Letters to the Editor
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Pirates
This seems so obvious: the school mascot is the pirates. "Drunken Pirate" is a cliche -- a song, even. So she posts a picture of herself with a glass in her hand -- it's certainly not clear that it's alcohol, and she doesn't look visibly "wasted" or even tipsy --and calls it "Drunken Pirate." How can people be so humor & irony impaired not to get this? $75,000? I think that's far too little for what she has gone through having her official record trashed by idiots and her career choice denied for a trivial joke. The LOW amount is indicative that she's not trying to turn this into a jackpot, just get some degree of justice. She's reacting with diginity, while the school's actions are utterly inappropriate and unprofessional. The whole thing is apalling.
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Statement from the University's site
Millersville University Statement on Ms. Stacy Snyder Lawsuit
Millersville University denies the claims alleged in the federal complaint filed by Ms. Stacy Snyder. Although the University respects Ms. Snyder's opinion, these allegations only provide a single perspective of this academic situation.
Due to federal student privacy restrictions, the University is unable to directly respond to media accounts related to the case. The University notes, however, that all of its educational decisions are based on a full range of academic performance issues, not solely on a student's personal website or social networking site. The University is committed to maintaining the academic integrity of its academic programs and degrees and will vigorously defend itself and the actions of its employees in legal proceedings related to the lawsuit.
Any further comment about the suit will come through the State System of Higher Education Office of Legal Counsel in Harrisburg.
Issued: April 30, 2007
I thought this would be interesting as Broadsheet seems to be following the line of the general media and not finding out all sides of the issue. I'm not defending Millersville, just believe an issue should be viewed from all sides. The thing of interest is the sentence stating that this decision is not being made based solely on what is on the Myspace site.
My old B-Law professor taught us about the "Ain't Right Meter." If your "Ain't Right Meter" is seriously going off, then odds are you don't really have all the facts of the story.
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What else would the University say in a public statement?
That public statement is effectively "blah blah blah." It's value neutral when it comes to actual information.
As for some imaginary meter of "It ain't right," or whatever, I'm far more willing to believe that in the uptight, hypocritical freakshow America has become what this woman alleges in her suit against the University is EXACTLY what happened.
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Don't Endorse Draconian BS
I wish writers like Catherine Price would be so willing to abandon privacy and labor rights with bullshit sentences like this one:
If you're trying to be a schoolteacher or otherwise work with children professionally, it's probably not a good idea to post a picture of yourself under the caption "Drunken Pirate" anywhere -- not even on your own refrigerator.
Bullshit. A photo of an adult engaging in legal and normal behavior in an adult situation is rarely sound basis for employer action. At best such a choice is vulnerable to civil challenges and in certain circumstances may violate labor laws.
It doesn't matter if her career of choice is teaching. It doesn't matter if the photo appeared on myspace rather than a local newspaper. It doesn't matter if it had a wacky caption.
Adults of all vocation appear in newspaper social pages and sporting event photos holding glasses which obviously contain alcohol. Sometimes wacky captions are involved.
Were a school to deny a degree to an education student for being photographed at a tailgate party for the local team, it would be considered absurd. Because it's myspace and a female teacher and a pirate caption, some people seem to think all rights go out the window.
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. It's time we stop blaming the victim when some authority figure crosses the line with such phrases as "not a good idea." I'm sorry, but the point of our nation is we do not have to self-police 24/7. It's not just a principle, it's also often the law.
We are not a nation where the powerful get to act on their assumptions of the moment. We are a nation of laws. Children are not a valid reason to ignore this, unless people allow it to be.
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mardi gras
Growing up in Louisiana it was expected to see you teachers drunk and dressed like pirates at least once every year. Its called Mardi Gras!
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One thing that bugs me
is that Millersville is just passing out degrees in English as the amoral alternative to an education degree. I guess I understand that the intent is to prevent her from teaching, not saying she didn't earn a degree. But what kind of school swaps degrees out of convenience?
As someone with a degree in English, I'm happy to welcome all pirates who have completed their degree requirements, drunken or otherwise, to our not-particularly-exclusive club of, well, people with degrees in English. I'm just not all that excited that any college or university is in the practice of issuing replacement degrees to students whose degree programs (fairly or, in this case, blatantly unfairly) choose not to grant them the degrees. (And this is not the same as a PhD program issuing a "consolation" MA to a student they don't pass on to candidate status.)
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Draconian vs. Reputation . . . Perhaps
Draconian that the school is repsonding this way? Perhaps. Will it impact their reputation? Perhaps.
Are they thinking that surrounding k-12 institutions that might hire their graduates are highering them in part based upon Millersville's Reputation for awarding diplomas to adults who demonstrate the highest professional boundaries? Perhaps.
Would students be better served overall if adults drank less and we less likely to convey that it's an OK thing to do once you're over 21 and stoped espousing a "do as I say, not as I do" attitude? Perhaps.
Do I like how "draconian" we may be in the modern world and how public things like myspace make my private life? No. But then, I DON'T HAVE A MYSPACE SITE in part for that reason.