Why should anybody care if somebody posts a photo saying "Drunken Pirate" under it. It's not illegal to get drunk ... heck, we don't even know if she was drunk, she may have just been making a joke. If this were an obscene photo, I would understand questioning her judgement. If it were a photo of an illegal act, then it might indicate she lacked the character to teach. But it's a harmless photo of a woman in a silly hat holding a drink cup. Only the caption is "offensive", and it's so mild that I'm astonished anybody is critical of it. Have we become so puritanical as a nation that people think it's okay to criticize others for legal, innocuous, non-offensive activities?

Seems way low to me.

How many years did it take her to earn this degree that they contractually agreed to provide her with? She entered this program for the license, presumably after spending this time, she has lost that time, lost that opportunity, lost the payments, and lost her ability to be employed in the field of her choice.

I would be suing them for far more than $75,000. Not to mention all the sharks out there are not going to be terribly interested in working for her if their take is less than $1,000,000.

I just don't get why this thing is so popular. Why is it so important to have a lot of MySpace "friends"? Why would people want to post personal information about themselves online? If you want to keep in touch with friends, why not email or IM them or even call them? And how is it that the flunkies who invented it are now millionaires because they showed a bunch of teenagers make web pages for themselves that look like they were created with HTML code in 1996? I just don't understand!

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/art3/0426072pirate1.jpg

Think of the children!!!

6 pi signs (or whatever that is) up above opined that the $75 K or so the lady was suing for seemed low, instead of high (as Broadsheet mentioned).

This is one of the first times I have ever agreed with anything this poster has written!!! I too think she should sue for much more than that (and then settle for a lower amount, if she is OK with that & it is less hassle for her).

As another poster mentioned, it's not illegal (yet) for people over age 20 to get drunk (in certain circumstances, and that photo didn't have her behind the wheel of a schooner or clipper ship).

So I hope she sues the shit out of them & takes a good chunk of change. You go girl!

Frankly, I don't think this goes far enough. I think any teacher who has even seen "Pirates of the Carribean"-- not only a celebration of drunken piracy but of androgynous fashion disasters who talk like Keith Richards-- should immediately have their teaching license revoked.

Or maybe they should walk the plank.

That's only about 2 years' salary as a teacher in most parts of the country. 2 years is the blink of an eye. I think she has a case, and I think that she should be entitled to much more than just $75,000. It seems as if people are taking out their frustrations regarding MySpace on one poor girl who used only the tiniest of poor judgment. I suppose we should have our kids taught by a bunch of teetotaling Bible thumpers who only use their computers for occasional tranny porn.

if its a private school, they should be able to do whatever they want, with the recognition that their actions may affect their accreditation. by which i mean, if they go around arbitrarily denying degrees, and this is against the rules of creditation, then they should lose it.

if its a public school, she should win her suit.

They got the person's money. That's all the college wants. If they can invalidate the woman's degree, and force her to pay more money down the line to try to get a teaching certificate...well, isn't that what a college supposed to do? Squeeze as much money out of the suckers as possible?

Especially this college, which sounds like one of those tiny Christian-dominated colleges that supposedly enforces "morality" on its students. Much like the IRS's philosophy of tax prosecution, having a body of a "disgraced student" swinging from the top of the administration building is a good way to keep the rest of the student body in line.

Do they actually think teachers don't drink? Our entire culture is about drinking. Why can't a 27 year old women drink regardless of her profession? I hope she wins her case :)

This is pretty fundamental. Don't post dumb stuff to your MySpace page if you want to be entrusted with teaching our youth. I'm a 29 year-old male who has done my fair share of partying over the last 12 years, but I wouldn't post pictures of it on the internet.

This is bad judgement for a 14 year-old. It's simply ignorant for a 27 year-old.

She's drinking Mr. Goodbar juice! Oh, the humanity.

But then, look at her red eye! She's been possessed by the Debil! Burn her! Burn her! She's a pirate witch!

The only way that picture could make drinking look any less glamorous is if she had Bill Gates sitting on her lap.

Just wondering.

I don't know if $75K is all that low. True, teachers as a group aren't raking in the cash, but what's the difference in lifetime earning between an education professional with the appropriate credentials and a nanny with an English degree? Because it seems to me that difference is what were talking about here.

Was she right or wrong...really who can answer that question clearly? I can't. But I can say that unless the university or education department had some sort of handbook or behavioral guidelines that covered that type of situation, they don't have much of a leg to stand on.

So I just tried to google my name to see if my facebook or myspace accounts would show up (both pages include both my first and last names) and nothing doing...so I tried about 10 of my friends who also have accounts on those sites...again, nothing doing.

so I guess the only way to come across one's profile page is if one is also a member of these social networking sites, which would make the possibility of being found alot more remote.

which is all besides the point I guess...that girl should sue the pants off that school. She was denied the certification needed for her chosen career simply because a picture of her having a drink *might* one day be seen by a student?? That's just criminal...(by that logic it should be illegal for parents to buy wine...patently absurd)