Reading about a Florida teacher suspended for writing anti gay comments on Facebook should not have the headline "Did Teacher Cross a line on Facebook?". The right headline should be "Does the employer or the government cross a line invading privacy of Employees on Facebook?". Regardless if the teacher written about anti gay, anti war or anti Obama on his Facebook wall is his right to free expression . What a person does on his own time is none of the employers or school business or employers. The teacher should not be suspended for his free speech for saying something on his personal time.
Even though Facebook is a public social network for all to see. People do have a right to keep what goes on at work and what goes not in their personal life is none of anyone' s else's business. If a person's personal life spills over in the workplace causing moral problems than that is an entirely different matter. It is a double standard when I read about teachers on their personal time pushing global warming in the classroom and in their personal lives. Why are these teachers not suspended because their go green point of views will offend some students who fathers are rough necks working the oil fields in Texas. Regardless if teachers are being politically correct telling us to go green or expressing their opinion about being against gay marriage on Facebook. All speech is to be protected and not selectively singled out because it is not politically correct.
No one has any right to monitor a person's personal life because they may work for the school district or any employer. Just because they get hired by the government or any perspective employer, these people do not surrender their rights because of that. There is nothing in the Constitution about the right of not to be offended. If someone's feelings were hurt by what a teacher says on his private Facebook page. It does not amount to any wrong doing at all. Everyone has a right to free speech and free expression. This is political correctness gone amok I am happy they teacher was reinstated back to work after being suspended.
It is really becoming very obvious that employers want to control their employee's personal life by checking out their Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts. They even check these social network accounts of perspective employees too as a condition to be hired. However, regardless in the age of the internet were everything is public. The right to a persons right to speak freely has to be respected no matter how much an employer may disagree. Even the ones that work for the government too. Everyone has the right to free speech and expression in what they do on their personal time as long it does not spill over when they are on the job. If someone is offended by what a person says on the social networks on their personal time, That is the persons problem if it offends them for them to deal with it. No matter what the person says because someone has their feelings hurt, they should not be punished for what they think. It is free speech if we like it or not.
Even though Facebook is a public social network for all to see. People do have a right to keep what goes on at work and what goes not in their personal life is none of anyone' s else's business. If a person's personal life spills over in the workplace causing moral problems than that is an entirely different matter. It is a double standard when I read about teachers on their personal time pushing global warming in the classroom and in their personal lives. Why are these teachers not suspended because their go green point of views will offend some students who fathers are rough necks working the oil fields in Texas. Regardless if teachers are being politically correct telling us to go green or expressing their opinion about being against gay marriage on Facebook. All speech is to be protected and not selectively singled out because it is not politically correct.
No one has any right to monitor a person's personal life because they may work for the school district or any employer. Just because they get hired by the government or any perspective employer, these people do not surrender their rights because of that. There is nothing in the Constitution about the right of not to be offended. If someone's feelings were hurt by what a teacher says on his private Facebook page. It does not amount to any wrong doing at all. Everyone has a right to free speech and free expression. This is political correctness gone amok I am happy they teacher was reinstated back to work after being suspended.
It is really becoming very obvious that employers want to control their employee's personal life by checking out their Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter accounts. They even check these social network accounts of perspective employees too as a condition to be hired. However, regardless in the age of the internet were everything is public. The right to a persons right to speak freely has to be respected no matter how much an employer may disagree. Even the ones that work for the government too. Everyone has the right to free speech and expression in what they do on their personal time as long it does not spill over when they are on the job. If someone is offended by what a person says on the social networks on their personal time, That is the persons problem if it offends them for them to deal with it. No matter what the person says because someone has their feelings hurt, they should not be punished for what they think. It is free speech if we like it or not.
Would you feel that way if this teacher was very much pro gay? Or if this teacher was a Socialist? Or was praising the Black Panthers? or was a Satanist?
ReplyDeleteThese people teach our children. Do you really think it doesn't matter what kind of people they are?
I'll judge the person by the job they do, while at the job. Whatever they say, think, eat, drink, or smoke when off the job doesn't mean a thing, unless it's an outright, and clearly believable statement to commit a crime in the future.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks to the contrary is clearly Anti-AMerican, and a threat to freedom and our society... like Anonymous, above.
