At an elementary school, a teacher’s aid was fired in 2011 for not giving up her Facebook username and password to her bosses. In April 2011, Kimberly Hester was on Facebook while not at school and happened to post a picture of another teacher with her pants around her ankles, along with the witty caption of “Thinking of you”.
Unfortunately for Ms. Hester a parent and Facebook friend saw the picture and caption and reported it to the office. The superintendent then got involved and demanded three times that Ms. Hester give over her login information. She refused and was put on administrative leave and eventually fired after never complying with the requests.
Of course, the story does not stop there because the ousted teacher is now in a legal battle with the superintendent and the school district with the arbitration set for May. Unfortunately, the House of Representatives decided against an amendment to the FCC legislation that would make it illegal for employers to access employees’ accounts on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.
This is a bummer for the teacher but the bigger picture is that you need to be cautious of what you post on Facebook because you never know who is looking at it. A single thing that you post can cost you a job or a promotion. It just is not worth it, have some common sense and do not post something obscene because you will pay for it.
This is a classic tale now. Someone posts something stupid and they get kicked out of school, not accepted into the college they want, fired from work, etc. When will people learn that your superiors are looking at your Facebook for anything inappropriate? If you have the tendency to post these sorts of things, then I would recommend that you suspend your Facebook account of change your name because it just is not worth the potential nightmare that lurks.
Facebook is a tool for connecting with old friends, family, and whatever else. This is not an open forum to post pictures of inappropriate events that you have attended. Before you post something, ask yourself if you would show it to your mom. That is a good way to assess whether or not it is a good idea to post that picture online. Bottom line, use some common sense before using Facebook.
