Archive for the ‘Facebook’ Category

Ok, this has nothing to do with education, but I am wondering if we are seeing a new temperance movement in Georgia between this news story out of West Point and the flap in Barrow over the teacher posting Facebook photos of herself sitting with a glass of wine and mug of beer while on vacation in Europe.

A West Point councilwoman has been arrested after police say they spotted her serving mimosas at a bridal shop she owns in Columbus. The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports Monday that 41-year-old Judy Wilkinson was handcuffed in front of about 25 customers around 2:30 p.m. Saturday during a showing at Formal Elegance.

A police officer pretended to be shopping for a tuxedo at the store and saw the drinks made of champagne and orange juice being served.

Police say she broke two city ordinances pertaining to possessing alcohol at a business location without a liquor license.

A hearing on the charges was postponed until Tuesday after Wilkinson’s attorney asked the city to supply a …

Continue reading No wine on Facebook, no mimosas at wedding shops: Welcome to the new temperance movement »

I asked Tim Callahan of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators about teachers and Facebook in the wake of the messy Barrow County case in which a young teacher resigned after her principal discovered that she had posted Facebook photos of herself drinking in Europe and had posted the word “bitch” as in “I am going to play Crazy Bitch Bingo.”

(See my earlier posts on this if you are unaware of the story. Ashley Payne is now suing and the case has sparked hundreds of comments here at Get Schooled, most in her support.)

Callahan told me:

“We have talked to teachers about their expectations of privacy in this new world. As American citizens, they have a First Amendment Right to have a Facebook page, but we are telling them, ‘Don’t do it.”’

In my interview with Payne last week, she said her teacher pals are frightened after what happened to her.

“My colleagues are scared to death because they are afraid that this is some strange witch hunt. Most of them have changed …

Continue reading Teachers and Facebook: “Don’t do it.” »

I was going to wait until Monday to post this column but I am putting the piece up now as I think this story deserves a healthy dose of sunshine. To grasp this entire bizarre story, please read my two earlier related posts, especially the one right below  on the anonymous e-mail that set this whole tragicomedy in motion.

Ashley Payne posted 700 Facebook photos of her European vacation; she says only 10 showed her with alcohol

After her three-week trip to Europe this summer, Barrow County teacher Ashley Payne posted 700 photos to Facebook. Ten of those photos showed her in pubs and beer gardens.
Payne’s Facebook page is set to a high privacy level and is accessible only to friends to whom she has granted access. Recognizing her position as a role model, Payne says she has never allowed access to students or parents at Apalachee High School, where she taught.

Believing that only her adult friends could see her postings, Payne also felt comfortable posting a brief comment on …

Continue reading Facebook flap in Barrow raises troubling fairness issues »

I have spent a good part of this week working on the story about Barrow County teacher Ashley Payne. Payne resigned – under pressure, she alleges — after her principal said she was going to

This is one of Ashley Payne's Facebook photos from Europe that an anonymous e-mailer said made her an unfit role model for Barrow students.

be suspended for her Facebook postings of photos with alcohol and her use of the word “bitch.” She is now suing the system. (See earlier posting on this for more background.)

Payne posted that she was headed out to play Crazy Bitch Bingo, a popular game played weekly at Joe’s On Juniper in Atlanta.

Her photos are just standard tourist shots of Payne on vacation in Europe, sitting at pubs and beer gardens. Of 700 vacation photos, 10 had alcohol in them.

Somehow, the principal told Payne that a student had seen her Facebook page. I asked several times this week for Barrow to explain to me how it learned that a student saw the page since Payne says her …

Continue reading Barrow teacher done in by anonymous “parent” e-mail about her Facebook page »

A former high school teacher is suing a north Georgia school district, alleging she was forced to resign over photos and expletives on Facebook.

Illustrations by PAUL LACHINE / NewsArt

Ashley Payne contends that the Barrow County school district violated state labor law because she was never told she was entitled to a hearing. Her attorney, Richard Storrs, says the 24-year-old former Apalachee High School teacher was “not made aware of her rights” and should be granted the hearing.

After teaching at the school for two years, Payne resigned in August after her principal questioned her about her Facebook page, which included photos of her holding wine and beer and an expletive.

(Payne told the Athens Banner Herald it was the “B” word that landed her in hot water with her principal. She posted it in the context of saying she was going to an Atlanta restaurant that featured a game called Crazy “B” Bingo.  Here is a link to the bars that hold Crazy Bxxxx Bingo games.)

The more I …

Continue reading Should a teacher’s Facebook posts ruin her career? »