Blogging and the First Amendment

I haven't been keeping up to date with Owl Stretching Time over the last week or so, mainly putting up random posts about Facebook Statuses and Voldemort. Life has been quite hectic over the last month, between new changes and debates about what needs to be changed at work to finding myself with what can only be described as "death of the chest" the last few days, I haven't had the time or energy to sit down to write anything.

A friend of mine sent me an article last week about Natalie Munroe, who was fired from her job for blogging about her job as a teacher. As a teacher myself, I have always tried to keep my professional life and my instant gratification of babbling about nonsense very separate. As in any profession, there have been many times where I have wanted to sit down on my computer to vent off some steam after a crazy day of classroom antics but I have always resisted the urge. Additionally, I have always resisted the urge to blog about a positive experience in the classroom, even if I felt as if my experience could enlighten others.

Like myself, Munroe also had a blog, which was called Natalie's Handbasket, which was recently taken down after she was fired from her position as a teacher. When I first read the article, I thought it was absurd that a teacher could get fired for blogging about the classroom, even if her off the wall comments were clearly unprofessional. For example, in one of the most last entries on the blog, she wrote:

Also, as the kids get worse and worse, I find that the comments don't accurately express my true sentiments about them. So now I pretty much choose "Cooperative in Class" for every kid (or, in some instances, will speak in other codes. For instance, if they talk a lot, I'll put "is easily distracted" or "talks persistently," if it's a kid that has no personality, I'll put "ability to work independently"). For some kids, though, my scornful feelings reach such fever pitch that I have a hard time even putting "cooperative in class" and have, sadly, had some kids for which none of the comments fit. 

Thus, for this blog, I will list the comments I'd like to see added to the canned comment list, as an accurate reflection of what we really want to say to these parents. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Concerned your kid is automation, as she just sits there emotionless for an entire 90 minutes, staring into the abyss, never volunteering to speak or do anything.
•  Seems smarter than she actually is.
• Has a massive chip on my shoulder.
• Too smart for her own good and refused to play the school "game" such that she'll never live up to her true potential here.
• Has no business being in Honors. 
• A complete and utter jerk in all ways. Although academically ok, your child has no other redeeming qualities.

Her list of desired comments continues further, some quite tame compared to other comments. I'm sure any professional has a moment in which they want to gripe about their job, no matter what field they are in. Though I'm sure they don't all have a blog to post all of their thoughts for the world to see on a daily basis, which is what Munroe did. The major problem with her comments and blog, was that a majority of it was done on school time.

That's right, she wrote and posted a majority of her posts on her school computer while at school. Teachers are already being made out to be the black sheep of professions, no thanks to people like Munroe who decided to post negative and often offensive entries about the students she teaches on a daily basis. Did she really think that this would go unnoticed at a time when technology and the interwebs are at their peak? Someone was seriously lacking judgement, and underestimating how intelligent her students really were.

The First Amendment grants of freedom of speech, which means that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can pay the small fee to buy a web address and create a website filled with lies and deceit. According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association (the Pennsylvania equivalent to the NJEA), "Even though the First Amendment protects your speech as a private citizen on matters of public concern, that speech may fall outside of First Amendment protection if it 'impedes your employer's effectiveness or efficiency, or otherwise disrupts the workplace.'"

In other words, if you post a picture of yourself on Facebook with a bottle of beer in your hands, even if you can't see the label, there is a huge possibility that if the school administration discovered the picture, you would suffer severe consequences.