Facebook used to be a site just for college kids. However, it wasn't long before the social network opened up membership to everyone. Now people are using it to spy on their exes, kids are dealing with their parents commenting on their walls, and bosses are monitoring what employees are doing on days they're not at work. Apparently teachers in the New York district are using it to talk to their students and it's causing problems with the Department of Education.
According to the New York Post the Department of Education in New York City has fired three teachers in the last six months for acting inappropriately towards students on Facebook. One teacher, former Bronx teacher, Chadwin Reynolds, is said to have "friended" about six female students. He wrote comments like, "This is sexy," under some of their photos and asked one girl for her phone number. He is said to have sent flowers, candy and a stuffed animal in an attempt to secure a date.
Reynolds told the Post that the case was thrown out and that the allegations are untrue. "It's not true. The Board of Ed found that the claims were not valid," he's quoted as saying. However, the Post goes on to report that the Board of Education confirmed that the social networking scandal was the reason he was fired.
A second teacher, this one from Long Island City, Queens, was fired for posting a picture of her kissing a former student to her Facebook page. It later emerged that Laurie Hirsch, a 30-year-old former paraprofessional at Bryant HS in Long Island City, had had sex with the student about 10 times in her apartment. A probe by the Office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation revealed that the two had made contact via phone 2,700 times over a six-month period. Hirsch said that she had been suspended indefinitely for using her cell phone too much during school hours. She told the Post that it didn't look like she was going to get her job back and that it was during this suspension that the relationship with her former student began. She also noted that the student was no longer attending the school when the relationship began.
Though it's not clear if either Hirsch or Reynolds have had their teaching privileges revoked, one Manhattan substitute teacher by the name of Stephen D'Andrilli has been banned from subbing ever again for his behavior on Facebook. He is said to have "friended" several female students at Essex Street Academy on Facebook and sent them inappropriate messages. D'Andrilli commented on one girl's photo that her boyfriend "boyfriend [did not] deserve a beautiful girl like you," and messaged another girl to tell her she was pretty and that he had tried to visit her during one of her weekend classes. The New York Post writes that a fourth teacher, who has not been disciplined, was found to be giving extra credit to students who befriended him on Facebook.
Do you think there should be a policy in place preventing this kind of teacher-student communication on social networks? Let us know in the comments below!
