Nobody? Really? How about Barbara Rush at 86?
Posted on 04/10/2014 6:17:42 AM PDT by JoeProBono
CLAREMONT, N.H.,A 79-year-old substitute teacher chose to resign from teaching after a very unfriendly dispute with school administrators in Claremont, N.H.
Carol Thebarge opted to give up her job after 35 year instead of “unfriending” her students on Facebook.
"Do we have the right as teachers, when we respect our students and our students respect us, to have that relationship?" Thebarge told WMUR. "I feel like mine is very safe. I have never been inappropriate."
School administrators at Stevens High School told Thebarge that her account was a potential safety concern, especially after another teacher was let go after being charged in a sexual assault case involving a 14-year-old student.
“They gave me an ultimatum -- either take them all off or you are terminated,” Thebarge told CBS Boston. “And I decided that I would not comply and so I was terminated. And it’s caused a firestorm across the entire area.”
The elderly woman apparently felt that her professional life wasn’t as important as her personal relationships with her students.
"I'm like a grandmother to these students," Thebarge said. "That's my role. I'm like a grandmother."
Some students are circulating a petition to get Thebarge reinstated, but Stevens High officials say she won’t be back unless she complies with the school’s policy.
It's called 'The Obama Economy'.
Welcome to the new economy.
I remember when students used to go and hang out at the teacher’s houses during breaks and summer vacations. In some small communities, this is still the case.
More likely she's got pull in the Teacher's union.
If the parents of the kids were aware of the FB “friendship” why is this an issue? Many kids today often feel as if they cannot talk to their parents - so this lady could have been someone they could talk to & who cared about them as people.
Do you go to the movies with your boss?
“Open Door Policies” are still intended to be professional, not social.
You sound like one of those people who wear a chicken costume to work on casual Friday and don't understand why the boss sends you home to change.
I don't want my children's’ teachers sharing their personal lives with them. Its TMI. TMI is detrimental to the professional relationship (and I'm paying for a professional relationship). In the military we called it fraternization.
I wouldn’t do it.
What a short sighted ignorant statement. Both my wife and I teach. She full time and I part time. We live in a tiny town so we end up teaching our friends children and sometimes even distant relatives.
We are involved in 4H, the Police athletic league, and several other youth programs. We are around our students all the time, professionally, socially, and in their parents private homes as we visit our own friends.
Just how do you think we are supposed to act? Are we supposed to be rude and uncaring about our neighbors and friends children? Are we supposed to avoid them and not talk to them when they are at the local grocery store?
Here is the biggest question. Are we supposed to tell our own son that he can never have friends that we have taught or do teach and that never ever can these kids visit him in our home?
Back up and start over again. There is not any rational way you can support your statement and make it work in rural America.
Our Catholic schools have a dedicated website for student-teacher interaction and it is forbidden for them to contact each other using private email, Facebook, etc.
I think it keeps it professional, as it should be.
Fine with me, but you can't be a teacher to them too.
Two of my teachers were neighbors and family friends with kids my age.
I and they handled that much the same way I would handle my kids being friends with the CEO of my company. Distinct lines, and I was not their little-buddy.
I am close friends with my daughter's principle. It would be very inappropriate for her and he to be friends on Facebook.
Yes she has definitely had a lifestyle lift!!! You can see in pics her neck
and hands show her true age, however ALOT of women do this it makes
them feel a little better about themselves which IS OK!!!
“You can’t fire me! I quit!”
“I remember when students used to go and hang out at the teacher’s houses during breaks and summer vacations. In some small communities, this is still the case.”
You have succinctly defined the traditional “teacher as mentor”. Thanks to Liberals, Lawyers, and FemiNazi trash, it is now so risky to mentor a student that most no longer so do.
American students are the ones who lost.
Nobody? Really? How about Barbara Rush at 86?
Now that she has resigned as a teacher more power to her.
The bad behavior of some inflicts stupid rules on all.
And Barbara Eden at 82, same delightful smile as her “I Dream of Jeannie” days.
My comment was about a comment that teachers had to have a separate social life from their students. In the tiny rural towns that will just never be.
On any given Friday night we have a bunch of teens in our home, all friends of our son. We help them with prepping for College admission tests, filling our scholarship applications, going through the fastfa applications, or what ever else the need is.
Our rules are that where the kids are their parents are always welcome and we won't lie to the cops or their parents about anything we know about them. Some parents show up and some other parents never show up or even call. Many times their kids are here because their parents will not help them.
This is a town of less than 2K people. All the locals went to school together when they were younger and the families are intermarried for several generations. Trying to separate social situations from all the kids at school would be rude to the kids and their parents.
By the way, I don't even have a facebook account.
We are not talking about the same thing.
You are talking about social interaction and I am talking about social life.
The best way I can describe the difference is to reference my experience as an officer in the military. Social interaction was fine between officers and enlisted. You could talk baseball, have a beer at a picnic together, and talk about your kids sports. That is social interaction. What you did not do was talk sex lives, get drunk together, or talk about your issues with the commanding officer.
Saying hello at the grocery store, asking about their prize calf, or even being a parental host does not really allow a student into your private life (truly private life).
I presume you would never discuss issues with your students that would compromise their respect for you. The problem with Facebook is that it is an open forum, and a side comment from your brother about how drunk you were 30 years ago is seen by all of your Facebook friends. Indeed, any friend can post anything to your page, so although you can try to rectify inappropriate posts, you cannot really stop them.
I have a few teacher friends and I have seen some very innappropriate comments from students on their pages that made me cringe. If it were me, I wouldn’t friend students on Facebook, even if it were allowed.
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