Posted on 09/25/2018 7:34:45 AM PDT by Drew68
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – The Head of Upper School at Arlington’s Oakridge School is the latest to be snared in a social media firestorm after sending a profanity-laced message to Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti.
Leaders at Arlington’s Oakridge School announced Monday afternoon, administrator Butch Groves was suspended indefinitely over the Twitter direct message.
The message has been shared tens of thousands of times.
In a statement to parents and the public via Twitter, the Head of School, Jon Kellam said, “Butch Groves, Head of Upper School, sent an inappropriate private message to attorney Michael Avenatti from his personal social media account. I have been in contact with Mr. Groves who has admitted to the communication; he deeply regrets his comments and the negative attention brought to the school.” The statement goes on to say, “That said, The Oakridge School has clear policies in place regarding online and face-to-face communications. Oakridge employees are expected to maintain the respect, dignity and professionalism that is consistent with our mission. Mr. Groves’ conduct was unacceptable and inconsistent with these policies and standards. I have therefore suspended Mr. Groves indefinitely as we conclude our investigation.”
“Something happens between keyboard and brain,” says Eddie Reeves, owner of Reeves Strategy Group in Dallas, a social media and marketing company. “People take leave of their senses.”
And it’s keeping Reeves in business. He helps companies craft policies to hopefully avoid public relations nightmares like the Twitter storm that descended on Oakridge overnight. Head of Upper School Butch Groves, who has been with the school since 2007 according to the school website, fired off the angry message to Avenatti after he announced that he was representing another woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of misconduct.
CBSDFW.com can’t print Groves’ message due to the vulgarity, but Avenatti shared it with his followers, writing “Meet @butchgroves, the Head of Upper School at The Oakridge School in Arlington, TX. I have never met him before or communicated with him but here is his message to me earlier tonight. The parents of Oakridge must be so proud to have this man teaching their sons and daughters.”
Reeves says he continues to be amazed that people who should know better vent anger online, in ways they later regret.
“One-hundred twenty-five years ago, the social media of that day was letters to the editor,” says Reeves. “And Mark Twain wrote that you’re never going to win an argument with someone who buys ink by the barrel… and you’re never going to win an argument with someone who has 3/4s of a million Twitter followers! Once you send him a message, whether it’s a so called direct message or public message, he then owns that message and controls that message, which means he also controls you and your image—and whoever you’re associated with, including your employers.”
In his letter to parents and the community earlier in the day, Head of School Jon Kellam wrote, “The school has received negative attention on social media due to an employee’s personal comment during non-work hours. Our team is looking into it, and I will communicate with you again when I have more information.”
By then the Twitterverse was on fire—with one poster writing, “The 1st amendment allows us to say whatever we wish but it does not protect us from the consequences of what we say.”
“I don’t know Mr. Groves, I don’t know this school, but that’s just the point: I don’t know him. What I know about him and by extension what I know about his institution, it surrounds this tweet. Again, it may not be right. But, it is reality,” said Reeves.
CBS 11 reached out to Mr. Groves and Oakridge School leadership today requesting comment, but received no response. As of late afternoon, Avenatti confirmed he had received neither an apology nor any contact with school staff.
He obviously should've considered the possible consequences beforehand,
but once you've well and truly screwed the proverbial pooch, what's one's backbone to gain by groveling ?
If his family loves him, they might be pissed for awhile, and eat more beans etc, but they'll stand behind him and they'll all be ok in the end.
How do you know they'll all be OK in the end?
Who is going to hire him now and subject themselves to the angry mob?
Keep in mind, this happened in Texas.
“...eventually you’ll be arrested and shipped off for re-education.”
All handled by a well-trained and respectful SWAT team at 3am in the morning.
Cuz I prefer happy endings, and my projection is as valid as your doubts ;-)
So he sent a private message as a private person and the recipient makes the private message public? How is this a matter for anyone other than the sender and the recipient?
It definitely would have been wiser not to privately make a public comment on a public forum about a public issue, because only leftist freaks are allowed “private, personal affairs”.
“Republicans are letting Kavanaugh swing in the wind right now. Do you think they’re going to stand up for this guy?”
You are so right and that is why Trump won.
Note that the Democrat media mouthpiece that wrote this article didn’t explain that the “f***ing douchebag” and “lying piece of s**t” Avenatti had just accused a respected Federal judge on the second highest court in the United States of America of organizing “gang rapes” in college.
He was getting nuked by the trolls from our side on Twitter.
Twitter is like the elephant graveyard of brains. Just yell at your tv or radio, people. You’ll make just as much impact on the target of your ire.
I'd like to think that you lose your job, you pull yourself up, dust yourself off, and go pound the pavement. Eventually you'll land something.
However, the rules today are different in this Brave New World.
Any consideration this guy receives will come with a google search. The hiring supervisor will learn why he was fired. The prospective employee comes with baggage. Even if you agree with what he did, is it worth it? Or is it easier to send him down the road, "Good luck to you..."
The Left, who has been empowered to enforce their social mores on everyone has not yet told us what the means of redemption are.
He sent a private message and Avenatti published it. That's his fig leaf.
What I wonder is whether his email identified his affiliation with the school. That would have been a serious mistake. If Avenatti tracked him down and outed him, his fig leaf just got a lot bigger.
Twitter is a putrid cesspool, no doubt about that, but it is where the war is being fought. One battleground at least. If it wasn’t making an impact, they wouldn’t be silencing influential conservative voices, one after the next.
Yeah, that's why I got a 48-hour HARD shadowban on Twitter for retweeting the news that Ed Whelan had identified "another female" at Chrissie Blatantly-Whored's phony "party".
That news was getting "noticed", so their mods had to smack it down hard.
Twitter is like the Napoleonic Wars. Smoothbore muskets, inaccurate - so volume of fire, organized, is what counts.
Apparently is Twitter profile identified where he worked.
Word to the wise. If you want to engage in war with leftists on Twitter, make sure you have a profile slicked of all ties to your real life. Sure, they can still figure out who you are if they want to but at least you'll have a fighting chance.
Yes. Avenatti trolled him.
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.