Teacher Loses Job Over Facebook Account and b-word

[Smee]

Here is the story: Former teacher files suit (Archive)

Payne said her Facebook status at the time mentioned an event called "B**** Bingo," and said McGee told her the parent of one of her students had complained to the superintendent about the word. According to Payne, McGee also had issue with photographs on the page depicting Payne with alcohol.
"My co-worker and I went all over Europe this summer," Payne said. "We went to a Guinness brewery up there (which is terrible and I didn’t drink all of it), and went to Italy and had wine there; we went to the Temple Bar District in Dublin."
She said the trip was not school-related, and the pictures merely showed her holding the beverages, not drinking them or displaying drunken behavior.

This is the photo in question: Supt. Saunders delays Internet policy; idea getting a second look - Barrow Journal

No warning needed unless you're especially sensitive to the image of a smiling blonde holding an alcoholic beverage.

Bob help me, I don't like this guy, but I think this article makes some good points regarding the treatment of this teacher vs. another (it's a matter of taking what I can use from an article and discarding the rest):

Neal Boortz: Government idiocy in action at schools | ajc.com

Let’s review:
Ashley Payne: Smiled with a glass of wine in her hand and used the b-word on her Facebook page. Complaint was anonymous and, some suspect, actually came from another teacher who didn’t like Ashley all that much. Ashley Payne is no longer employed by Barrow County schools.

Randolph Forde: Accused of soliciting someone to commit a murder. Accuser is known to officials, not anonymous. Forde is still employed and is still receiving his paychecks.

To what standards to you believe teachers should be held with regard to their private lives? This seems horribly invasive and inappropriate to me (the way this teacher has been treated). If it matters at all, her Facebook page was set to private and presumably the only people who had access to it had to have been invited or ask to be accepted. It's not like she was friending students.

[warcraftbaby]

If her page was private where students could not see it, I don't see the issue. But anything you put online, whether you attempt to make it private or not, can be found. And as in this situation, can be used against you. Harsh lesson for her, but good lesson for the rest of us out here on the wild frontier. Don't put anything online that you would censor for any group IRL.

[Smee]

If her page was private where students could not see it, I don't see the issue. But anything you put online, whether you attempt to make it private or not, can be found. And as in this situation, can be used against you. Harsh lesson for her, but good lesson for the rest of us out here on the wild frontier. Don't put anything online that you would censor for any group IRL.

I can get behind that, yo. I agree that anything you put out there on the innerwebz can come back to bite you in the butt and I certainly agree that people should be careful about what they put out there. However, my thinking is that she what she put up was not inappropriate. It's not just a matter of privacy to me since I agree that social networking is not exactly private regardless of status, but I just can't find anything worth firing her or demanding her resignation over. As much as I hate slippery slope arguments (or rather the term), I can't help wondering where the line is drawn. If one lets their spouse take sexy photos (not that this was a sexy photo; just making a point here) of them and they split up and s/he shares what were supposed to be private photos with the world, should we expect that that teacher be fired because s/he had the poor judgment of sharing something private with a trusted individual?

[warcraftbaby]

I can get behind that, yo. I agree that anything you put out there on the innerwebz can come back to bite you in the butt and I certainly agree that people should be careful about what they put out there. However, my thinking is that she what she put up was not inappropriate. It's not just a matter of privacy to me since I agree that social networking is not exactly private regardless of status, but I just can't find anything worth firing her or demanding her resignation over. As much as I hate slippery slope arguments (or rather the term), I can't help wondering where the line is drawn. If one lets their spouse take sexy photos (not that this was a sexy photo; just making a point here) of them and they split up and s/he shares what were supposed to be private photos with the world, should we expect that that teacher be fired because s/he had the poor judgment of sharing something private with a trusted individual?

O IA with you. I don't even give a fig if a teacher has done/is doing porn. What my child's theoretical teacher does on their own time is their business. People can throw that 'role model' argument at me, I don't care. My poor kid has enough relatives that are bad influences that I'm going to already have to deal with bad 'role models' If anyone needs to learn how to deal with that, you can borrow one for the weekend

This isn't even a case of a parent being offended and worried about their darling snowflake's mind being warped by that big ol bad teacher holding booze. This is another teacher who deserves the title of "b" word for getting someone fired just because she doesn't like them. High school never ends...

[CW&M Mom]

As long as it's private and no students are on it...and she hasn't signed anything about FB behavior then I wouldn't make it an issue either.

But

that being said...i agree you must be wary of everything you put online. My DH has literally nothing on his FB page for this reason and on our family blog...we have eliminated our last name and my DH name entirely. I check all the time googling my DH name to make sure nothing shows up that could possibly be looked at by potential employers and be an issue. (our problem is DS has health issues that employers would be wary of hiring DH).

I have one friend...a teacher on FB and she misspelled her last name on purpose...

[aimeebee]

Okay, this is ridiculous. Is it now illegal to say the B word? Is it suddenly illegal for a teacher to enjoy a glass of wine when she is in Italy? (When in Rome....) Seriously, this whole zero tolerance thing is getting out of hand. There has to be a little common sense. What this teacher does while on vacation in Italy is none of the school's business unless it is illegal. She clearly has not done anything illegal. I think this teacher will win her wrongful termination suit. AND, in this case, I hope she wins a lot of money because the school has wrongfully slandered her name and caused her defamation of character and loss of income.

[aimeebee]

Okay, this is ridiculous. Is it now illegal to say the B word? Is it suddenly illegal for a teacher to enjoy a glass of wine when she is in Italy? (When in Rome....) Seriously, this whole zero tolerance thing is getting out of hand. There has to be a little common sense. What this teacher does while on vacation in Italy is none of the school's business unless it is illegal. She clearly has not done anything illegal. I think this teacher will win her wrongful termination suit. AND, in this case, I hope she wins a lot of money because the school has wrongfully slandered her name and caused her defamation of character and loss of income.

hmmm...after reading a few more articles, it seems that the teacher was "asked to resign" rather than terminated. So...who knows about the wrongful termination case. Still the whole thing is ridiculous. Her FB page and pictures were PRIVATE meaning only available to people she friended, not the public and not her students.

[jen276here]

Well, the way things are going, folks won't be able to sneeze without worrying whether it is grounds for termination....

[HelenPooh]

Ridiculous. Employees are asked to leave their personal issues at home so why try to invade it? Poor girl, she didn't do anything to harm the school's reputation. Just another person enjoying themselves on vacation. Can't believe that behavior can risk losing a job.

[CW&M Mom]

Oh it gets worse

Canadian woman loses benefits over Facebook photo - Yahoo! News

apparently FB is being used by lots of places to deny you things...oye...