The initial post is:
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Pennsylvania teacher Natalie Munroe made headlines this week when she was
suspended for bashing students on her personal blog. Munroe wrote, among
other things, that one student seemed "smarter than she actually is" and
described another as a "whiny, simpering grade-grubber."
Well, Munroe is blogging again and defending her right to do so. The Central
Bucks East High School teacher never identified the school, administrators,
or students in her posts, and argues that she should be allowed to blog just
like every other person, reports the Bucks County Courier Times. According
to the district superintendent, Munroe is facing the possibility of
termination. Munroe's lawyer told the paper the school had no Internet
policy, and that Munroe may have a First Amendment case.
Do you think teachers should be allowed to blog about school? What kinds of
ground rules would you suggest for teachers who do blog? Should teachers be
measured against stricter standards than people in other professions?
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For one I am careful to only make specific complaints about administrators
regarding specific actions, and never by name. I think it is unwise and
unprofessional to use words like "whiney", "stupid"... So I think teachers
should always complain using well chosen verbiage. But at present students
are allowed to complain by name freely in blogs, and the courts have come
down on the side of employees who complain about their employers.
I also complain on sites which are sufficiently esoteric (such as this one)
that my words are unlikely to get back to the people in question. Since I
do not use names they could hardly find the words by just doing a simple
search. Public officials are of course exempt from no name restrictions.
If a parent complains that she is defaming their child with the word
"whiny", they are revealing the name of the child which the blogger in this
case did not do.
Incidentally some school districts are required by law to say that teacher
E-mail is a public record. Then how can a teacher communicate with a parent
other than by phone call? Notes to home are often intercepted, and I had
one student who blocked my phone number, but I called on another phone with
the caller ID blocked and got the parent. The parent was dismayed to learn
of their child's misbehavior and I did now question how they punished the
child. Children can be very sneaky and use their tech savvy against their
parents.
Sometimes legislators do not consider the ramifications of what they vote
for. If teacher's E-mails are public, then legislators E-mails should also
be public. I would favor a constitutional amendment that would make
legislators subject to all laws affecting their constituents, and only
allowing them to have benefits that are given to all of their employees.
Actually this should be enacted for corporations also. So Enron executives
would not be able to dump their Enron stock when the employees are similarly
restricted from doing this.