Have a Good Life

Show outline

• If you have questions you’d like answered, please visit the Questions and Feedback page on Cybertraps.com
• The focus today is on the interactions among adults in our school communities
• Teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents
• Social media has altered the traditional power dynamics of the school community
• School Board members
• 2021 CA – Entire school board resigns after swearing and joking about parents during virtual meeting
  • “They want their babysitters back.”
  • “Parents want to be home alone so that they can smoke pot.”
  • Profane, threatening language against a parent who criticized her on social media
• 2020 FL – School board member resigns after making racist comments on FB about Kamala Harris
• 2016 VT – Burlington School Board member sharply criticized for contents of FB feed
• Administrators
• 2020 VT – Principal fired for “insanely tone-deaf” Facebook post criticizing Black Lives Matter movement
  • Principal’s attempt to apologize not successful
• 2019 NY – Superintendent resigns after wife tweets out allegations of an affair with a subordinate
• 2018 TX – Superintendent resigns after writing on a public FB page that “You can’t count on a black QB”
  • “As an educator, this experience has taught me that I still have a lot to learn,” Redden wrote to board president Ted Wiggins. “My comments were not only uninformed but also hurtful, and I understand now why they were offensive to so many people.”
  • Redden said he mistakenly thought he was responding to a friend’s private message. He deleted the post, but Spring resident Matt Ericksen sent the Chronicle screenshots of the comment Monday.
• 2015 LA – High school principal and her husband get backlash for posting image of them wearing their “people of Walmart” Halloween costumes
  • Classism and racism?
  • Just having fun?
• Teachers
• One Scottish teacher’s union described the combination of smartphones and social media as “catastrophic” for its members
  • Orwellian scrutiny
• 2021 WI – High school english teacher (and wife of superintendent) placed on leave after series of racist, homophobic, and transphobic remarks on social media
  • Superintendent also on leave
  • New law firm brought in to investigate
• 2020 CA – Los Angeles teacher flees her home with her daughter after receiving death threats when an ‘angry parent shared a photo of her’ wearing an ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirt during a virtual class
• 2018 OH – Teacher fired after encouraging preschoolers to fight and posting videos to Snapchat
• 2017 NJ – Teacher fired and had license suspended for two years after she describes students as “losers” on Facebook
• 2017 ND – Teacher resigns after investigation over offensive tweets about her special ed students
• Parents
• Steady rise in social media bullying of teachers and administrators by parents
• Teachers argue that social media is making parents more aggressive
• Parents have access to much more information about schools and teachers, increasing the potential for complaints and activism
• 2020 – Multiple reports of parents drinking, smoking pot, and wandering around half-dressed during their kids’ remote classes
• 2018 Ireland – Teacher successfully sues parent for libel over social media post
• 2016 Mexico – Parents successfully demand firing of teacher after spring break dance video circulates online
• What Can Be Done?
• Should schools ask parents to sign agreements about how they will use social media with respect to teachers and the school itself?
• THINK before you POST!!!
• Know how the technology works
• Slow down

Check out this episode!