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The 'drunken pirate' fight
MU grad, denied teaching degree, certificate due to controversial Internet photo, awaits ruling in U.S. court battle.
Lancaster New Era
Published: May 14, 2008
13:08 EST
Millersville
By CINDY STAUFFER, Staff

Snyder
 
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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.


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I know professors who don't use computers. And are proud of that fact. Hard to believe but it's true.

Perhaps professors aren't cautioning their students because they themselves have never been to youtube or facebook or myspace. The person I know who is teaching now was NEVER warned about this sort of thing in college. They were warned about it by the district supervisor in the district they were going to teach in. And they weren't warned because THEY might have something up that could be considered objectionable but rather than they make sure their websites etc. were either deleted, or privatized. Why? Because students put up fake websites about their teachers to be cruel and so the district wanted to be sure so that if something came up, they could direct their attention to the students who might have done it rather than the teachers.

I think that colleges and universities need to do a bit of 'catch up' on this potential problem.

And, I might add, something slanderous like this happened to a woman who was a lawyer who had NOTHING to do with the website but had suggestive and lewd things posted about her. She didn't even know about it until a kind employer who turned her down for a position told her what he had found on the web. So, don't think that every bad comment or pic posted has been done by the person themself.

One website that professors DO know about is www.rateyourprofessor.com - might be interesting to go there and see what students have to say about the professors and teachers who are being sued. There's also www.studentsreview.com and a site for rating your high school teachers as well.
harv1
this is for HAMMER.. LOL
hmm..

the MU student teacher should had sported a bikini vs drinking in a photo, because PLAYBOY would pay her more then $75,000!!!
2007-Erica Chevillar, teacher posed for Playboy

http://www.greenllama.net/blog/2007/03/14/...ed-for-playboy/
2008-St. Lucie teacher: Bikini charter cost me my job

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/con...ingteacher.html
Daisy Lee Myers
Lysol54
dee
STUPID TEACHERS DO STUPID "THONGS!"
Teacher Marie Jarry Fired for APPEARING ON HOWARD STERN.
Bikini Photo | Bumpshack.com

http://bumpshack.com/2008/05/09/teacher-ma...r-bikini-photo/
QUOTE(Lysol54 @ May 16 2008, 01:38 PM)

There was also a teacher about 2 weeks ago after appearing on the Howard Stern show, something with Ugly Husband, hot wife contest or something. I will see if i can find the article.

http://www.wfsb.com/news/16201453/detail.html


link:

Erica Chevillar ‘Bikini Teacher’ to Playboy Model | Bitten and Bound

http://bittenandbound.com/2007/12/30/erica...boy-model-nsfw/
Daisy Lee Myers
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