Teacher Suspended for Blogging...

[sixpackshaker]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_hi_te/us_teacher_suspended_blog#mwpphu-container

I am sure most of you have heard about this story.

Teacher posts a blog that does not name names, or the school, that insults the kids, and the administration. She has been suspended, and will likely be terminated at the end of the school year.

Should this be grounds for dismissal? or is a School District being short sighted about a big issue and will try to sweep it under the rug to keep a couple of parents happy?

There can be so many layers to this discussion, where does your freedom of speech end, and you knowledge of when the hell to shut up start?

 

[Dave]

What I love is the fact that they give her shit about saying: "Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS."

This is from the song "Kids" from Bye Bye Birdie.

 

[Chibibar]

She didn't mention names of students, the school, OR even using her full name (alias perhaps) so it is a generic frustration blog. It is almost as if the school can suspend any of our teachers on the forum for ragging on their students (which no personal information are given or school)

 

[Espy]

Is it fair for them to do this? Probably not. Are they justified? Probably. Is she an idiot for making a public blog that a chimpanzee could track down and figure out who she was and what school she was talking about? Probably.

 

[strawman]

Companies fire people who blog nagatively about the company, the work they do, or the products they produce. Why should teachers be given a free pass?

There are ways to complain about such things anonymously if one so desires, and it's obvious this person didn't take enough care to prevent others from finding out. Chances are good they blogged from school computers/networks on the clock.

 

[sixpackshaker]

But the teacher was not suspended for personal use of school district computers. She was fired for vague comments about student behavior. It is one of the most troubling aspects that I see today, companies and governments becoming the thought police.

 

[strawman]

It is one of the most troubling aspects that I see today, companies and governments becoming the thought police.

If I work for company X, and I spend time, even outside the company without using any of their resources to disparage the work environment, the products, the company, or any other aspect of it, why do you think I have a right to continued employment with X?

What is this "thought police" complaint you are making? Why is it troubling for a company to jettison a particle that is complaining about it?

If I have a guest in my home, and I find out that behind my back they are disparaging me to strangers, do I not have a right to kick them out of my home?

I'm just having a really hard time understanding your perspective. Hopefully you can explain it to me in a way that makes sense, but so far it just looks like hobbling the school by not allowing them to fire people that are disparaging the school, their job, and the students. Even though it may be anonymous, if my employee tells everyone else that they are unhappy with their job, I want to get rid of them so they can find something that makes them happy, and I can find someone who will be happy in their old position. I don't want to have unhappy employees, even if their performance is good.

 

[sixpackshaker]

So, no discussion, just kick the bastard out?

You may want to see why and employee is not exactly thrilled about their job. Instead of fixing the situation, you just cast off a professional that is venting amongst friends.

You must be a hard person to know, if you kick out your friends and family over a rumor.

 

[MindDetective]

So they fired her for her own good? She'll be happier that way...

 

[strawman]

You must be a hard person to know, if you kick out your friends and family over a rumor.

They are hardly friends or family if they spend 18 months (august 2009 is when she started the blog) posting publicly about how terrible I am.

But, you know, maybe you're right. You should write to your representatives and demand a bill that disallows employers from firing employees when the employees show open contempt for their job.

I mean, people have a constitutional right to not being fired when they badmouth their employer, right?

Keep in mind that there is a discussion going on. She's not been fired. She's been suspended, with pay while they figure out what the impact of her blog is on her students and the school, and how (or whether) it should affect her position.

The reality is that once the story is out, and it's no longer anonymous, her open contempt for her students is going to hurt their learning.

Do you think that things will be better for the school and students if she's welcomed back, or do you think they'll be better off with a different teacher that doesn't openly hate them and their lazy attitude?

At the end of the day the school answers to the parents and students.

But your apparent belief that people's actions and words about work should not affect their employment is shortsighted.

 

[Espy]

I know I'd fire one of my employees in a heartbeat if I found a blog that badmouthed my place or my customers (or something along those lines). Even if they did it kind-of-but-not-really-anonymously.

 

[sixpackshaker]

When does venting equal hatred?

I can tell you I've heard far worse in every teacher's lounge that I've been in. I know dedicated people that have complaints about some aspect of their job.

 

[Espy]

If you tell a co-worker that you can't stand your students in the lounge thats one thing. If you go ranting about them in a public forum that will keep a record of that forever it's less likely to be looked upon kindly.
Added at: 11:57
Keep in mind, I'm not saying she was wrong. I'm not saying her students don't suck. I'm not saying she shouldn't vent. I'm just saying she should have thought about how and where she vented.

 

[sixpackshaker]

In this internet age, at least until facebook, people are used to being anonymous. Someone put the pieces together on a fairly anonymous blog. The permanent nature of a blog will bite you on the arse.

Speaking of Facebook, it is amazing the number of college graduates that don't pass background checks because the student posted something either immoral or illegal on their public profile.

 

[Espy]

The permanent nature of a blog will bite you on the arse.

Thats pretty much my point.

Speaking of Facebook, it is amazing the number of college graduates that don't pass background checks because the student posted something either immoral or illegal on their public profile.

Man, every person who applies for a job here gets a facebook check. I find "partybus" pics and guess who doesn't get hired? I find that they are smart enough to completely block their profile they move up the ranks.

 

[Tress]

You can (and will) think it, and you can say it to friends/family/colleagues. But you never, never write it down in any form for the students and parents to find later. She really fucked up as a teacher and should be punished for it. Besides, that article quoted a former student as saying its her job to find a way to instill some motivation. He's 100% right.

