Young Teachers Gone Wild

A few months ago, I did a post about an intern who had lost her student teaching position and was denied her teaching credentials because she had posted some objectionable pictures on her MySpace page. As I noted at the time, Internet privacy is a hot employment law issue, and situations like this aren’t going away. If anything, they’re rampant, as young people act like young people–and then put what they’re doing on the Web for all to see. A recent article in the Washington Post focuses on this issue by looking at several young teachers. These aren’t people trying out for a job or applying for a job. These are teachers who already have jobs. Cutting to the chase, can they be fired? Should they be fired?

Well, let’s see. A special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm using a slang term for oral sex. A kindergarten teacher posted a shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A high school teacher painted canvasses with his buttocks on YouTube. (He was fired.) A long-term substitute teacher who teaches students with emotional and learning disabilities has a MySpace page displaying bumper stickers, one of which says: “you’re a retard but i love you.” She also has posted a picture of herself lying on her back, eyes closed, with a bottle of Jose Cuervo tequila between her head and shoulder and a picture of two male friends flashing “serious-looking middle fingers.” A first grade teacher’s MySpace page shows her lifting up her dress, exposing her lingerie, and another showing her bare chest. (I can’t remember whether The Man Gene used to kick in by the first grade, but it probably will now.) And finally, an elementary school teacher had written on her Facebook page: “I only have two feelings: hunger and lust. Also, I slept with a hooker. Be jealous. I like to go onto Jdate [an online dating service for Jewish people] and get straight guys to agree to sleep with me.”

According to the Post article, school systems are struggling with questions like: Do the risque pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents, and school officials don’t see them? What if the teacher doesn’t realize that people not designated as “friends” by the teacher can gain access to the teacher’s MySpace page? And, of course, the teachers union weighs in with the opinion that if the teacher can prove no one at school complained about the page, then no harm, no foul. Besides, this is off-duty conduct. It should have nothing to do with the job.

This is what we’ve come to? I understand the argument about privacy. I understand the argument about off-duty conduct not being used to justify discipline or discharge. But these people are teachers–adult teachers–of children–small, impressionable children.

There are no hard questions to be answered. There are no legitimate arguments to be made. These teachers should be fired. It would be better if school systems had policies making it clear that the kind of conduct described above will result in discharge, but if you haven’t gotten around to writing those policies, fire the teachers anyway. There are some things that adult teachers should know and be held accountable for–period. If that’s not the case any more, then when the students go wild, they shouldn’t be held accountable either.

1. 

   Jason says:

   May 11, 2008 at 1:59 am

   I’m not sure I can agree with firing in every case above. Some, yes. Some, I think they should be given a warning and told, “it must change now, or you will be fired.”

   The two posters could be construed as sexual harassment in many work places, and would get you fired, or severely reprimanded. The pictures of the middle fingers, and alcohol, unless I missed that she was naked or something, I would expect her administrators to explain that her students do look at those pages, and that she needs to keep it appropriate for them, or she will be fired.

   Basically, I believe in second chances. I give them to my students, if I can. If no-one was hurt, then I’ll give you a chance to fix it. If you don’t fix it, then there will be consequences.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   May 11, 2008 at 3:57 pm

   Jason, you make good points. I agree that each case must be examined and that the punishment should fit the crime so to speak. No disagreement on second chances. Thankfully, I’ve had a few. What is disturbing with the Gen Y crowd (not just those who are teachers) is that many of them (at least, some of them) don’t see any problem with posting whatever they want on the Web and become angry when anyone suggests that what they have done has an impact on their job. Sometimes, there seems to be a complete disconnect. Of course, I may just be an old boomer whose time has past. Thanks for weighing in.
3. 

   Jeff says:

   May 11, 2008 at 6:29 pm

   Whatever we decide about what the right thing to do about these teachers is, we also need to be bringing a similar conversation to our students. In the not-to-distant future, it’s our students who are going to be going out into the world looking for jobs, not to mention college admissions, with their private lives not as private as they might like. They need to be thinking about the consequences of how they use Facebook and MySpace now, before it costs them their jobs as well.
4. 

   John Phillips says:

   May 11, 2008 at 6:43 pm

   Perhaps the most important point of all. I’m not sure students realize how often an employer googles a student applying for a job or checks out Facebook and MySpace to see what can be learned about the student. The student may not get the interview or the job and never know why. There are some legal risks associated with this technique, but the chances of an employer’s “investigation” ever being found out are remote. So, you’re right. This is a discussion that students need to be invovled in. Thanks for another good point.
5. 

   John Phillips says:

   May 27, 2008 at 5:13 pm

   Thanks for including my post in your carnival.
6. 

   John Phillips says:

   June 11, 2008 at 5:51 am

   Thanks for including this post in your carnival. I look forward to reading other posts you’ve included.