Facebook has a long and illustrious history of getting people into trouble for posting comments on their profile. It’s got people the sack, split up relationships and even caused divorce in its short time in existence. This time though it’s not the curse of Facebook profile and its public nature (that everyone seems to forget) that has claimed yet another victim, it’s the private discussion section of the website; something that should remain private.
Sonya McNally is a teacher and she was discussing her class with another teacher over Facebook, making the comment:
By the way, (class) 8G1 are just as bad as 8G2.
This seemingly innocuous comment caused offense to Kirsten Allenby-Moore, who reported her to the council. She wrote in a complaint letter:
I found the comments personally insulting as the 2 classes mentioned where [sic] both mine.
As a result of the complaint, Sonya McNally has been suspended from work by North East Lincolnshire Council. She has been accused of bringing the school into disrepute for her comments.
This situation highlights the dangers of writing comments on social networking websites, although posting a private message to a colleague shouldn’t have led to this outcome.
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