A North Carolina teacher was suspended for a controversial Facebook post that she made. The teacher thought that it was only going to be seen by her friends however it was leaked to the public somehow. The post was that the teacher said “I am teaching in the most Ghetto school in Charlotte”.
Many people think that it is inappropriate for the teacher to be making remarks like this; however, many think that she shouldn't have been punished so severely. The argument from this perspective is that she should be free to say what she wants online without being judged and scrutinized by the media, or punished through her work. If she were to say something like what she said on her Facebook page in a class, for example, then she should be punished by school board. Considering the circumstances, though many are saying that the school board does not have the right to do what they have done.
This topic is highly controversial, meaning there are two sides to it and both sides have a relatively even following. The countering argument is that teachers should be able to speak their mind in a private setting, and their social network profiles are to be considered a private setting. The other topic that gets raised, is how much control the district has over a teachers freedom of expression. Should the district be allowed to punish teachers for things they say on social networking sites.
In my opinion, what a teacher says outside of the class should be up to them; however, that does not mean that I think that saying things that are likely to offend students, parents, and/or coworkers is not in a teacher’s best interest. Teachers are seen as role models to the students and public figures to the rest of the community, so anything that they say can affect how they are respected, and how people interact with them (often negatively) on a day-to-day basis.
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