Can a student teacher be punished by a university for posting a photo of herself, captioned "drunken pirate," on a MySpace Web site?
Does that violate her free speech rights?
Last year, Millersville University graduate and former student teacher Stacy Snyder filed a lawsuit against Millersville University and five of its employees, saying they violated her First Amendment rights.
MU declined to grant Snyder an education degree and teaching certificate after the MySpace photo of her came to light. MU granted her an English degree instead.
Snyder wants MU to reinstate her education degree and teaching certificate. She also is seeking $75,000 in monetary damages.
A federal judge this month dismissed part of Snyder's case but let another part of it continue.
What has to be determined now is whether Snyder was a student, apprentice or public employee at the time of her student teaching; what rights she has under those categories; and whether those rights were violated, Judge Paul Diamond ruled.
MU spokeswoman Janet Kacskos said today, "We're pleased that this case is about to be resolved. Millersville University is committed to serving our students and the children they will teach and we are confident that the university will be vindicated in this case. "
Snyder had filed her suit against the five MU officials in their individual and their professional capacities.
The suit names Jan S. Bray, dean of the School of Education; Vilas A. Prabhu, provost and vice president of academic affairs; Judith Wenrich, director of the early childhood education department and the field services department; Beverly Schneller, chairwoman of the English department; and J. Barry Girvin, a supervisor in the student teaching program.
Diamond earlier dismissed Millersville University from the suit. In his ruling this month, he dismissed Snyder's claims against the five officials in their individual capacities.
However, he did allow the suit to continue against the five in their official capacities.
In his ruling, he notes that there is little case law describing the level of First Amendment protection to which a student teacher is entitled.
"Factual disputes must be resolved," he notes.
The lawsuit happened after Snyder was a student teacher at Conestoga Valley High School in 2006.
While there, she maintained a personal MySpace Web site.
The site displayed a photo of her wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup. The caption under the photo was "drunken pirate."
Snyder previously said she was of legal drinking age and drinking a mixed drink, but that she wasn't intoxicated when the photo was taken at a Halloween party.
Snyder had spent about three months working as a student teacher at CV before the photo came to light.
Four days after it was posted, the lawsuit notes her supervisor at CV called her at home and told her an issue had arisen concerning her professionalism. The supervisor told Snyder not to return to CV for several days.
After that, Snyder met with Girvin and her supervisors at CV, who showed her the photo and told her they considered the posting "unprofessional."
Shortly before her graduation in May 2006, Girvin prepared an evaluation in which he rated Snyder's performance as satisfactory or superior in all categories except professionalism, which he rated unsatisfactory.
That same day, MU officials told Snyder the unsatisfactory rating made her ineligible for a teaching degree or certificate, and she would get an English degree instead.
Later, Howard Kelin, an attorney for the school district, said Snyder was given a poor evaluation based on her performance while teaching at the high school and was warned not to direct students to her MySpace page.
Despite that, Kelin said Snyder continued to direct students to her Web page.
Snyder submitted an apology to the high school and university after being told she would not receive an education degree or teaching certificate.
A single mother of two boys, Snyder worked as a nanny for a family in Lititz at the time her lawsuit was filed.
Snyder could not be reached for comment today. Her attorney, Mark W. Voigt, did not return calls for comment.
In an interview last year, Snyder said she regretted posting the pictures on the Web site but said she did not deserve to be punished for them.
She said she had dreamed of being a teacher since she was in elementary school.
Staff writer Cindy Stauffer can be reached at cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024.
