Big brother watches MySpace at US University and gets sued

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 02 May 2007 08:24

Your IT - Home IT

Be careful of what you post on MySpace or anywhere else on the Internet because Big Brother is watching and will punish you. That's the message made loud and clear by two educational institutions in the US state of Pennsylvania, one of which is being sued by their victim a former student teacher.

Stacy Snider, a 27 year old unmarried mother, was reportedly denied her teaching diploma in 2006 after her supervisor at Conestoga Valley High School, where she was putting in classroom time, told her she was unprofessional for posting a photo of herself drinking at a Halloween party on her MySpace page. The pic of Ms Snyder in a pirate hat drinking from a plastic cup looks innocent enough but it had the caption "Drunken Pirate".

Ms Snyder's apparently outraged supervisor felt that the photo encouraged under age drinking even though she was 25. The trainee teacher was ordered to leave and the school allegedly pressured the student's college, Millersville University, to deny her a teaching license. The university complied with the school's request and substituted Ms Snyder's teaching diploma for an Arts English degree.

At least that's the story being told through the media.

Ms Snyder, who claims she had an outstanding academic record, has now lodged a federal lawsuit against Millersville University, seeking US$75,000 in damages and the teaching qualification for which she studied and worked four years to achieve.

Millersville University, which intends to defend itself, has declined to comment to the media but is concerned enough at the negative publicity to put a link to a statement on its home page:

"Millersville University denies the claims alleged in the federal complaint filed by Ms. Stacy Snyder. Although the University respects Ms. Snyder's opinion, these allegations only provide a single perspective of this academic situation.

"Due to federal student privacy restrictions, the University is unable to directly respond to media accounts related to the case. The University notes, however, that all of its educational decisions are based on a full range of academic performance issues, not solely on a student's personal website or social networking site. The University is committed to maintaining the academic integrity of its academic programs and degrees and will vigorously defend itself and the actions of its employees in legal proceedings related to the lawsuit."

Meanwhile Ms Snyder is reportedly gainfully employed as a nanny instead of teaching in a classroom.