Social Media Claims Another Dupe

An Ohio teacher is one of the latest employees to lose a job because of Facebook. It’s difficult to feel sorry for him. He should have known better. Apparently, like many other dupes, the teacher thought he was protected by some invisible shield and that he could get away with what everyone else couldn’t. He won’t be the last, no matter how much is written about the social media trap and no matter how well social media policies are written by employers.

The teacher, a 10-year veteran, says he thought he was communicating with a 19-year-old in a different location. Turns out he was communicating with a student at his school — a fake Facebook user who had set up a fake profile. The school board discovered at least 20 messages between the teacher and student. One from the student said she was looking for a “man to get serious and have sex with.”

After a one-hour meeting between the teacher and the school board president, the teacher resigned. He said he resigned of his own volition because “it was best for the community.” It’s unclear whether he was told he would be fired if he didn’t “of his own volition” resign.

It seems that no matter how often this sort of thing happens, some just can’t keep from using Facebook and other types of social media in a way that, in hindsight, seems crazy. It used to be that inappropriate comments were alleged to have been made over the phone or in a face-to-face meeting. Now, there’s no longer a swearing contest about who said what; there’s a record of it. Teachers will always be dealt with severely, but employees of other kinds of employers often find their fate to be the same.

What to do? Try to talk some sense into your employees.