What value does free speech have, if you can be fired from your job for it, or, as in this case, prevented from ever getting a job in the first place?
MILLERSVILLE, Pennsylvania: A woman denied a teaching degree on the eve of graduation because of a MySpace photo has sued the university.
Millersville University instead granted Stacy Snyder a degree in English last year after learning of the Web-published picture of her, which bore the caption “Drunken Pirate.”
Snyder received “superior” or “competent” ratings on her final student-teacher evaluation in all areas except “professionalism,” in which she was labeled “unsatisfactory,” according to the suit filed Wednesday. […]
“There were errors in judgment that relate to Pennsylvania’s Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for Educators,” wrote professor J. Barry Girvin, who supervised Snyder’s work, according to the suit.
Snyder did her student-teaching at Conestoga Valley High School in 2006. Conestoga Valley officials told the college they would stop accepting student-teachers from Millersville if she went unpunished, the lawsuit said.
No crime was committed. No robbery, no sexual assault, no purchasing liquor for a minor even. She was more than old enough to drink alcohol. All she did was post a photograph.
Yet because of that photograph, the dean of her school informed her she was promoting “underage drinking” when she learned, on the day of her graduation no less, that she would not receive her teaching degree. One photograph was all it took for for the Conestoga School District and Millersville University to ruin her life.
Now, ask yourself this question. Isn’t this a lot like the type of actions we decry and despise in countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia (or Iraq for that matter)? Not to the same extent, yet, but certainly headed down the same path.
Then ask yourself another question. How many teachers, male or female, do you suppose attended parties where they drank alcohol when they were studying for their teaching degree, or even (gasp!) while they were student teaching? I imagine it’s a significant percentage in our society. Should they be barred from teaching now? Should we impose mandatory drug and alcohol tests on everyone who wishes to become a teacher? Or if they keep quiet about their naughty behavior is that sufficient to give them a pass?
Then ask yourself this question. Is this what we want our society to become, one where we are technically “free” but too intimidated to exercise our freedoms? A society where speaking “freely” outside of “free speech zones” may get you arrested. A society where peaceful protesters at an officially approved rally just happen to get shot with rubber bullets and their heads cracked with batons by legions of quasi-military uniformed police. A society that keeps anyone just a little bit different “in the closet,” or else. A society where everything you’ve ever said (or was ever said about you) or posted online, or pasted on your car’s bumper sticker can and will be used against you by anyone standing in a position of power over you, whether your boss, your college, your bank, your credit card company or even your medical insurer.
Don’t like what you see? Me neither.
Does anyone know what, specifically, she violated in the Pennsylvania Code of Professional Practice and Conduct?
I would really be curious to know exactly what is contained in that and how a picture of a teacher holding a plastic cup supposedly containing alcohol in it is a violation. I am sure I could find many instances in our local papers here where teachers are shown in adult social situations holding a glass of wine or a beer. This is a very conservative area but I don’t think what she did would be considered “out of line” even in this area.
This sounds like one of those situations where there could potentially be a little more to the story than is contained in the initial reporting.
Is that possible? Can anyone shed any more light on it?
In short, Steven, the answer is no. This is not what we want.
But the real answer is, we are already living in that society, as this situation illustrates. That is why things like this are so important and cannot be looked at in isolation.
To the best of my knowledge, having read this story somewhere else a couple of weeks ago, her heinous crime was to post a picture of herself at (I believe) a graduation party. She was dressed in a pirate costume, and she captioned the picture “Drunken Pirate.”
So her violation of the Code of Ethics appears to be that she got dressed up and gave a picture of herself a funny caption. I don’t think there was any evidence that she actually got drunk, or that she was out scuttling three-masters on the Schuylkill, or that she was distributing copyrighted material without permission. The morals police seem to have busted her just for posting the picture with that caption.
I will admit to not having done my research on the institutions in question, but had I been running the college, my first impulse would have been to say, “I’m very sorry to hear that. I hope we can work together again someday.” I would be careful not to add “when the blue on your nose wears off,” but I’d probably be thinking it.
I know it would be an added expense, but I wonder if she could get an education degree from Penn State or some similar institution for basically a semester’s tuition. It would be cheaper than a lawsuit, but then again it also wouldn’t set the binding legal precedent that doing that in this country has consequences.
THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM by Wilhelm Reich. The necessity of guilt and shame in the fascist state.
One thing here piques my curiosity. It is a hypothetical but I’ll throw it out there. I wonder how much of the school’s reaction to this is the fact that the picture appeared in the MySpace venue? What would have happened if her picture had appeared in the social section of the local newspaper with the same picture and caption? Maybe a brief description along with the picture explaining the circumstances of the Halloween Party.
How much of this is driven by the perception by the uninformed that there is something inherently devious or naughty about posting pictures on MySpace?
There is a lot ignorance and misunderstanding out there concerning what goes on in cyberspace. The oft cited media narrative of the deadbeat lefty bloggers sitting in their pajamas typing out raging screeds against America is a perfect example.
How much does that ignorance come into play here?
A lot. People fear what they don’t understand, and these people not only don’t understand MySpace, they don’t understand the Internet in general. There are an awful lot of people out there who think the Internet is this festering cess pool of depravity, waiting to swallow up the unwary.
I use the analogy of a big city, like say New York or Los Angeles. There there are wonderful things in the Big City to see and do, wonderful people to meet. There are also places you don’t want to go, not unless you’re really looking for trouble. But you learn where those places are, you avoid them, and you can do and see all those other wonderful things you would miss out on if you didn’t go because the city is a Big Scary Place.
