A former Georgia high school teacher is suing the school district that fired her after finding what they deemed to be inappropriate pictures and language on her Facebook profile.
From CBS Atlanta:
“A former high school teacher is suing a north Georgia school district, alleging she was forced to resign over photos and expletives on her Facebook page.Ashley Payne, 24, claimed the Barrow County school district violated state labor law because she was never told she was entitled to a hearing…Payne resigned Aug. 27 after her principal questioned her about her Facebook page, which included photos of her holding wine and beer and an expletive. She had worked at the school for two years.”
Social networking is a sensitive issue for all professionals, but especially for teachers. Because they are supposed to be role models to the children they teach, teachers must take an exceptional level of care over what they post online. School boards are extremely sensitive to parents demands, so much so, in fact, that even the most innocuous pictures can get a teacher fired if they’re viewed in the wrong context.
Is this fair? Probably not, but it’s a reality of being a teacher in the internet age. If you’re a teacher and you want to be active in social media, you must be considerably more careful about who you interact with online. Don’t accept friend requests from students or parents, think long and hard about posting pictures of yourself doing anything that could be considered inappropriate (even if it doesn’t seem inappropriate to you), and make sure you set your privacy settings to the highest levels possible.
12 comments ↓
If she was fired because there were pictures of her with a glass of wine and her drinking a beer, then the school board needs to get a life. The morale fiber of this country has sunk so low as to fire someone over pictures that were taken on vacation?? This would have happened back in the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s, but I thought that our country had changed.
If this is the case, every teacher (including shool board members) who has EVER drank an alcoholic beverage needs to be fired immediately from their positions. If that happened, then the only ones losing out on this would be the students of this country. I realize that Georgia is in the bible belt of this country, but it is not like she was pictured topless with a glass of wine in one hand and a glass of beer in the other, smiling at the camera and showing off her assets! The part of being “politically correct” has gone way, way too far. I don’t see nothing wrong with the pictures that were shown.
wow… sorry but thats just sad. really? teachers cant have a personal life to themselves? does the school board really need to be stalking their staff members… thats wrong and unproffesional, so wat if it had that picture! thats her on her personal time and no parent should complain because who are they to be talking, they’ve probably drank before and if not, why would they be on the teachers page anyways, its not polite…. and yeah… i just think its messed up that teachers cant have their own life besides school, im actually glad most teachers have their own life outside of school, that would be a living nightmare if they didnt…
She is of legal age. She was on vacation. She is professional about her job. enough said.
This is all starting to sound like the Soviet Union, turning your neighbor in. Ironic that this case came out on Veteran’s Day, when we honor those who defend our freedoms. I didn’t spend 8 years defending this country from this stuff.
to me it seem hippocritical to fire a teacher over a glass of wine. When i saw this story on HLN, I was shocked. Since when can a school dictate a “if the students cannot engage in a particular behavior, then neither can the teachers” policy? Then–let’s see…….why not forbid teachers from voting (your average hs student can’t, so the teacher can’t, either), or any other activity that has an age requirement stamped on it. hmmm……maybe teachers should be permitted to drive, too.
It certainly seems unfair, but unfortunately that’s the way the cookie crumbles for professionals in the internet age. If you’re going to use social networking websites, you have to be extremely careful about what you put online. Also, you should use your privacy settings to their maximum potential.
What if the parents had seen the teacher drink at a restaurant? Wouldn’t that be a similar thing? This doesn’t have to do with the internet age or with social networking, it has to do with separating professional life from personal life. The teacher can be an excellent role model for her students in the classroom – and when she sees them out in public too, but that shouldn’t mean that she has to stop being an adult. Students know that there are differences between what they are allowed to do and what adults are allowed to do, so seeing her with a drink in her hand (whether on Facebook or at a restaurant) is not going to change that.
What’s wrong with our country? We’ll fire a teacher for showing pictures of her drinking a beer, yet think nothing of the nasty American music awards depicting all kinds of filth, broadcast during primetime to all our kids. Get a life people! Lighten up and go after the real snakes. We are getting so spoiked.
[...] isn’t the first time we’ve talked about teachers getting in trouble over Facebook or Myspace pictures, and it probably won’t be the last. By now, it’s a known fact that [...]
[...] isn’t the first time we’ve talked about teachers getting in trouble over Facebook or Myspace pictures, and it probably won’t be the last. By now, it’s a known fact that [...]
[...] that goes out to the public from your identity. If you are not careful, this could happen to you. Categories: Uncategorized Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment [...]
And there’s a double standard for North Georgia teachers. A female fired for having pictures of herself with alcoholic drinks is nowhere near as bad as three coaches in another North Georgia county getting drunk before a football game and then going to the game and getting out of control in the press box. The school that hosted the game had a zero tolerance policy for staff and students, even those visiting. The coaches were ejected (and no, they didn’t coach football but represented the visiting team) but refused to leave. Cops called. Men arrested for public drunkenness. Were these three men fired from their coaching jobs? No. So far as I know, they’re still in the classroom and coaching – and the community stood behind them! The good, upstanding citizens of this area actually thought the other school’s officials were out of line because these coaches had a ‘beer or two’ with their dinner before the game, but at least two registered over the legal limit. Now, the female teacher is only seen on a social networking site holding alcohol while not working or attending a school function but she loses her job? This is beyond belief.
How does any body know what is in the glass of the photo being taken? I drink non-alcoholic wine and beer and I stay stone sober. Firing someone over a photo like that could be a major law suite. The company could be firing a person over drinking a Pepsi Cola.
They had better be able to prove their case or it could wind up being more expensive than they ever dreamed.
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