I dont care what this teacher expounded on his site, be it pro gay or anti gay, even if he was a Nazi or Zionist. I just believe there is a clear break from work hours and home life, this is censorship of everyone, because this action of firing this teacher, intimidates everyone else from expressing their own thoughts at their own time at their own space at home, under the threat of retribution from offended co-workers.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of speech includes speech you don't agree with. No employer has a right to fire you for what you say on your own time.
ReplyDeleteIf they can come after you for "anti-gay" comments on Facebook, then they can come after you for pro-gay comments, too. Or pro-union. Or anti-war.
Or anything else.
It's none of your employer's damn business.
sj
Absolutely!
ReplyDeletePro Gay
Anti Gay
It is the individuals constitutionally protected right
correct or not, none of us is correct all of the time
so if you get to wrong on some things and not face the gallows, so does everyone else
Just more of the gay/feminist/Zionist psychobabble
ReplyDeleteand "perception Management" agenda that is responsible for the evolution of men becoming the desired pacifist metrosexual who always obeys authority figures including his wife.
This teacher incident is just one of many the last
dozen years or more. Many professors have either been denied tenure or fired for not following the program. Especially if they want to teach real history and not that dictated by the tribe.
First Anonymous doesn't know what freedom is. The fundamentalists and evangelicals (you know the ones who wave little plastic flags and support the troops etc.)are as big a threat to our liberties, if not more so, than Shrub and Obomba combined. Texas has more than their share
as evidenced by the Perry dipsticks. They are the equivalent of the Tories during the revolution.
Mark, Eddie, Spartacus, and Anon #2 have got it all right. It's too bad we have to fight the uneducated who believe freedom is what they've been told.
I wonder, why only in their free time? I guess, teacher's job is to teach, but just like everybody at work, they can have off-topic conversations and express their opinions - yes, even at work. Tolerance to others' views, even contrary to yours, being able to argue, being able to find common ground is very important skill, no less than math and science - maybe even more. Making free speech prohibited in schools is not a welcome trend - I'd rather have the school teach free speech and punish attempts to impose political correctness - such as the student who secretly complained instead of replying to teacher's remark he did not agree with - that's who really deserved to be suspended.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse above - do you WANT free speech or not? The alternative is what thousands of your and my countrymen died against the Nazis for.
ReplyDeleteIf the people that teach your children are so important, how's about you pay them TWICE as much salary, then? Then they might see it as worth it to keep their views to themselves, otherwise why on earth should they lose their hard-faught-for freedoms? There's already many checks in place to make sure they're fit to teach, right?
I'm the child of a teacher and the care with which they kept their views to themselves, even when off-duty is so professional, their salary doesn't go anywhere near compensating for it.
Think of it from the teachers' point of view, they're typically not the problem with society if one is going to seek-out and criticise those who are...
Anon above: Obviously don't know how to read very well or you have been conditioned by the "perception management" spin doctors in the media. Your views smack of the fascism that you
ReplyDeletesupposedly deplore.
Pay the teachers twice as much so they can be so
professional and keep their views to themselves even in their off hours? That's called "hush money" isn't it? Or fear of speaking out. You've heard of the First Amendment?
Teachers are a problem because they have gone along with the program that teaches them to do more brainwashing than teach. Except for math and science of course...which the US is FAR behind other countries. Over fifteen years ago
a concerned group of parents in Texas found over 5,000 errors in the most commonly used history book in their state. Not punctuation or grammatical errors mind you, FACTUAL errors. I
have read a lot of history and relearned what I was taught in the 60s-70s because I realized it was full of falsehoods, lying by omission, and
an extra helping of deception. I could probably point out 10,000 errors today if history books just had that many words instead of pictures. MLK gets pages and George Washington gets less than a paragraph?? Perhaps that is okay with you, eh comrade?
The reason the salaries are so low for teachers is that most don't really teach much and they can be replaced with another low-level serf at any time. Public schools teach the Marxian ideology enforced by the NEA. It is more important to fit in (sooooo professional, LMAO!)
than to develop critical thinking skills. Just walk downtown and look at the kids with all types of electronic gadgets going on and 99.9%
is garbage. Adults too for that matter.
I don't blame the kids 100% because this has been a self-perpetuating problem for generations now. The dumbing down of this country is totally by design. Your psychobabble about Nazis, poor writing and spelling skills,
and barely coherent writing attests to that. What did your parent teach? P.E.? Text much?