I'm actually on the school's side with this one. I think FLP has a perfectly valid point that any other company or business would do the same thing and never make the news for it.

 

[sixpackshaker]

It has made the news in other cases, and when there is a contract involved there needs to be an actual violation not just some supervisor getting in a twist over what someone said/wrote.

 

[Tress]

I got the following article from GB's politics thread:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/new...ary/15/blogging-teacher-blogging-again-1.html

A few interesting parts:

"There are serious problems with our education system today - with the way that schools and school district and students and parents take teachers who enter the education field full of life and hope and a desire to change the world and positively impact kids, and beat the life out of them and villainize them and blame them for everything - and those need to be brought to light."

Yes, that is a problem. Teachers are sometimes "villainized" (I would like to think an English teacher would be smart enough to use the word "vilify" properly, but whatever). I agree that it is something that needs to change.

She told the newspaper Monday that she worked in corporate real estate briefly before she became a teacher.
"I love literature. I love reading. I love the written word and communication. I felt like I really wasn't using any of the awesome stuff that I knew and could bring to somebody else, working in corporate real estate," she said, explaining why she became a teacher. "I was really excited and enthusiastic when I got my first class."
As she continued to teach, she said, it got a little less exciting.

I'm starting to see one of the root problems here. If you got into teaching to show off and bring "the awesome stuff that (you) know" to students, you are going to be disappointed. It's not supposed to be 50 minutes per day of showing a group of students how smart you are. I'm guessing her happiness with her job went down once she realized kids don't give a shit about her and weren't bedazzled by her knowledge.

In one post, written a month after she started the blog, Munroe called her students "rude, lazy, disengaged whiners." She fantasized in another post about telling their parents what she really thought about them.
She created a list of "canned comments" she thought teachers should be able to choose from for report cards, some of which contained profanity. The list included: "rat-like," "dresses like a streetwalker," "frightfully dim," and "whiny, simpering grade-grubber with an unrealistically high perception of own ability level."

I don't care if you didn't mean all students, or you were just having a bad day, or if you were trying to be funny. These comments are completely inappropriate, and even more so when you write them down in a public arena (anonymous or not). On my worst day I've never come close to saying these things about students. I get it when you don't get along with a few of them, but when you start referring to the whole lot of them as "rude, lazy, disengaged whiners" it's time to do some personal reflection.

Munroe says she does not hate her students, and actually likes some of them.

Oh, she actually likes some of them? How nice of her.

Munroe writes that her complaints were not about every student she taught, and suggests that any student who thinks the comments are directed at him or her has "a problem within themselves."
"It feels like they're projecting their personal issues onto me," she said. "The truth hurts sometimes. Maybe instead of getting pissed off at the person pointing out the behavior, people need to examine their behavior and make a change."
Munroe knows that many people have said she's "unprofessional" for writing what she did and in such a public way, but she believes she is still a professional.

Oh, the irony. Of course she's completely guilt-free when it comes to projecting personal issues, right?

 

[strawman]

Dresses like a street walker ... Comparing one of your own students to whores?

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

If her blog held minor complaints about her students, I would have a problem with her being dismissed for airing them out - venting can be helpful in reducing stress and teaching is definitely a stressful job. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case. This vain, condescending, and unprofessional woman has nothing but contempt for her students given the nature of her comments. While no names or places were given, I'd go out on a limb and say that her negative attitude is present in the classroom and is more destructive than any of the so-called criticisms she's labeled her students with.

Fire her stupid ass.

 

[North_Ranger]

And this is why I will never get a Facebook profile unless it becomes the new e-mail.

I will, however, say that badmouthing your students and calling them names is more than a little unprofessional, with quotes from old musicals or not. Besides, there is a time and a place for more vitriolic ranting, and it's not online: it's the teachers' lounge.

 

[@Li3n]

Meh, it's not like she was saying anything other teachers aren't thinking all the time (if the students did their job right).

 

[drifter]

And this is why I will never get a Facebook profile unless it becomes the new e-mail.

Actually, I wonder if having a Facebook profile specifically dedicated to classroom instruction might not be beneficial? Say, listing assignment due dates and what not. That way parents can be kept updated without calling them up, and students have no excuses about being not informed.

 

[@Li3n]

Using Facebook for something productive... NEVER!!!!!

 

[Tress]

Meh, it's not like she was saying anything other teachers aren't thinking all the time (if the students did their job right).

No, actually, that is the entire point. I DON'T think things like that. I can feel frustrated at times, or maybe I don't get along with a student, but I don't start calling them "rat-like" or fantasize about telling their parents they dress like hookers. It's incredibly unprofessional, and it's a warning sign that she's a shit teacher.

Actually, I wonder if having a Facebook profile specifically dedicated to classroom instruction might not be beneficial? Say, listing assignment due dates and what not. That way parents can be kept updated without calling them up, and students have no excuses about being not informed.

We tend to use different services/software for that. They usually work pretty well, though using Facebook also might be a good idea. I think I may try that next year.

 

[@Li3n]

No, actually, that is the entire point. I DON'T think things like that. I can feel frustrated at times, or maybe I don't get along with a student, but I don't start calling them "rat-like" or fantasize about telling their parents they dress like hookers. It's incredibly unprofessional, and it's a warning sign that she's a shit teacher.

Oh yeah, sounds like a real case of students not doing their jobs... reporting it to the union right now.

 

[Tress]

Oh yeah, sounds like a real case of students not doing their jobs... reporting it to the union right now.

What?