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I understand completely. You're so intent on defending this person, you don't care what it takes to do it. If it means demeaning yourself by making foolish analogies, then so be it.
There is not a single post I have made in this thread that defends the teacher.
There is not a single post I have made in this thread that defends the teacher.
Then why insinuate I was being a hypocrite earlier? Why draw a false equivalence between someone using a message board handle and someone deliberately going out of their way to pretend to be a real life person designed to deceive people? What was the point?
I'm seeing and hearing a lot of sob stories about the "cruelty" of private groups and gossip and the like, so let me present the other side of this issue.
I have seen and experienced this phenomenon of people impersonating people myself, and seen it happen to others. One year, a new member joined a gaming community I was a part of and presented herself as a fun-loving, gregarious British woman named Lucy Mumford. (I don't remember her name, so let's call her that.) Her social media profiles showed a young blonde woman hanging out with friends and was full of updates about what she was up to. She couldn't have been more charming and displayed the classic charming British wit plus the Cosmopolitan "fun, fearless female attitude", where she would make "saucy" jokes showing what a free spirit she was.
For well over a year everyone got to know and became great friends with her. She spent months telling me and everyone else about how she had just moved to Las Vegas from the UK and was getting a new job and was so excited about her new life in the US. I had long chats with her as she was settling in and expressed excitement for her new move.
All of a sudden, after almost a year of this, she began to behave erratically. Told one member who had been diagnosed with cancer that she hoped this person dropped dead. Said other cruel and nasty things to other people. Became a stone cold witch. Then mysteriously disappeared.
As it turned out, "Linda M." had been a man all along, and he had trolled the community as a different user the year before. "Linda" was a completely fake profile he had made at Facebook and Twitter using a random blonde woman's photos. He didn't just fill out these profiles and actively post as "Linda", he played the part as her when he interacted with all of us, too, down to the British expressions and the "saucy female" persona and the fake "I'm starting a whole new life for myself" angle.
Then there was the whole Scott Addams fiasco, where he got into an argument with a woman online. So what he did was register numerous accounts posing as different people to gang up on his opponent. Then he pretended to be fans sticking up for him. I could tell you other stories as well, such as one guy I know who was catfished for the better part of a year by someone that he thought was a young woman but turned out to be a middle-aged man. Or the white supremacist who used to post on YouTube pretending to be a "Pinoy" asking for help from a "white pride" user (his sock account) about the "black problem" in The Philippines, and then the two account "talking" to each other.
The point I'm trying to make is that some of you are looking at this whole thing as, "Oh, what's the big deal? It's just a cute, harmless little thing that he did, kind of like a prank." But if you've been on the receiving end of this type of thing, you know that when people resort to impersonating others to get over on others, it's never innocent. It comes from a dark place. And the people who do it are always very devious and calculating about it. They don't just throw up a fake profile and call it a day. They will pretend to be this person to the hilt, will steal profile pictures, will impersonate the way they think the person they're impersonating might talk, will create fake updates (as in, "Just celebrated Johnny's third birthday!" when they don't have children). They'll wax poetic about their hopes and dreams.
In the case of this teacher, I have no doubt that this is what he did, because that's what every one of these types do. Someone made a comment suggesting that the people who friended this guy were being stupid, naive or foolish but what this person isn't understanding is that this teacher probably went to great lengths to impersonate a "mom" and may have done and said some cunning things to gain everyone's trust. He may have complimented some of the members of the group, might've shared fake personal triumphs, might've given motherly advice, might have even initially agreed with some of the criticisms the group had of him to make it look like he was "one of them."
Given all that, this is why I think the resignation was appropriate, as well as the fears of the mother who reported him. Online impersonation is a tool of choice for the devious and is a huge flag that the person who does it has some kind of personality flaw or emotional/mental issue.
Last edited by EastFlatbush; 02-10-2018 at 10:49 PM..
If the following is true, then he should've been fired, not forced to resign:
And:
He's a mentally unstable creep. Only some kind of insecure psycho would do something like this. Reminds me of when Scott Addams created multiple sock accounts to argue with people and pose as his own fans.
Wow. Talk about unstable. Look in the mirror. YOU are wildly over blowing this situation and exaggerating the character of the person who made this mistake. It's totally common and normal for people to react upon hearing they're being gossiped about. It's totally normal to get curious when you find out people are LYING about your job life behind closed doors, and you have no opportunity to defend yourself. People should NOT be allowed to use any company discussion forum to freely malign others employment with no consequences.
This incident would never have happened in the first place, if the Facebook forums involved had moderators who policed personal attacks and slanderous comments against persons not on the forum or allowed to respond, and made it a policy to remove such posts ASAP. Forums have to be policed. You cannot assume nowadays that people will act like adults with common sense. ESPECIALLY in the schools.
All these forums should have polices banning personal attacks and insults against members, and ESPECIALLY non-members. Heck, I've even seen such forums attacking CHILDREN and parents by name, over totally unsubstantiated accusations.
Last edited by Led Zeppelin; 02-10-2018 at 11:50 PM..
Parents have had vendettas against teachers and seen to it that they were removed for ages, long before social media. Imprudent use of social media just hands the people gunning for you more ammo, though. A well-liked teacher wouldn't be under any scrutiny.
There's all kinds of well-like teachers. Such as those NOT LIKED by the administration, but loved by the students. And NOT being liked is not necessarily aligned with how well or how poorly you do your job as a teacher.
I know lots of great teachers who have Facebook "accounts". That's not the issue, in my view. The issue is what I'll call sneaky activity and trying to infiltrate school-related groups through deception. That does bother me. Whether you're a teacher or a principal (or anyone else in the education field), there are going to be critics, and you just need to get past that and do your job.
People who slander and insult other people by name on open forums, where the subject of the slander is not allowed to respond, deserve whatever happens to them. Especially if the moderator does nothing to police these sites.
Yikes. Setting up fake profiles to see what people are saying about you borders on unstable. I get that gossip is frustrating but that’s just part of the job, IMO. There will always be parents who complain.
Yikes. Setting up fake profiles to see what people are saying about you borders on unstable. I get that gossip is frustrating but that’s just part of the job, IMO. There will always be parents who complain.
No. It borders on common-sensical if you believe you're trying to confront the perpetrators in the act of slandering you, so that you can address them on the forum. You just need to be smart enough NOT to use your company email to set up the account.
Inappropriate use of school owned email, would be my guess, since he used his school email address to create one of the accounts. If the district has been given any kind of reasonable legal advice, part of their yearly "read this, agree to it, and sign it" mandates for teachers includes a technology policy, complete with a statement that school issued email is for the teacher's use but belongs to the school and misuse can result in termination.
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