Facebook Group Lets Students Know Who Is In Their Class

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

The week or so before school started, kids and their parents made the drive to their perspective schools to look at the class lists posted on the doors to find out who their teacher was and, with fingers’ crossed, if their best friend was in the same class.

Then came stricter privacy laws and in 2012, the Oxford School District stopped posting up the classroom lists and started mailing parents the names of their children’s teachers.
However, the names of the other students weren’t included.
Mary Beth Mobley knew it was important for kids to know who was going to be in their class.
“A lot of my friends’ kids and my sons wanted to know,” she said. “Especially with the younger kids, there’s some anxiety about the first day of school and when you know who is going to be in their class you can say, “Hey, so-and-so is going to be in class with you.”
Mobley started the Facebook page, “Who did they get?” where parents would post which teacher their child or children were assigned to and then Mobley creates a master list for each class.
“The first year I did it, I went up to eighth grade and that was just too much,” she said. “Last year, I started just doing it for grades pre-K to fourth-grade.”
The Facebook page is a “closed group” so anyone wanting to join must be approved by Mobley or one of the other administrators – Mary Heather Martin and Ashley Rhodes.
The name changed a couple years ago to, “Who did they get and what’s going on?”
During the rest of the school year, the page helps to share Oxford School District-related news.
“I’ve been doing it so long and know so many people, it’s easy to find out the answer to the questions many have,” Mobley said.
The success of the Facebook caught Mobley by surprise.
“Two years ago, I took the day off work when I knew the class lists were coming out,” she said. “I started getting some help after that.”
On Friday, more than 65 new people signed up for the group, who all needed to be individually approved and then each class list is updated constantly throughout the day.
Mobley’s sons are now both in high school but she believes in the Facebook page and its purpose.
“I just really like doing it,” she said. “I know eventually I’ll turn it over to someone else, but it’s going to be a lot for someone to take over.”