Should Teachers Be Fired For Legal Activity OFF The Job? (elementary school, easiest)

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Robhu

People in authority have become so PC correct along with dime chasing lawyers that humans aren't supposed to be human anymore.
And all these "perfect people" will probably go celebrate and have a beer if they win a case that might destroy someones career that did nothing wrong.
I hope the teacher sues. And I hope she wins.
And I hope the hipocrite saints that brought charges against her get caught doing something like any normal person would do in daily life that harms no one and gets the "what goes around comes around".
I hate the freaking do gooders that don't know the difference between real right and wrong.
If the "perfect people" wanted a "perfect society" they should have been born years ago and been part of Hitlers regime.
We all know know how he ended up.
Hopefully, these aholes who want to make robots out of humans with no rights will end up the same way.
Destroyed.

Yeah. With an AK-47 or a street sweeper!

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Aconite

I don't think she should be fired for it. OTOH, I think it shows an amazing lack of judgment. Any adult with hopes of a professional career should be smart enough to keep their Facebook/Myspace/LJ/blogs clean of anything they wouldn't want to show up in a job interview.

My facebook page is my own business. I do not go on it during working hours (couldn't if I wanted too because it is blocked from our network at work). It is my personal space and my employer does not tell me what I can and can't put there so long as it does not refer to their business. If I want to put a picture on there of me in my underwear drunk holding a bottle of Jack Daniels, I will damn well put it there. It is MY Space!

[KevK]

Originally Posted by drjones96

It's rediculus.

But I've heard of the same thing happening elsewhere.

My neighbor across the street is a general manager of a JCPenny store. It's company policy that they cannot appear in photos on social websites like that. We went out to a bar one night and took a few pictures. My wife posted them on fb and the next thing we know his wife calls in a panic wanting us to pull them off there.

Thank you for telling us that. That is one store you won't see me spend another dime in. I will just add them to Target on my boycott list.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by geekduo

My view exactly. As long as the teacher is not doing anything illegal it should have no impact on their job. I can understand a picture of a student having a beer getting that student in trouble, but that is because student's are underage. I hope she wins that lawsuit, teachers have a right to have a personal life just like anybody else.

That is up to the student's folks and to law enforcement to decide what trouble, if any, the student is in. That is not the school's business as long as the strudent did not consume, possess or come to school under the influence. If I give my own kids a beer or wine cooler (which I have done at family BBQs) and a picture of it shows up in facebook, I dare them to say squat about it. I would be down that school's ass so fast they would not know what hit them.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by ccnj

Facebook is watched closely now. Our union president just sent this out today. A custodian in a NJ elementary school was fired over comments on Facebook. We (teachers) have been warned many times already this year about being very careful if we decide to have a Facebook page.

Custodian At Emmons Elementary Fired Over Comments Made On Facebook - cbs3.com (http://cbs3.com/topstories/NJ.Custodian.Emmons.2.1321365.html - broken link)

In this case he was on the account during working hours (a no no) and he wrote things about his employer (a no no). That is quite different than being on FB on your own time with your own personal business.

[KevK]

Originally Posted by Houston3

How many of you would defend this guy? Now remember what he was doing was on his on time and is LEGAL. This is NOT the only case on what this guy was doing..

Off-the-job smoker sues over firing - The Boston Globe

Hers's more..


Where there is smoke, there are terminations: smokers fired to save health costs | HR Magazine | Find Articles at BNET

And before you Yell But Smoking is bad for your health.....I know people that drank them selves into an early grave.

A different case all together. Scotts is a PRIVATE company, not a public school. It's employees are "at will" and can be fired for any reason at anytime. The company made it clear that smoking was not acceptable on or off the job and he smoked anyway. Private companies- and private schools for that matter- have the right to dictate whatever terms of employment they wish. If the employees don't like it, they can go to work elsewhere or elect to join a union to change the situation.

[endersshadow]

I don't think facebook and any other social network is a problem for teachers as long as they make their page private to friends only and don't accept students or parents.

The problem otherwise is that students or parents could see you in a situation that's inappropriate to school. Whether the picture was taken in school or not, the connection between you and the student is school. Thus, the appropriateness must be held to school standards. If you wouldn't have that picture sitting on your desk, you shouldn't publicize it to everyone. It's essentially the same thing.

This kind of security isn't to breed robots that have no personal lives. They're not saying you can't do this or you can't take pictures... or even that you can't share your pictures with your friends. Of course people did it in the past and there weren't problems before. The difference is, however, these kinds of pictures remained at home - where students had no access to it.

If you don't get that then I question your judgement as a professional.

[city_data91]

I am opposed to drinking, but this is just ridiculous. Plenty of other teachers at that school drink. What difference does it make if they post it on facebook? It seems like teachers have their own special rules because they work with minors, but it shouldn't be that way. A teacher from my old high school was facebook friends with a lot of students but removed all of them expect the students that graduated. I wonder if the school had been spying on him through facebook and that's why he deleted the student friends.

There are probably other jobs that care about what pictures you have on facebook, but tell me one other job that dictates who you can and can't be friends with.

I saw a middle school teacher drinking beer at a restaurant. Does that mean he should be fired for setting a bad example for the students that saw him?

[ShadowCaver]

Teachers have a public side, and are role models for kids... w/ that said however, if the supposed act that they did was simply having a drink with compadres in non-illegal manner, who cares?

Funny, this society we have... on another thread in another section [entertainment/tv] you have people complaining about others whining about TV shows that have cursing, gore, crime scene bodies, etc... and saying that such is ok - yet here we have an internet site set to 'private' that has a couple photos of a teacher holding alcoholic drinks and potentially a curse word, and she is forced to resign.

[endersshadow]

Originally Posted by city_data91

I saw a middle school teacher drinking beer at a restaurant. Does that mean he should be fired for setting a bad example for the students that saw him?

That's a good point in regards to drinking. However, this isn't just about pictures of people drinking alcohol. Lets say that you, as a teacher, are out with a bunch of friends. You're fresh out of college and you still dress like it. Perhaps you're showing a little too much leg or cleavage. Maybe certain undergarments are exposed (intentionally). If you saw your kid, would you go running up to him or would you hide your ass?

Also, we're not just talking about high schoolers. This applies to middle and elementary school (more so parents than students at the elementary level).