Teacher Fired Over Facebook Profile

A former Georgia high school teacher is suing the school district that fired her after finding what they deemed to be inappropriate pictures and language on her Facebook profile.

From CBS Atlanta:

“A former high school teacher is suing a north Georgia school district, alleging she was forced to resign over photos and expletives on her Facebook page.Ashley Payne, 24, claimed the Barrow County school district violated state labor law because she was never told she was entitled to a hearing…Payne resigned Aug. 27 after her principal questioned her about her Facebook page, which included photos of her holding wine and beer and an expletive. She had worked at the school for two years.”

Social networking is a sensitive issue for all professionals, but especially for teachers. Because they are supposed to be role models to the children they teach, teachers must take an exceptional level of care over what they post online. School boards are extremely sensitive to parents demands, so much so, in fact, that even the most innocuous pictures can get a teacher fired if they’re viewed in the wrong context.

Is this fair? Probably not, but it’s a reality of being a teacher in the internet age. If you’re a teacher and you want to be active in social media, you must be considerably more careful about who you interact with online. Don’t accept friend requests from students or parents, think long and hard about posting pictures of yourself doing anything that could be considered inappropriate (even if it doesn’t seem inappropriate to you), and make sure you set your privacy settings to the highest levels possible.