Court Ruling on Student Teacher's MySpace Photo: Justified or Unjustified?

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The court ruled in favor of Millersville University against student teacher Stacy Snyder, who was denied her teaching degree due to a photo on her MySpace page titled "Drunken Pirate." The university cited her poor performance and unprofessionalism as primary reasons for her dismissal, rather than solely the photo itself. Snyder's lawsuit claimed a violation of her First Amendment rights, but the court found that her inability to complete the student teaching program was the decisive factor in her not graduating.

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  • #31


all school teachers should be bitter old spinsters. if there's any drinking to be done, it should be during class with a bit of spirits discretely added to ones coffee.
 
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  • #32


Proton Soup said:
all school teachers should be bitter old spinsters. if there's any drinking to be done, it should be during class with a bit of spirits discretely added to ones coffee.

Or straight vodka in a water bottle?
 
  • #33


NeoDevin said:
I think whether or not it should be considered inappropriate depends on whether or not she was giving this out to students as contact information. If she told the class "Add me on facebook, and if you need help, feel free to leave me a message, since I check it more often than my email." or something like that, then I can see how having pictures of her partying would be inappropriate.

It's a bit tangled in that regard. She apparently told (or mentioned to) her students that she was on myspace early on which garnered her demarits for lack of professionalism. She was warned then of the issue of discussing her work on her myspace page, that it is against policy. At some point a student who had found the student teacher's page had recognized a friend of the teacher while out in public and approached that friend to talk to her. When the student teacher found out she spoke with the student and let her know it was not appropriate for the student to involve herself in her personal life. She later made a post on her page...

First, Bree said that one of my students was on here looking at my page, which is
fine. I have nothing to hide. I am over 21, and I don't say anything that will hurt
me (in the long run). Plus, I don't think that they would stoop that low as to mess
with my future. So, bring on the love! I figure a couple of students will actually
send me a message when I am no longer their official teacher. They keep asking
me why I won’t apply there. Do you think it would hurt me to tell them the real
reason (or who the problem was)?

The discovery of this post was what resulted in her being dropped. The faculty and admin decided that it was a rather blatant reference to her "cooperative teacher", the one who was observing and evaluating her. So...

-Mentioned being on myspace to students.
-Said students looking at her page is "..fine. I have nothing to hide."
-And "So, bring on the love!"

At the same time she..
-Warned a student for involving herself in her personal life.
-And said she would like contact with the students through myspace "..when I am no longer their official teacher."

It's not exactly a clear stance but I think the consideration for professionalism was shown.
As for the comment supposedly about the other teacher I do not think it was necessarily evident whom she was referring to. It's possible that she may not even be referring to a person at the school. Maybe she has a boyfriend or lover someplace and feels it might be unprofessional to discuss such personal parts of her life in class.

As for whether or nto it was proper for her to discuss any of this on her page... that's a problem. Anyone can look at it and it can easily effect her professional life even if it is not pointed out by her superiors as the reason. It was made the reason though and personally I don't find it very appropriate of the school to have done so. Was it very professional of her colleague to be looking at her myspace page? And is having a conversation on myspace all that different from having a conversation in a public place? If she went out to a pizza joint with friends, had some beers, discussed with a friend issues that she was having at her job, maybe cussed a bit, flirted a bit, and a student happened to be there that she didn't notice should she be fired for that?
 
  • #34


TheStatutoryApe said:
If she went out to a pizza joint with friends, had some beers, discussed with a friend issues that she was having at her job, maybe cussed a bit, flirted a bit, and a student happened to be there that she didn't notice should she be fired for that?

My understanding from talking to people who are/were teachers is that, yes, they could be fired if something like that happens...or at least have some form of disciplinary action taken. When teachers want to get together and socialize, especially to drink, they usually go to a bar in another town, or places that don't allow minors, so they will not run into problems of students seeing them drinking. Whether it is right or not, the expectations of professionalism extend beyond the school walls and to all aspects of their public lives.
 
  • #35


TheStatutoryApe said:
It's a bit tangled in that regard. She apparently told (or mentioned to) her students that she was on myspace early on which garnered her demarits for lack of professionalism. She was warned then of the issue of discussing her work on her myspace page, that it is against policy. At some point a student who had found the student teacher's page had recognized a friend of the teacher while out in public and approached that friend to talk to her. When the student teacher found out she spoke with the student and let her know it was not appropriate for the student to involve herself in her personal life. She later made a post on her page...

First, Bree said that one of my students was on here looking at my page, which is
fine. I have nothing to hide. I am over 21, and I don't say anything that will hurt
me (in the long run). Plus, I don't think that they would stoop that low as to mess
with my future. So, bring on the love! I figure a couple of students will actually
send me a message when I am no longer their official teacher. They keep asking
me why I won’t apply there. Do you think it would hurt me to tell them the real
reason (or who the problem was)?

The discovery of this post was what resulted in her being dropped. The faculty and admin decided that it was a rather blatant reference to her "cooperative teacher", the one who was observing and evaluating her. So...

Ah. A very different story emerges. There's more to this MySpace persona than just the picture. It involves editorializing about her position at the school. And that's unprofessional, and grounds for action by the school.

As always, especially on the intertubes, the more you read up on it, the less preposterous a claim turns out to be.
 
  • #36


Suddenly, her dismissal looks a lot less of an overreaction.
 
  • #37


I doubt that she would have graduated and from what I have read feel that I likely wouldn't want her to be a teacher. Still it makes me worry about the sort of precident it sets. I once flirted rather heavily with a girl at a bar only to realize later that she was a student at the college I worked at. I worried for months that she would tell someone and I would be fired. If someone can lose their job for making an oblique reference to an issue they had a work I would say that there would have been no hope for me had anyone found out about what I had done.
 
  • #38


College is a different cup of tea. As long as there isn't a conflict of interest, it's usually ok.
 
  • #39


I was Public Safety (security). Automatic conflict of interest.
 

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