US teacher loses job after Facebook posts about 'germ bag'
We read:
"A teacher who was forced to resign after calling her students "germ bags" on Facebook has admitted what she did was stupid, but refused to apologise.
June Talvitie-Siple, 54, from Quincy, Massachusetts said she thought her Facebook posts were only visible to her friends when she also described the parents of her students as "snobby" and "arrogant", The Patriot Ledger reported.
The high school maths and science teacher in Cohasset, Massachusetts was forced to resign from the school after parents spotted the posts and complained to the school superintendent.
Ms Talvitie-Siple had complained to her friends on the social networking site that her students were "germ bags" as she had been sick for six months and students kept infecting her.
She also wrote: "I'm so not looking forward to another year at Cohasset Schools," adding that the community was "arrogant" and "snobby".
Source
But what if everything she said was true? I have a feeling that it might have been. So do we have here a case of someone losing their job for telling the truth?
Competent math and science teachers are hard to find so I suspect that the schoolkids concerned will be the losers from the thin skin of the teacher's critics
9 comments:
So students can say nasty things about teachers on facebook and get away with it, but a teacher can't do the same? This is ridiculous, besides, everyone knows that schools are breeding grounds for disease.
So students can say nasty things about teachers on facebook and get away with it, but a teacher can't do the same?
She has the right to say what she wants. She also has to face the consequences of her speech. If you think that it is acceptable to demonize your employer, the people of a community and what are essentially your "clients," without some sort of repercussion, you're crazy.
"She has the right to say what she wants. She also has to face the consequences of her speech."
---So if a student goes on facebook and says "Mr. Peter is a pedophile" is that protected free speech or will he face prosecution for libel or at the very least, detention?
Seems to me teachers are being held to a much higher standard than the students. The teacher in this case did not libel anyone in particular, she did not name names, she simply made a general statement.
---So if a student....
She is not a student. She is an employee of the school system who was making 93k a year.
The teacher in this case did not libel anyone in particular, she did not name names, she simply made a general statement.
No one has to be libeled for someone to be fired.
"She has the right to say what she wants. She also has to face the consequences of her speech. If you think that it is acceptable to demonize your employer, the people of a community and what are essentially your "clients," without some sort of repercussion, you're crazy."
"Demonizing"? Who did she demonize? And, if she has a right to say what she wants, isn't punishing her for saying it violating that right? Of course, the school may have a policy which states that it's employees can not hold personal opinions, even on their own time, but that would be another violation of her First Amendment rights.
What is really sad here (and also pretty stupid) is the fact that tens-of-millions of people actually think they can put their personal thoughts, and in many cases, their entire lives on the internet, and expect it to remain private.
And, if she has a right to say what she wants, isn't punishing her for saying it violating that right?
No.
No? Only in your world.
No? Only in your world.
Tell ya what.
Go up to your boss and tell him that he or she is a big fat ignoramus who has the intelligence of a pea and who is so ugly that his private bathroom can't have mirrors because they break when they look at themselves.
Then try and claim that they cannot fire you for what you said.
Let me know how that goes.
The only difference here is that the woman was a school teacher and it is the government that fired her. The Supreme Court has already ruled that student and teacher speech outside of the classroom is not protected if said speech causes or is likely to cause disruption in the school.
The fact that her comments caused and would have caused disruption in the school is evidenced by the parent's and student's complaints. It is not a stretch in any sense of the word to recognize that a teacher who calls her students "germbags" and who makes disparaging comments about the community in general is not a disruption in the school.
So once again, no. Not "no" in my world, but the real world.
If this was 1952, parents would not allow their kids to become germbags. But in our brave new world, it's teachers who are afraid of the students and not the other way around.
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