Searching Your Kids' Teachers' Social Media Accounts

Teachers should rightly be held to high standards of behavior.  That does not mean that teachers should be required to be saints.  

Is it ethical to search out your kid's teacher's social media?  Sure, especially if it's public.  Is it ethical to try to get said teacher fired or harassed because you don't like the absolutely legal and ethical pictures and views you encounter?  No, Karen, it is not:

Earlier this month, a parent on Twitter with a sizable following shared something she’d done that struck many on the app as a bit of a parental overreach.

“Got my son’s second grade teacher assignment and immediately found all of her socials,” the mom tweeted, before revealing what her investigation had wrought...

Some moms and dads came to the woman’s defense: “I check my kids teachers socials too. Looking for closet pervs and racists. Not gonna apologize for prioritizing my children’s safety above some stranger’s privacy,” one mom tweeted. 

What's good for the goose:

Comically, one teacher admitted she does the same thing at the beginning of the school year, only with parents: “Not gonna lie, I love looking through parent social media. Gives me a huge head’s up for the year. Small town bonus, somebody on faculty/staff already knows em from years back.”

Fortunately, the mom in question was forced to backtrack:

But largely, the mom who tweeted the tale got mocked. (She later deleted the tweet and played it off as a joke, no doubt tired of being Twitter’s main character of the day.)

I have thousands of posts on this blog, going back to 2005.  I'm sure anyone can find something they disagree with.  So what?  Disagree with me.  Very-long-time readers might remember Sandy Smith (who has since become anonymous).  I'm still teaching.

Update:  I'm going to link back to this one, too, although it doesn't show me in the best light.  Sandy kept threatening, so I lowered myself and taunted her.  Later, though, as I wrote in one of the (currently) 39 comments on that post:

I'm going to try to toss an olive branch to Sandy here. Ok, it's a twig, but I'm going to try.