Just recently went through and updated all my settings. It was SCARY how many different "people" had full access to all my info. No wonder my email was spam city.
If "inappropriate online activities" was specifically mentioned beforehand she's got a battle on her hands. I guess a lot of people would just assume that meant "no porn"... totally true of course, but if that was the ONLY concern then they'd have just said so. They said activities so gives them quite a bit of room. If I was in the public eye like that I wouldn't have risked it. Being paranoid about Ol' Murphy the way I am... nope, no way. Teachers are held to the same rules as the kids, and then some. No smoking, drinking, gambling, etc. N'mind that those things are all legal for the adults... you are not supposed to brag about any of those activities because it might put the idea into the kids' heads that it's cool. Position of authority, respect, etc means that your opinion carries weight and thus you can't use that weight to encourage things that would be harmful and/or illegal if they did it. Same reason teachers (around here at least) can't have a pierced nose. Sure it's totally legal for them to, but the kids who see that and think it's cool and want one... NOT legal. Gotta be 18. Same thing really. And parents have a habit of jumping on any excuse for their kid's behavior. Other than their bad choice being their fault that is. Can't be that you drink at home, or that TV is constantly blasting ads, or that the billboards en route to the school are Bud, nope the only reason your kid picked up a beer was because this teacher posted a picture they never even saw. Gotta love the logic.
As to her settings being high and only friends can see stuff... well if that's true then that means one of her "friends" spread the word about the pics and one they told (or the 'friend' themself) snitched to the school. Seriously, you didn't think that your cool trip would be talked about? "OMG Brittany you totally have to see the pics of Ashley's trip. We SO have to do this next year!!" or some such would be all it takes to get the rumor ball rolling. And given how gossipy my kid's school was, between staff and parents... not a stretch to imagine a compliment about that neat trip landing in the lap of a parent who being a teetolling snot would throw a fit and tell the boss that this teacher was corrupting their innocent little angel. And remember what was said at the meeting. "Do you have a facebook?" You remember the telephone game right? There's NO telling how big the rumor had snowballed... that principal could have heard she was doing amateur night at a strip joint and posting pics of it for all we know... since he obviously didn't have access to the page he would have no way to verify the rumor... and it's entirely possible the one that came to him with it didn't see it either, just heard.
When you take a job you represent the company... and you have to deal with the "Customer is always right" mentality... when you take a job that involves children all that gets multiplied by about a thousand. You wouldn't bring pictures of yourself drinking/etc to a school to pass around for The Adults to see because one of the kids might see too and that'd be bad... so why would you post them on the internet where you know every day there are more stories about "private" stuff being hacked?
As much as I'm for free speech, privacy, etc. I'm also a huge proponent of personal responsibility. It is a fact that the internet is NOT private. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that. It's a fact that she was informed in advance that her online activities would be monitored and that any deemed 'inappropriate" could result in disciplinary actions. She knew that drugs, alcohol, gambling, guns, etc were banned (assuming her school is anything like ones here of course. Here you can't even wear a shirt or hat that promotes any of those things) She knew all that going in and still did this. Now she's backing out of taking responsibility for it. Not exactly the kind of example I want my kids learning from. Not thinking anything through, ignoring rules, and when things don't go your way because of your own stupid choices throwing a fit and suing... which only takes money away from the kids you supposedly dedicated your career to helping.
On the flip side though, since the school didn't define inappropriate I'd have given her a chance to remove the stuff, seen with my own eyes, and a warning, mark on her record, probation or some such... nothing else goes wrong everyone moves on. Because the school took such a hard line on something so ill defined they're now trapped in litigation. It was stupid of them, particularly given how specific the outlines for STUDENT behavior and discipline are often laid out, to leave this so gray. They could have taken this opportunity to set down something concrete, which they did... but because they had no previous precedent, no black and white rules on the books, now they're in court wasting taxpayer dollars and taking away from the very children they were trying to 'protect'. If you're going to put a rule down don't do the quote mark you know what I mean assumption stuff... I mean REALLY... don't we ALL know by now what happens when you assume?
Whole thing is a bloody mess that could have been avoided with better communication and more responsibility on both sides. Now it's the students that will suffer (through less funding, losing a teacher, and drawing negative attention to their district so hiring new teachers could be harder) because of the adults mistakes.
