But if it is one of those weird Facebook things and wasn’t a request, there is no need to let the other person know you’re blocking them.

I have a few former students I Facebook with, but generally I don’t have a personal relationship with them so I honestly don’t feel a need to correspond with them. I keep my Facebook friend list pretty limited to people I really do interact with. The few that I do were usually students I taught more than once over the years so they are a bit different. Additionally, several have become teachers themselves and the relationship is completely different now. Then there is this whole group of former students who have ended up close friends in college with my son, and I have gotten to know them in a different capacity.