Posted on 05/09/2007 7:50:46 AM PDT by agent_delta
MILLERSVILLE, Pa. - A 27-year-old Millersville University graduate filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the college for denying her an education degree and teaching certificate after a controversial Internet photograph surfaced last year shortly before graduation.
The picture shows Stacy Snyder of Strasburg wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic "Mr. Goodbar" cup. The photograph taken during a 2005 Halloween party was posted on Snyder's MySpace Web page with the caption "Drunken Pirate."
"The day before graduation, the college confronted me about the picture," Snyder said Thursday. "I was told I wouldn't be receiving my education degree or teaching certificate because the photo was 'unprofessional.' "
Snyder said she apologized for the photograph, but Jane S. Bray, dean of the School of Education, and Provost Vilas A. Prabhu refused to issue the bachelor of science degree in education and teaching certificate Snyder earned.
Instead, the college issued Snyder a bachelor of arts degree in English.
Millersville University spokesperson Janet Kacskos referred questions to the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education spokesman Kenn Marshall, who declined comment.
Snyder, a single mother of boys ages 9 and 7, works as a nanny for a family in Lititz.
"I dreamed about being a teacher for a long time," Snyder said. "When I was growing up, I spent more time with my teachers than my own parents, and it inspired me to someday make a positive impact on children."
Attorney Mark W. Voigt of Plymouth Meeting filed the lawsuit after failing to negotiate a hearing with Prabhu and Bray.
"Stacy deserves to be a teacher," Voigt said Thursday. "The bottom line is we want the college to bestow the degree and teaching certificate that Stacy earned during four years of hard work and sacrifice."
The lawsuit also seeks $75,000 in compensatory damages.
The university, Bray, Prabhu and professor/student-teacher supervisor J. Barry Girvin are named in the suit.
Voight writes in the lawsuit that Snyder, a dean's list student, performed her student-teaching requirements in 2006 at Conestoga Valley High School.
Teachers Deann Buffington and Nicole Reinking advised Snyder.
On May 8, Buffington called Snyder at home about an "issue" about her "professionalism" as a teacher, according to the lawsuit.
Reinking viewed the "Drunken Pirate" picture of Snyder on myspace.com and showed it to Buffington.
Buffington gave it to Girvin, who told Snyder "she may lose her teaching certificate due to the incident," according to the lawsuit.
Girvin also issued a final student/teacher evaluation of Snyder and granted "superior" or "competent" ratings in all areas except "professionalism." He gave Snyder and "unsatisfactory" rating, according to the lawsuit.
"There were errors in judgment that relate to Pennsylvania's Code of Professional Practice and Conduct for Educators," Girvin wrote in the evaluation.
On May 11, Girvin, Buffington and Reinking showed the "Drunken Pirate" photograph to Snyder, according to the lawsuit.
Buffington told Snyder that posting the photograph on the Internet was "unprofessional" and Conestoga Valley students might find it offensive.
Buffington also accused Snyder of "incompetence" and "claimed she should have been removed from her student-teaching position months ago."
Conestoga Valley officials told the college their students wouldn't be allowed to perform student-teacher requirements there if Snyder was not punished, according to the lawsuit.
Bray met with Snyder May 12. She accused Snyder of "promoting underage drinking through her 'drunken pirate' photo. Bray then stripped Snyder of her education degree and teaching certification, according to the lawsuit.
Snyder graduated the next day with an English degree.
Just MHO, but it's probably a bad idea to put things that you don't want the entire world to see on the Internet. If it would be embarrassing to have your future employer, father-in-law, investigator, etc, see that picture, then don't put up on the Internet.
BTW, I don't see what's wrong with the girl's picture, I certainly wouldn't have thought that was "unprofessional" or embarrassing, or anything else.
Academically earned; probably
Would you want this person to be a role model for YOUR children?
I hear that! This whole story is insane, especially since no laws were broken and (from what I can tell) nothing happened on school property. This all about power, nothing else.
we have that cup, it’s from Hershey park for heaven’s sake. i think my kids had chocolate milk served in it, in a restaurant there.
The PA Code of Professional Conduct is pretty strict if it prohibits wearing pirate hats.
This sort of incident is precisely why “educators” should never be trusted with any important decisions.
Good grief! This is a college not a madrassa. What the heck is wrong with these pointy headed deans and provosts? She EARNED the degree wheather the shrunken prunes in the administative section agrees or not.
Unless the admissions agreement, or student conduct policy, list the educator's behavioral standards as binding rules, the college is out of line, legally. They have apparently applied a standard that was not listed as a requirement to graduate, and in doing so have defrauded the woman out of the degree and certificate she has apparently qualified for under their published standards.
The action of applying a ex-post-facto change in standards also has consequences.
I don’t get it.. she’s drinking out of a cup, dressed as a pirate...
Not like she was the pivot man in a circle jerk in one of the schools locker rooms...
I think many here don’t understand how teaching certification works.
During this, a student does a basic interning as a “student teacher”... where they are responsible for teaching classes under the instruction of a more experienced teacher.
It is pretty clear to me that this photo is not at the heart of why this girl was not granted a teaching certificate.
The teacher in charge of overseeing and mentoring this girl when she was student teaching blatantly stated she should have been pulled from student teaching and was incompetent. The photo is just a diversion being used by this girl as a distraction because it was brought up...
It really looks to me like this gal was incompetent, and the university hoped to white wash her incompetence, and it wasn’t until the school where this girl was student teaching and its administration said to the college point blank, she is so bad, if you let her teach, we will not allow you to place any other student teachers at our school, that the college FINALLY did something.
For a school and its administration to make that sort of threat to a university, this womans performance must have been down right AWEFUL, and the university must have been turning a blind eye. This definately is not merely a conflict between a student teacher and her mentor.. this is a pretty big deal to get to that sort of level of threat from the powers that be at the school.
Picture I think had zero to do with it, but that’s what will get latched onto, because that’s the hook that will sell newspapers.
Leading many here to suspect they aren't "consequences" at all but feasible cover for whatever the real reason is that they want to get rid of her.
Conestoga Valley students might find it offensive
You've got to be kidding me. Anyway, my kids love pirates, and would think it was very cool if their teacher was a pirate.
I know in my college days, I would never qualify based on the MU standards !
Shall we do a background study on every person who has the potential to be a role model for a child?
If yes, then how far back do we go?
Where does it end?
Are youthful indiscretions no longer valid?
Are we no longer able to learn from our mistakes?
Grow as individuals?
Mature?
She should get the degree.
She is going to OWN that college when she is done.
And even if she did caption it, it could have been in humor, as in “Ha, ha, I look like a drunken pirate, even though I was drinking orange juice!”.
And if she was drinking, so what? How is that “unprofessional”? Many “professionals” drink; engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc.
She is probably a Christian, Republican conservative. If she were a RAT, no problem.
Interesting you ask that. I don’t know anything about Millersville, but when I saw “Lititz” in the article I knew immediately the general area - Lancaster, heart of Amish country.
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