Quote:
Originally Posted by dissentowner
Maybe but to be charged over it? That's a bit harsh unless it directly ruined someone's career or life.
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The part that I think you are missing (understably so - doesn't seem as if you're a teacher) is the depth to which something like this could very well ruin someone's career or life.
If this kid was making lewd comments or behaving inappropriately with students in that teacher's name, the tarnish from that may never leave the teacher's reputation. Teenagers have this amazing ability to believe rumor and innuendo despite glaring evidence to the contrary. For the sake of argument let's say that the "lewd/inappropriate behavior" is what actually happened here - some students in that school and others will see the teacher affected in that light as long as they live.
I'm sure day-to-day life for this teacher has probably been made more difficult due to this - funny looks in the hallway, completely innocent interactions with students painted in another light - even if proof exists that the actions mentioned in the article were not the teachers'.
The growth of social networking sites (facebook, YouTube, Myspace) poses a huge problem for teachers. You get students trying to bait their teachers into overreaction in order to record it and upload to YouTube to make the teacher look bad - to actions like this. These sites open huge privacy issues for those of us in the profession and I'm glad to see this being dealt with in this manner. A precedent needs to be set here.