Teacher fired for blogging about students

cameragirl21 wrote: http://www.parentdish.com/2011/02/15/smack...c1_lnk3%7C44245
Your thoughts?
Not sure how I feel about this--the 1st Amendment only means that you won't be jailed for what you say, it does NOT guarantee you won't be fired for it or that you won't take other consequences.
In principle, I figure teachers are humans and probably have students they can't stand and this was a private blog that her students found because they looked for it. BUT, not sure I'd be able to take her seriously as a teacher if I were in her class after this, she's crossed the line no teacher should cross just by letting her inner thoughts and "human-ness" show.
And you, what do you think?

bluebear replied: Not surprised. My friend told me that last week a bunch of her coworkers got fired for writing stuff on Facebook about their job. I had to sign a form at my job saying I won't post anything negative about my job on any social networking site- not like I would do that anyway.

stella6979 replied: "Was what she did naive? Yes. The Internet is a public forum, after all. Was it indiscreet? Perhaps. But was it against the law? No."

Exactly, it is not against the law, therefore, no....I do not think she should be fired. I bet there are thousands of kids who "talk crap" about their teachers on Facebook and are they punished? I'm guessing not.

msoulz replied:
I agree with this. However, as a student I would have a tough time respecting her and would be afraid I would be publically smeared so I wouldn't want her as a teacher. And as a parent of a child who was publically smeared I would want some sort of action taken against her. So I see the school's problem with letting her stay.

This is why the teachers' lounge still exists - teachers can vent and move on. Publically humiliating a child is just extremely poor judgement.

And if I find my children engaging in a negative discussion about anyone on the net, be it a teacher or another child, there will be consequences.

Things have changed though and we all need to figure out how to use these new social tools without harming others.

cameragirl21 replied: she's front page news on yahoo today....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_..._suspended_blog

stella6979 replied: "Munroe is speaking the truth about the general population of American children of today. If the parents don't like what she has to say then perhaps they should look at WHY it was said."

This was a comment posted below the article and it pretty much sums up what I have to say.

msoulz replied: Ok, I didn't see before that she didn't name any names. So I now see nothing wrong with what she did. But I have to believe she has a few students who are not bad!

coasterqueen replied:
I agree totally with you. I know she didn't say which student, but just the fact that she mentioned something negative about a student......well as a parent I'm definitely going to wonder if it's MY child and I wouldn't like knowing that a teacher is talking that way publicly.

luvbug00 replied: she has the right to whine about her job on an off day the way we all do.
Just because her "co-workers" are kids she gets punished. Phooey. where ARE we able to vent then? do we really have to suck up our jobs on our personal time too?
I'm friends with my co-workers and my boss said that FB is our personal thing and will not reflect on work Unless we put our co workers at security risk. (listing our location or valuable good in store) but if we want to moan about our co-workers or him..he could care less.



remind me not to work there hun. There is NO way i would sign my life over to a company.

Maddie&EthansMom replied:
This is exactly what I was going to say.

Maddie's homeroom teacher has a personal blog (that isn't private) and I would be totally offended if she were to vent about her job/students on there. I wouldn't turn her in...but I would lose respect for her as a teacher.

I understand that teachers are human, too and I can't imagine how tough some days are for some teachers....but a public blog or social network is not the place to vent.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I also agree. Pretty much sums up my feelings. NOW, had she named names...I'd see it differently. But seeing as she didn't, this is how I feel too.

cameragirl21 replied: I don't necessarily think she is wrong, in fact, I suspect she is entirely right in her assessment BUT once she made those views public, sorry, but it's very hard to respect her as a teacher. If I were one of her students, I'd not be able to see past what she said. The internet is NOT the place to air these grievances.
I actually have a sort of similar experience to go on--when I was in college, my chemistry lab TA told us we could have an extra day to turn in our lab reports if we brought the reports to her apartment. So my friend who was my lab partner and I did that. This was Organic Chem 2 and we had a male TA for Organic Chem 1, same lab partner for me and the class (with respect to the students in the class) was essentially the same so we all knew both TAs. Anyway, my friend and I thought we would just drop off our lab report and leave but it didn't exactly happen that way. Our TA insisted we sit on her couch as she tells us a story and she proceeded to tell us that she used to date the male TA we had last semester and that they'd have terrible fights in which he forced her into the "backdoor" method of things. Also, she told us he cheated on her and that women would call and ask to speak to him while he was in the shower. She also told me that he didn't recommend I get an A in the class even though I did get an A in the class, basically telling me that the professor overrode the TA's wishes, suggesting that he didn't think I deserved it or something to that effect. Mind you, we were all pre-med and this was all very competitive so it might seem petty but it really wasn't under the circumstances.
At any rate, after spending an agonizing afternoon in her apartment hearing about the ghastly details of their private life, I struggled to continue to see her as a figure of authority and found myself expecting her to give me the answers to things I would normally have to complete the lab to get answers to. I expected leniency from her I never got before because she had crossed the line, informing me of the type of private details of her life that only the closest of her friends should have known about. I wasn't a high school kid, I was a college kid who planned to go to med school and so the way I see it, when teachers cross the line and lose the respect of their students, they have essentially lost the most important thing they have as teachers.
Idk if I'd fire her but if I did, it wouldn't so much be because of the action she took but rather that I don't really see how she can successfully teach these same kids now that the cat is out of the bag.

msoulz replied: Jennifer, that is just creepy!! College is a totally different thing - lots of wierdos on campus!!

my2monkeyboys replied: Since she didn't name names and it isn't illegal, then I see no way they CAN fire her. Nor would I expect her to be. But I would suggest she find a different school to teach at. I, too, think her authority has been compromised at her present job.

A&A'smommy replied:
I COMPLETELY agree!! I don't think she should have been fired especially since she didn't name any names..

mom21kid2dogs replied: I find it utterly unbelieveable that anyone in this day and age could think ANYTHING on the web is "private".

Misqrd replied: Social Media is tricky, especially when it involves the workplace. I am a Pediatric Surgical Nurse and we have a Policy and Procedure that we had to read. We then had to sign a paper that said we have read the Policy.

1 employee actually got fired because he posted an x-ray of a bullet in a skull on Facebook. The story is that he didn't realize the patient's information was on the x-ray but nonetheless it violated HIPPA.

Another employee posted pictures of fellow employees at work that were unprofessional. She even posted the Chief of Surgery sleeping in the break room. Although none were that seriously incriminating, it sure didn't depict them in the best light and she did not have their permission. This was before the policy was written but she was put on leave for 2 weeks.

So I say, it's better to air on the side of caution and refrain from posting anything about work.