Any lawyers on here?

[brianr10]

My wife is a substitute teacher, working in Central NY. Been doing this for 30 years. Recently, a child mentioned that her grandfather died of Covid. My wife said that that was very sad. Soon after that, the child brought up the topic again. My wife asked if he was vaccinated, the girl said no, and my wife said maybe he should have. She does not remember exactly what she said, but the kid told her mother, and her mother went on Facebook and talked about it. The principal told her the incident was all over facebook, and she had been banned from that school. She is afraid that other substitute assignments will bee canceled. She does not know the exact nature of the facebook posts. She is very upset, and wants to sweep it under the rug because she hates conflict. She blames herself. It is ironic, because the schools hare are all masked up and they will probably make the kid get vaxxed. It is NY, after all. It's kind of a reverse cancellation. Does anyone see a cause of action here regarding the facebook posts or the school district

[sockmonkey]

Wife shouldn’t have asked about vax status, or offered her two cents worth to a child.
She is a teacher, not a counselor.

[God luvs America]

Agree.

[bort]

You should act as an intermediary or have a teacher friend reach out to the family. This may be a misunderstanding. Kids take things out of context all of the time. If things are smoothed over with the family, this will probably resolve the situation. Even as an attorney, I have found that the best way to resolve these things is to go directly to the complainant and having a conversation.

I do not recommend getting lawyers involved. This will blow over regardless.

[Navy Patriot]

This situation is unfortunate, your wife should have offered the child her condolences only.

[The MAGA-Deplorian]

Rule number 1 - Social media is designed to be used to destroy you and you life
Rule number 2 - Facebook is the worst of them all. Never use itt!
Rule number 3 - Never talk to a child online that isn’t related to you.

[Wilderness Conservative]

Sorry but mistakes have consequences. She should have known better.

[MD Expat in PA]

Recently, a child mentioned that her grandfather died of Covid. My wife said that that was very sad. Soon after that, the child brought up the topic again. My wife asked if he was vaccinated, the girl said no, and my wife said maybe he should have.

FWIW, I am pro-vax but your wife’s response to the child in this situation should have been “I am so sorry for your loss”.

[Yo-Yo]

Apparently your wife does not have a good working relationship with the specific school that blacklisted her, because if she did she would be able to approach the administration, or at least the office secretary, and ask specifically to see the offending Facebook posts.

A lawyer isn’t going to help because in most districts substitutes are at-will independent contractor hires, and are not covered by any employment agreement that benefits the employee.

If she can’t reach out on a personal level to talk to the principal, or the office secretary, or one of the staff teachers to find out what is really going on, then there is no good way to reverse this decision.

Even if a lawyer could somehow force the school to take her back, what sort of working environment you you think she’d be returning to? They would be looking for any excuse to dismiss her a second time for violating some sort of “rule.”

However, I know that here in my area, the schools are so desperate for substitute teachers that they have lowered their requirements for qualifications to the point that almost anyone can become a substitute. If NY is in a similar situation, then she shouldn’t have any worries about working at other schools.

My wife is a retired teacher, and I asked her about your wife’s situation, and she said “well, some Principals are just a$$#oles.”

[fruser1]

Anything you say can and will be used against you.

When first discussing this with the principal, she should not have admitted to anything and make the kid prove it. That is, if she wanted to try to keep the job.

Remember that for next time.

[Alberta's Child]

I can sympathize with you, but in this case I'm not surprised that she was "blacklisted." It probably has nothing to do with COVID and everything to do with your wife asking that minor student about a family member's medical treatments.

If I was a teacher and a student's grandfather died of lung cancer, I'd EXPECT to have my ass fired if I told the student that he shouldn't have been smoking cigarettes.

[Leaning Right]

I agree with bort in post #4. The best first step is to try to handle it informally. Is your wife a member of the teachers union? If so, she might want to talk to them about this situation. But try bort’s suggestion first.

Anyway, please don’t let your wife beat herself up over this. She really didn’t do anything wrong. We just live in hyper-sensitive times. Using the wrong pronoun get you fired these days.

[brianr10]

The main problem is the besmirching of her reputation via Facebook. She is the most requested substitute and has never been in trouble before. She is taking this hard.

[stanne]

I’m a lawyer. She will have to talk about intent. What was her purpose in her remark to tge grieving child.

[Jane Long]

Did you read the post??

The wife was NOT the one who posted anything online. The wife of OP was sub /teacher, who spoke to the child, in the classroom….not online.

Condolences should have been offered, and, nothing more.

[porter_knorr]

I’d be embarrassed for my wife being that insensitive, not looking for legal advice, sheesh, talk about tone-deaf.

[ez]

This is why I took Facebook off my phone. ( and registered Democrat) These kind of posts will be used in the future to hunt down the non-compliant and punish them.
I’m sorry about what happened to your wife.

[brianr10]

She’s 61 years old, and thinking of retiring next year anyway. It’s a shame this had to happen now. And the poster is right about the schools being desperate for subs, so it may not amount to much.

[Jane Long]

She should have offered her condolences, to the grieving child, and nothing more.

Like the lawyer replied….what was her intent in even mentioning the “vax”, which is NONE of your wife’s business, to this grieving child??

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

I wouldn’t want her teaching my kids. She was out of line. What made her think her opinion needed to be aired especially since it was essentially sticking her nose in a live light socket? She essentially blamed the Grandfather. On top of that, what makes you immediately think about getting litigious when she is the one that essentially peed on an electric fence?

You two deserve each other.