If "inappropriate online activities" was specifically mentioned beforehand she's got a battle on her hands. I guess a lot of people would just assume that meant "no porn"... totally true of course, but if that was the ONLY concern then they'd have just said so. They said activities so gives them quite a bit of room. If I was in the public eye like that I wouldn't have risked it. Being paranoid about Ol' Murphy the way I am... nope, no way. Teachers are held to the same rules as the kids, and then some. No smoking, drinking, gambling, etc. N'mind that those things are all legal for the adults... you are not supposed to brag about any of those activities because it might put the idea into the kids' heads that it's cool. Position of authority, respect, etc means that your opinion carries weight and thus you can't use that weight to encourage things that would be harmful and/or illegal if they did it. Same reason teachers (around here at least) can't have a pierced nose. Sure it's totally legal for them to, but the kids who see that and think it's cool and want one... NOT legal. Gotta be 18. Same thing really. And parents have a habit of jumping on any excuse for their kid's behavior. Other than their bad choice being their fault that is. Can't be that you drink at home, or that TV is constantly blasting ads, or that the billboards en route to the school are Bud, nope the only reason your kid picked up a beer was because this teacher posted a picture they never even saw. Gotta love the logic.
As to her settings being high and only friends can see stuff... well if that's true then that means one of her "friends" spread the word about the pics and one they told (or the 'friend' themself) snitched to the school. Seriously, you didn't think that your cool trip would be talked about? "OMG Brittany you totally have to see the pics of Ashley's trip. We SO have to do this next year!!" or some such would be all it takes to get the rumor ball rolling. And given how gossipy my kid's school was, between staff and parents... not a stretch to imagine a compliment about that neat trip landing in the lap of a parent who being a teetolling snot would throw a fit and tell the boss that this teacher was corrupting their innocent little angel. And remember what was said at the meeting. "Do you have a facebook?" You remember the telephone game right? There's NO telling how big the rumor had snowballed... that principal could have heard she was doing amateur night at a strip joint and posting pics of it for all we know... since he obviously didn't have access to the page he would have no way to verify the rumor... and it's entirely possible the one that came to him with it didn't see it either, just heard.
When you take a job you represent the company... and you have to deal with the "Customer is always right" mentality... when you take a job that involves children all that gets multiplied by about a thousand. You wouldn't bring pictures of yourself drinking/etc to a school to pass around for The Adults to see because one of the kids might see too and that'd be bad... so why would you post them on the internet where you know every day there are more stories about "private" stuff being hacked?
As much as I'm for free speech, privacy, etc. I'm also a huge proponent of personal responsibility. It is a fact that the internet is NOT private. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that. It's a fact that she was informed in advance that her online activities would be monitored and that any deemed 'inappropriate" could result in disciplinary actions. She knew that drugs, alcohol, gambling, guns, etc were banned (assuming her school is anything like ones here of course. Here you can't even wear a shirt or hat that promotes any of those things) She knew all that going in and still did this. Now she's backing out of taking responsibility for it. Not exactly the kind of example I want my kids learning from. Not thinking anything through, ignoring rules, and when things don't go your way because of your own stupid choices throwing a fit and suing... which only takes money away from the kids you supposedly dedicated your career to helping.
On the flip side though, since the school didn't define inappropriate I'd have given her a chance to remove the stuff, seen with my own eyes, and a warning, mark on her record, probation or some such... nothing else goes wrong everyone moves on. Because the school took such a hard line on something so ill defined they're now trapped in litigation. It was stupid of them, particularly given how specific the outlines for STUDENT behavior and discipline are often laid out, to leave this so gray. They could have taken this opportunity to set down something concrete, which they did... but because they had no previous precedent, no black and white rules on the books, now they're in court wasting taxpayer dollars and taking away from the very children they were trying to 'protect'. If you're going to put a rule down don't do the quote mark you know what I mean assumption stuff... I mean REALLY... don't we ALL know by now what happens when you assume?
Whole thing is a bloody mess that could have been avoided with better communication and more responsibility on both sides. Now it's the students that will suffer (through less funding, losing a teacher, and drawing negative attention to their district so hiring new teachers could be harder) because of the adults mistakes.
