A Central Bucks high school English teacher was suspended on Wednesday for internet posts on her personal blog.

Natalie Munroe acknowledged writing "profanity-laced rants" which referred to students as "out of control" and as "disengaged, lazy whiners" and disparaged co-workers and administrators as well.

District spokeswoman Carol Counihan told the i>Bucks County Courier Times that Munroe was immediately suspended with pay and the blog was quickly taken down. Superintendent Robert Laws says the postings should result in termination but that the district is still investigating.

Be Careful What You Post

"Be careful what you post on the Internet," Natalie Munroe told her students year after year. Monroe started her blog, called “Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?” in August 2009. She's been at Central Bucks East since 2006, and makes $54,500 annually. In the fall semester, she taught two blocks of honors classes and one of regular English in a 4-block day.. This semester, she teaches two blocks of regular english and one block of SAT preparation.

My students are out of control. They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire and are just generally
annoying.
-- post dated Oct. 27, 2009.

“It appears that most of the posts did not occur on district time and with district computers. Some of them did, I believe. Clearly, taking it down this morning did. That in itself is a violation,” Laws said, referencing a district policy that dictates school computers be used only for school activities.

When parents brought the blog to administrators' attention, they called in a substitute teacher, removed her from the classroom, and suspended her. (Which raises a question: how did they determine what was on that blog without using school computers?)

Four Issues

There are actually four issues to be considered here. The first is that an employee's own time is his own. Because teachers are salaried, not hourly, they are required to be in the classroom during scheduled teaching hours, and available if a student needs them during other school hours. Every citizen has the right to complain about how public government, including the schools, operates.

The second is use of school resources. A computer doesn't wear out any faster if it's used than if it simply sits there, idle - and it certainly last longer if it remains on, rather than being switched on and off. The internet connection essentially costs no more if the teacher blogs at work. One might as well complain that teachers are wearing out chairs by sitting down, or wearing out the linoleum by pacing the floor. If a teacher blogs, especially an English teacher, it might even make her a better teacher.

Telling Tales Out Of School

A third issue is that students have privacy rights. This isn't some recently-discovered right, like the "right of privacy" that some complain that the Supreme Court invented in order to rule on Roe v. Wade. People have talked of "telling stories out of class" since before 1530 AD. On the other hand, it doesn't appear that she's identifying specific students.

The fourth issue is that Ms. Munroe admits in her blog that she is bored, disaffected, and an ineffectual teacher. That's the only thing that really matters. She was scheduled to begin maternity leave in less than a month anyway. It would seem prudent for school administrators to contact Ms. Munroe and offer a settlement: if she starts her maternity leave early, and does not return to the school district afterwards, the district will quietly drop the whole matter. That would make it easier for Ms. Munroe to go back to work - elsewhere - once the baby has arrived.

Handling Unhappy Employees

Over the decades, I've had to deal with employees that made public comments disparaging their job. I would bring them in for a talk, and start off by pointing out that what they do on their own time is their own business. On the other hand, I would point out, we don't hire people for jobs that can be performed by a robot. It's a lot cheaper to set up a machine to do that work for those jobs. We need happy employees, who enthusiastically look for ways to do the job better or faster, giving our customers a better product or reducing our costs.

Most importantly, I would tell them, life is too short and the work day is too long to have a job you hate. Paying more money doesn't solve that problem - you simply end up with a better-paying job you hate. What do I need to do, I would ask, to change this job so that you can be happy doing it? Maybe you have an immediate answer, and maybe you need to figure it out and get back to me.

Resolutions

In one case, it took a guy a month to decide that he just didn't fit in the job. In other cases, someone knew immediately that it was the wrong job for him. I always volunteered to help them find a job that suited them better; they always declined. In the end, they ended up in a job that suited them better, and I ended up with an employee that fit the job better, but in the meanshile, we both had some pain.

I wish Ms. Munroe well. I also wish Superintendent Laws well. I have a feeling that this is not going to be handled well. Mark Twain told his lecture tours that God invented jackasses for practice, before he invented school boards. Things don't appear to have changed for the better since the 1800s.

(That's NOT Ms. Monroe in the photo; I couldn't find a picture that I was sure was her, so I used stock photos.)

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
bad employees - blogging - Central Bucks - embezzing - free speech - honors classes - labor relations - maternity leave - Natalie Munroe - privacy - schools