Got MySpace? Lose your teaching degree!

This is quite disturbing. A teacher-in-training lost her teaching certificate, and Bachelor of Education in English degree because of a photo on her MySpace account that had the caption “Drunken Pirate”. She is now entering a lawsuit with her alma mater to receive her degree and a compensation for this trouble.
It is strange that the claim seems to be professionalism – after all, teachers have private lives just like everyone else. I believe that it is vital in today’s world to have an online presence, yet, at the same time, one should carefully consider what kind of persona one portrays on the series of tubes that make up the interweb.
I view my blog as a means to share stories and information with the world in general. Yet, at the same time I am aware that this information on here might be mistaken. I follow the principle of giving people the benefit of the doubt, so naturally, I am expecting the same from them as well.
Here’s the student’s story from The Chronicle of Higher Education:

A MySpace Photo Costs a Student a Teaching Certificate

What shall you do with a drunken sailor? Well, if you’re Millersville University of Pennsylvania, you deny her a degree, and you get sued for doing so.

Stacy Snyder, an aspiring teacher who is now 27 years old, was set to graduate last year from Millersville’s School of Education. But just days before commencement, campus officials discovered Ms. Snyder’s MySpace page — which featured a photograph of the student wearing a pirate hat and sipping from a plastic cup. The picture’s caption read “Drunken Pirate.”

Although Ms. Snyder was of legal drinking age when the photo was taken, Millersville administrators deemed the image “unprofessional,” and they refused to award her an education degree and the teaching certificate that came along with it. (Instead they issued her a degree in English.)

Now Ms. Snyder has filed a federal lawsuit asking Millersville to issue her education degree and teaching certificate. The former student also seeks $75,000 in compensatory damages from the university, according to the Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster, Pa. Millersville officials declined to comment, the newspaper said. –Brock Read