Good analogy Omir. The “loony lefty blog” narrative that you hear so much in the mainstream media is a perfect representation to me about how ignorant the vast majority of America is about what goes on in this tiny corner of cyberspace. The constant conflating you see in the mainstream of commenters on blogs with the blogs themselves is a picture perfect example. I have been involved with blogging since just prior to the 2004 election and I generally will skip through 20-30 blogs a day just to get a sense of what’s out there. Generally, I don’t linger for very long because I have to work for a living. But it doesn’t take very long to do this and it gives me an “ear to the rail” on what is happening in real time. None of this is possible through the mainstream media.
I am sure there are a lot of screeching blogs out there, but none of them are in my Bookmarks. My ability to be informed has grown astronomically due to the benefits of access to the internet and blogs. And everyone else’s can be too if they just stay away from those “bad areas of the city”. Apparently the mainstream media just can’t stay away from it, though. Cause that’s all they seem to be able to find.
You will find what you look for. They are looking for evidence that we lefties are unhinged, rabid America-haters who are just cheering for the collapse of Mom, hot dogs, baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet, and by the FSM’s left eyestalk, they’ll find it, even if they have to invent it themselves.
I stil read the local paper, and I still listen to the news from the BBC and a few other outlets, but by and large I get my news from the tubes. There’s some excellent analysis going on on subjects that I’m very interested in — things like transportation and high-tech. In fact sometimes I’m in danger of information overload because there’s so much. But I tell ya, it beats hearing about David Hasselhof or Paris Hilton 24/7/365.
Like you, I do read the local paper every day. I will watch local TV news on occasion to keep up on local issues. I also like the BBC and some other overseas news that is on shown on LINK TV. The overseas news, in general, is so much different than our national network news coverage. I am just unable to stomach regular doses of our major networks and cable news outlets. It is a sad state of affairs in our news world and it is unfortunate that so many people rely almost solely on it as their source of information. It is no wonder so much of the country is ignorant and ill informed to the point of believing lies to be truth. Our national ignorance puts us at great peril. The events of the last six years is proof positive what comes from voluntary ignorance.
I don’t trust any single source of information, no matter how good it is. (Oh, and the BBC I referred to is the BBC World Service. Been listening to it on shortwave and then the Internet since I was about ten years old.) Unfortunately much of network television anymore counts as “a single source of information.”
Been a fan of BBC World Service since my early ham radio days 30 years ago. It’s still one of the finest sources of information.
I went to the PA Dept. of Ed web site, Educator Misconduct, and found the following (my highlights):
Teachers, at least in PA, are held to a different standard of acceptable behavior than regular citizens.
This particular case seems a clash of standards set in 1949 and life in the new millennium. I imagine a whole lot of education departments in various colleges are spreading the info about this case to students, who, in turn, are scrambling to delete, delete, delete.
Thanks, tampopo. I eventually stumbled across what you found and have posted here. That definition of immorality sure does leave virtually any teacher exposed based on the moral whims of the moment held by whatever Commission exists at the time. This is the kind of stuff that used to be employed for things like an unmarried teacher getting pregnant, a caucasian teacher getting too friendly with a minority of the opposite sex or having a “roommate” of the same sex.
What they are saying is that they have the right to fire you for any reason that they deem to be “immoral” while having no specific criteria for what is defined as immoral. Just what the hell is a “bad example” anyway? Some things are obvious, but many are not. Do you know it when you see it? Hard to know sometimes.
Sounds like this was written in days of spinster school-marms, one room schoolhouses and dumping pigtails in inkwells. You know, the good old days so many people long for today.
Hey I dont’ want any drunken pirates teaching my kidz about evolution and such nonsense! THINK OF THE CHILDREN! THE CHILDREN!
LOL!
I want pirates teaching my children about the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
Hear hear!
Seriously, with all the crap going on is schools, a MySpace pic of her as Drunken Pirate has to be the least of their worries? Or is this school district the only place in America without a crystal meth problem?
Especially since it’s just a picture with a caption, not a police blotter. A picture of someone with a caption like “Drunken Pirate” doesn’t make them a drunk anymore than a picture of them in a Harry Potter costume makes them a wizard.
No crime was committed. No robbery, no sexual assault, no purchasing liquor for a minor even. She was more than old enough to drink alcohol. All she did was post a photograph.
The PA Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for Educators is set of standards above the “criminal” level. One of the defined terms is immorality: Immorality is conduct which offends the morals of the Commonwealth and is a bad example to the youth whose ideals a professional educator or a charter school staff member has a duty to foster and elevate.
You wrote: Then ask yourself another question. How many teachers, male or female, do you suppose attended parties where they drank alcohol when they were studying for their teaching degree, or even (gasp!) while they were student teaching? I imagine it’s a significant percentage in our society. Should they be barred from teaching now? Should we impose mandatory drug and alcohol tests on everyone who wishes to become a teacher? Or if they keep quiet about their naughty behavior is that sufficient to give them a pass?
In the past, those studying for teaching degrees may have consumed alcohol, but I believe they would have been aware that public exposure would not be good and would have avoided such exposure. So, yes, they kept quiet about their “naughty behavior.”
What many participating on blogs and MySpace do not understand is that it is public.
BTW, prospective teachers can and do have their backgrounds checked – not sure if they’re tested for drugs.
when i fly in to the states, there is always this question on the immigration form asking if you’ve been convicted of a ‘crime of moral turpitude’ which sounds like something you’d do under the influence of inhaling too much turpentine, those artists ya know…..
perps with turps!
beware of turperists, they have serious ‘tude.
no more turperware parties for you, straighten up and fly right, and i’ll see you in that great world bank in the sky, don’t be late.
american attitudes to alcohol are as mysteriously stupid as the european ones to tobacco…