I received an email today from the National Education Association that contained an article about whether or not Facebook and Myspace could cost a person their career. In the article (click here to read it http://www.nea.org/home/12784.htm) there were several examples of people that had lost their job due to what had been posted on their online profiles. Most of the people were dismissed for posting racy sexual photos, photos of doing drugs or drinking, and comments about their extracurricular (not appropriate for educators) behavior.
Part of me thinks that everyone has their First Amendment rights and as long as they are not involving their extracurricular activities with their career then they should be able to do as they please. But the other part of me thinks that when you are hired for a position that places you in the public eye (i.e. teacher, police officer, mayor, firefighter, state rep, etc.) then you sign up to be a 24/7 role model. A role model that has people watching you, looking specifically for the stumble that could take your job away indefinitely.
Now, do I think that our contracts should say that people in these positions should not be allowed to participate in web sites that have online profiles...NO! But I do think that if you are going to have an online profile that you shouldn't be posting pictures/blogs about your inappropriate extracurriculars, whether you are a priest, teacher, police officer, custodian, IT person, stay-at-home parent, or anything else.
4 comments:
totally agree! i don't think their right to post should be revoked - i DO however agree that people need to be accountable for what they post.
just to add, another imformative link from the NY union...
http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/newyorkteacher_12466.htm
Its that damn moralterpatude thing it stops us from having any fun. If really want to get into i can give countless examples about people loosing more then there jobs from things they have posted on line. In particular one girl lost a 1.7 mil law suit because what she said on her face book page and a guy got a life sentence due mostly to he was guilty but the only real evidence they had was a comment someone left on his myspace and his response. I was saying all this stuff back in school why i never wanted a picture of me with alcohol before i was 21 and why i almost never use my real name anywhere online.
And more related to your topic i do believe a teacher should be able to get fired for what they post just like what they say and do freedom of speech is one thing but it is a completely different one when you hold a job that is a role model. On the same token i do not believe in someone being able to be fired for something someone else post about the defamatory or otherwise. If you really must do this do this under a pen name and when they try to come down on you just say its a fictitious person or is you other personality that happens to be a disabled homo sexual minority let them try to fire you then.
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