional standards in their own public use of electronic media. Obviously, according to court documents, Vera was using social media in a way that was directly in violation of their rules and standards.

According to some area teachers, educators are given specific instructions by their school districts not to interact with students via social media, be it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or anything else.

Others said that they are told to do so at their own risk.

The Houston Independent School District states in its policy manual that they understand how powerful social media can be in 2016.

“The district recognizes the powerful impact that social media can have on education. The user participation and sharing of information inherent in these media can be beneficial to students and teachers; and when used responsibly and safely, they may be effectively integrated into the educational environment to support traditional instruction,” the district’s policy reads.

“In accordance with administrative regulations, a certified or licensed employee, or any other employee designated in writing by the Superintendent or designee, may use social media to communicate with currently enrolled students about matters within the scope of the employee’s professional responsibilities.

One local teacher, Dan Binder, teaches at a private high school where he says teachers are told to use the website Remind to interact with students outside of school hours.

Remind.com, formerly known as Remind101, is a free communications platform built for teachers that is in use in nearly half of all U.S. public schools. It allows teachers and students to communicate safely and efficiently about school functions and classroom activities. There is no exchange of personal information, and all communication is logged. Messages cannot be edited or deleted within a teacher's account, which teachers like because it creates accountability.

"It works pretty well, although it's a bit clumsy. The point I suspect is that there's a record of every communication," Binder says.

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Another teacher in the Houston area, Geoff Widmier, prefers to use district email and the Remind website.

"Personally, as a male teacher in this day and age, I feel like I have to be extra careful to not even give people a reason to suspect anything. I keep my worlds very separate," he said.

Trevi Biles is a high school teacher with Spring Branch ISD and when he's not trying to get teens to grasp calculus, he's the bassist for Houston doom metal act Venomous Maximus. He has colleagues that use Facebook and Twitter as a tool in the classroom but he declines to use it for work purposes.

"I try to keep my personal and professional lives as separate as possible. However with me being in a band and kids being as resourceful as they are, sometimes my alter ego is revealed," Biles said.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD's employee handbook states that teachers are in fact allowed to communicate with parents and students via cell phone or other applications regarding only school or extracurricular activities.

They are prohibited from sending messages, though, between the hours of 11:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. to their students.

A social media app like Snapchat, which is designed to virtually erase every photo and conversation had within a few days, is definitively something that teachers should steer clear from.

DeEtta Culbertson, the Texas Education Agency’s information specialist, said the steady rise in cases can be attributed to social media.

"Unfortunately, social media has also made it more prevalent," she told the San Antonio Express-News.

"(Social media gives) more access to students."

When things like what happened at Aldine ISD occur, the TEA can take action. Officials can revoke a teaching certification and do, especially when the improper relationship is a physical one, Culbertson said.

Culbertson said that although social media makes access to students at all hours easier than before, it can help in reporting improper relationships.

"There is more awareness, so there is more reporting," she said.

This past week the Association of Texas Professional Educators warned educators that inappropriate communications, including electronic communications on social media, are a violation of the Texas Educator’s Code of Ethics.

“Our number one priority is to keep kids safe. It’s never okay for a teacher to prey on a student,” ATPE Media Relations Specialist Stephanie Jacksis said in a statement. “Even one incident is one too many. That’s why our association takes every opportunity presented to educate teachers and to prepare teachers before they get in the classroom.”

The ATPE reminded teachers that keeping parents involved in the process can be very helpful, and that encouraging them to monitor their child’s activity on the internet can make a difference.

They also recommend teachers create separate accounts strictly for classroom purposes away from their own personal ones.

Area teacher Melissa Brubaker said that she only communicates with students through work email and educational, district-approved apps, like Remind. She's also turned off the private chat function.

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"It then becomes one-way communication to my entire group of students. Reminders to turn in homework, tutorial times and things like that. Any private communication is only done through my work email," Brubaker says.

She once created an Instagram account for a class pet -- a guinea pig named Hemingway -- but had to get it approved by the campus administrator first.

Like most teachers she prefers to keep all her personal social media private.

Brubaker says that there has been another sad side effect of the recent rash of student-teacher sex incidents. She and other teachers that she has spoken to say that in some sense the profession has been tarnished by the actions of a few teachers that crossed a line.

"It's not always seen as a reputable career anymore," Brubaker says. "Young teachers have an ugly stigma in the media because a few have done such awful things."

"My priority is to educate children, and for me, I've always seen students, even the seniors in high school, as children."