Is this the dumbest "hey, we need to fire this teacher!" story yet?

a written warning would be appropriate but to ruin her career, that's unfair and inappropriate

 

Why was there ducttape in a classroom?! Why should you ever NOT have duct-tape ANYWHERE?!

 

Yeah, that's pretty damn stupid. A verbal warning, maybe even a written warning so at least they can say they issued a policy classification... but fired? No, ridiculous.

 

Might not have been the best thing to do in the current environment, but the world needs some comedy. No one was hurt, and people are getting too uptight about this kind of stuff.

 

I'd be interested to hear what the students have to say about the "incident".

 

exactly ASU2003 and i'd be interested to hear what the students would say as well because i'd like to think they'd tell the board that they, the students, instigated the incident as such themselves Hateful.Monstar

 

The problem is that many consider Facebook to be a professional environment, similar to the workplace or the classroom. The same conduct expected in these areas seems to be expected in this corner of the online world, but then at the same time you have your mom and brother sign up for Facebook to talk about more private things. Clearly, these expectations of social conduct are clashing together, and this teacher thought of Facebook as off the record, which is clearly not the case.

 

It's pretty much the dumbest teacher firing story I've heard. Facebook should be off the record anyway. Other than illegal activities, like when dumbasses post how they robbed a bank and got away with it.

 

I'm not sure that she should be fired, but I understand the concerns about posting photos of your students on facebook. That is not appropriate without permission from the parents and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's not an explicit policy in most schools by now. I know that for people in healthcare professions, this sort of thing is a violation of HIPAA regardless of your relationship with the person in the photo and how harmless it seems. I don't see why it shouldn't be the same for teachers.

 

I agree with mixedmedia It may be the use of social media is the issue here rather than the content. My son is a teacher I'll ask him if his school has a policy. I know that two or three years ago he took down his facebook page just to avoid this sort of thing. He does have a twitter account but that is just for a small group of friends.

 

I don't see the fuss, on either side.

The board's president mentioned their main concern: "Has she violated the students' privacy? That's what we're concerned about. Everyone seems to be focused on the duct tape."

The duct tape issue seems secondary to him, but I'd guess he addressed it as well because of the attention it received.

Since presumably nobody here knows this particular school's policy, nor has any clarification been provided by the article on whether she violated it, I don't see a basis for any outrage.

 

I see no issue with posting the image or the duct tape.

What the fuck is wrong with people?

 

At the start of every school year I have to sign a form stating that it's ok for them take photos of my child and possibly use them in school related materials. It's not a new issue. If you have teachers posting whatever they want, wherever they want (the duct tape is a non-issue) then the situation is obviously treading into one of those: if in doubt, don't do it areas. Sometimes there have to be universal rules that seem to be unnecessary simply because 1. you're always going to have a certain percentage of people who do stupid shit without thinking (even educated people) and 2) the benefits of the activity (in this case, posting photos of your students on facebook) are negligible.

 

We have to sign the same form. As you say, the duct-tape is a non-issue (except so many people seem to be focussed on it because they haven't taken the time to read the article and find out how the tape came to be on the kids' mouths). But this was a celebratory sort of thing; a group of students who felt comfortable enough in the presence of the teacher at the time to horse around like kids and say "take a picture!!" None of that was in any way unacceptable.

Should she have been fired? Absolutely not. At worst, she should have been told it wasn't a good idea without consent from the parents and to please remove it. And that should have been the end of it.

Should she have posted it on FB? Maybe not... but it's not as bad as everyone is making it seem. You absolutely HAVE to consider the context and content. How many similar candid pictures of students are put into school yearbooks without permission (the yearbook is a school related material)? And if that had been done, and the picture THEN put on FB by someone else, would it have been equally inappropriate? Or what if it had been one of the students who posted the original picture? I don't think anyone would have batted an eyelash in that case.

What is different here is the fact that it was the teacher, the person in charge who did it. That is the only grey area. And to decide if it's wrong, you have to consider if anyone was really hurt, embarrassed, or exposed to any danger. Common sense, that incredibly rare commodity, should have been brought to bear, and it wasn't.

 

I don't think you can take every case and consider the context and content. Those are extremely nebulous concepts that people could haggle over for months. What is more practical is to have a sensible rule that doesn't really deprive anyone of anything. Teachers, don't post photos of your student on your personal social media sites.

 

My son's school has the same policy. Students sign a release that photos may be used for specific purposes only. This would not have been one of the approved purposes. There is no social media policy at the school for teachers. I'll bet we'll start seeing that in the future.

 

Yes, and when you check yes and sign that form you are, among other things, agreeing for your child's photo to be published in the yearbook.