MySpace Photo Costs Teacher Education Degree
Teacher Sues For Diploma And Damages
The ongoing debate over how much an educator's out-of-school behavior should affect his or her job has take a decidedly youthful turn.
Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page "promoting underage drinking." As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages.
So what, you're probably asking yourself, could have been in this picture that was so abhorrent as to make Stacy Snyder unworthy of teaching children? Was she force-feeding a 6-year-old bourbon from a bottle or spiking a middle school dance's punch? Not even close. The picture in question turned out to be of her at a Halloween party in 2005 dressed as a pirate and drinking an indeterminate liquid "from a plastic 'Mr. Goodbar' cup." But underneath was a caption which read "Drunken Pirate" and that caption apparently lead faculty to assume she was too "unprofessional" to educate young minds. Word was sent to the Millersville administration, and Snyder's "lifelong dream" of being a teacher ended less than a day before being achieved.
Now, clearly schools take underage drinking seriously. Their primary objective, after all, is the education and well-being of the students in their care, and as such they do whatever they see fit to achieve it. However, it seems unclear how keeping her out of the classroom because of an ambiguous photograph helps in that mission. Are public schools really attempting to keep students under the illusion that no members of their faculty have ever been under the influence of alcohol? If so would, say, a MySpace page of wedding photos with a faculty member making a toast, be grounds for termination?
Obviously this is an extreme example and there are limits and lines that must be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable, but it is difficult to imagine how Ms. Snyder's "Drunken Pirate" would fall on the inappropriate side. Given the shortage of teachers in America and the difficulty in recruiting quality applicants to the profession, it seems like the school may have compromised its primary objective for the sake of unrealistic zero-tolerance principals.
link to original article here
Teacher Sues For Diploma And Damages
The ongoing debate over how much an educator's out-of-school behavior should affect his or her job has take a decidedly youthful turn.
Teacher in training Stacy Snyder was denied her education degree on the eve of graduation when Millersville University apparently found pictures on her MySpace page "promoting underage drinking." As a result, the 27-year-old mother of two had her teaching certificate withheld and was granted an English degree instead. In response, Snyder has filed a Federal lawsuit against the Pennsylvania university asking for her education diploma and certificate along with $75,000 in damages.
So what, you're probably asking yourself, could have been in this picture that was so abhorrent as to make Stacy Snyder unworthy of teaching children? Was she force-feeding a 6-year-old bourbon from a bottle or spiking a middle school dance's punch? Not even close. The picture in question turned out to be of her at a Halloween party in 2005 dressed as a pirate and drinking an indeterminate liquid "from a plastic 'Mr. Goodbar' cup." But underneath was a caption which read "Drunken Pirate" and that caption apparently lead faculty to assume she was too "unprofessional" to educate young minds. Word was sent to the Millersville administration, and Snyder's "lifelong dream" of being a teacher ended less than a day before being achieved.
Now, clearly schools take underage drinking seriously. Their primary objective, after all, is the education and well-being of the students in their care, and as such they do whatever they see fit to achieve it. However, it seems unclear how keeping her out of the classroom because of an ambiguous photograph helps in that mission. Are public schools really attempting to keep students under the illusion that no members of their faculty have ever been under the influence of alcohol? If so would, say, a MySpace page of wedding photos with a faculty member making a toast, be grounds for termination?
Obviously this is an extreme example and there are limits and lines that must be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable, but it is difficult to imagine how Ms. Snyder's "Drunken Pirate" would fall on the inappropriate side. Given the shortage of teachers in America and the difficulty in recruiting quality applicants to the profession, it seems like the school may have compromised its primary objective for the sake of unrealistic zero-tolerance principals.
link to original article here