Teacher Loses Job Over Facebook Comments
Punishment Worse Than the Crime?
When June Talvitie-Siple described students as "germ bags" and parents as "arrogant" and "snobby," she thought she was only posting to 50 Facebook friends and family members. Unfortunately for her, the district superintendent and school committee found out about her Facebook comments and asked her to resign.
Yet, as Talvitie-Siple told CBS News, many of these comments were taken out of context. When she referred to students as "germ bags," she was referring to the fact that she was sick for most of the year and that the comment was meant to be taken as a joke. As for her comments about the parents, she was referring to conflicts among the teachers' union, school committee, and community as a whole.
June Talvitie-Siple Loses Job Over Facebook Comments: Punishment Worse than the Crime?
I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, most people are aware of precautions surrounding Internet safety. We know not to give out personal information to strangers, not to reveal personal information on our Facebook profiles, and to utilize the privacy settings on social networking sites.
And Talvitie-Siple has learned the hard way that, in the context of Facebook, some things are better left unsaid. If you have to vent about work or your personal life, do it in person with your friends (preferably friends who don't work in your field) or over the phone. In this information age, anything you say can and will be used against you, out of context or not. Even with heavy privacy settings, you just never know who is leaking your information.
On the other hand, it seems a bit unfair that June Talvitie-Siple had to lose her job for comments that she made while she was not working, things that did not directly pertain to her job performance. All of us have complained about coworkers or clients at one point. Who's to say that other teachers at that school weren't thinking more incendiary thoughts about their working environment?
If this teacher had regularly displayed an attitude of disdain toward the students and parents, then firing her would have been somehow justifiable. However, if these were innocent and isolated comments taken out of context, then her punishment seems far worse than the crime.
Sources:
Published by Tina Molly Lang - Featured Contributor in Arts & Entertainment and Lifestyle
Tina Molly Lang is a violinist, violin, piano, and voice teacher. She is also an active writer. Her work has been published in The American Thinker, Active Americans, Yahoo's OMG! and Yahoo News. View profile
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- June Talvitie-Siple lost her teaching job over Facebook comments.
- Many of these Facebook comments seemed to be taken out of context.
- While this is a cautionary tale for Facebook users, the punishment seemed worse than the crime.
7 Comments
Post a CommentIf the chiefs had the courage to get rid of teachers, that do not produce passing grades, progress might be just around the corner.
Who doesn't complain about work? She should have not lost her job for being a normal person venting frustrations...I've said a lot worse in front of bosses and coworkers!
What ever happened to freedom speech and a little privacy? They don't own her. Most parents r snot bags and kids r germ bags. My kid got sick from one the first week of school.
That's why I don't post every little thought on Facebook, and I keep my comments benign. I like to keep a little bit of myself private.
Teachers are in a special category as persons in positions of trust. We are held to a higher standard. Teaching isn't just another job where you can voice all your thoughts, especially concerning parents and students, without being scrutinized differently.
Unfortunate for the teacher, but this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Unless you're carefully choosing who gets to see what you post, Facebook is for all intents and purposes a public forum; it's certainly not the place to be complaining about work issues when you're in such a public profession as teaching.
There's no such thing as privacy these days.