NJ Teacher Suspended For Calling Students "Future Criminals" On Facebook

For the last time, if you don't have something nice to say, then don't put it on Facebook. A first grade teacher in Paterson, New Jersey was suspended after writing on Facebook that she felt like a "warden" overseeing "future criminals." Parents started arriving at the school to complain, and the school is now conducting an investigation. Board president Theodore Best said, "You can't simply fire someone for what they have on a Facebook page; but if that spills over and affects the classroom then you can take action."

The teacher is currently on paid administrative leave, and her lawyer Nancy Oxfeld said that the comment had nothing to do with the teacher's commitment to her students. “My feeling is that if you’re concerned about children, you’re concerned about what goes on in the classroom, not about policing your employee’s private comments to others,” she told the Times. However, her privacy settings seemed to make the comment available by anyone on Facebook, including parents and students. And if a teacher can't figure out how to keep her Facebook profile private, can she really be trusted to explain multiplication tables?

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By Jaya Saxena in News on April 2, 2011 4:30 PM

Comments [rss]

OvaltineJenkins

Arrest all minority babies BEFORE they become criminals.

Bob

What a Feeling....(song)

awftetger

http://tinyurl.com/4snmq5g

canofpeas

Given that about 30% of those kids will probably enter the criminal justice system at some early point in their lives, teacher just might be psychic.

Telemachus_1

The teacher should be given a medal. And the kids should be sterilized.

patsw

1. Most of us in the private sector are "hire at will, leave/fire at will". You can be fired any any reason or no reason. Oh, to have the job security of a public school teacher.

2. To claim that Facebook is "private" ought to be a fireable offense.

blindmalice

Lets get the names of all the students in her class, then look them up in 15 years to see how right or wrong she was in her assessment. My guess is......oh nevermind.

Dan Smith

Ok, teaching's not easy and we all need to vent. But doing something like this is like yelling this on Twitter and tagging the names of the school and the kids. Internet privacy: how does it work?

ishtar_79

*sigh*

Another case of going overboard by school administrators, but people really need to remember that some things are best communicated at the local watering hole with a glass of whiskey in hand.