More Drivel From the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Following up on their "hard-hitting investigative report" on teachers who have postings in the Facebook social networking site, the Sun-Sentinel follows up today with an editorial that features an astounding lack of understanding of how these sites are used, along with a few amazing leaps of illogic. Today's opinion piece titled Teachers foolish enough to post racy material online deserve punishment takes teachers in my county to task and asks the emotionally-charged question, "It's hard to decide what's worse, the actual Internet postings (in Facebook) themselves or the lack of judgment behind them.."

Well, let's think on this a bit before we get all high and mighty and recommend action against someone's job, shall we? (Oh wait, this is a newspaper that trades in sensationalism to drive readership. I may be expecting too much here.)

But this paragraph warrants some close scrutiny. From the editorial:

In a day and age when too many teachers and school officials have gotten into serious trouble, professionally and legally, for preying on children in their classes, the public is right to be suspicious of educators who post inapt messages or photos on Internet sites. Even if such suspicions are unwarranted, educators who use Internet social networking sites to exhibit themselves risk undermining their authority in their classrooms and schools.

OK, I agree with that. Employees of a public school district should not post pictures of themselves that might disrupt the educational experience. Shoot, most teachers insist that their students refer to them as Mrs., Ms., or Mr. (Last Name) and don't want their ever curious students to know too much about their personal lives. Even first names aren't something most of us share.

But the original story had little evidence that the teachers who posted were intending to "exhibit themselves". Further, how can the editors of the paper make the leap from posting pictures clearly intended to be shared only among friends to the idea that these teachers are "preying on children in their classrooms"? This is utter and absolute nonsense, and the evidence to the contrary is posted right there online.

The teachers used their real names.

That's right. The teachers cited in the original article made the cardinal mistake of using their real names and their real jobs when posting in Facebook, despite the fact that they could just have easily made up a name and faked all of their information.

Not the behavior of a predator is it?

So why would someone post to a social networking site using their real name? I suppose we could ask the 200 employees of the three South Florida newspapers that I found searching for the name of their employer in Facebook the same question.

Actually, the answer is simple and far, far less nefarious than the clueless editors at the Sun-Sentinel issume.

It's not about exhibitionism.

It's all about having a social life with friends, family, and acquaintances who can find you online when they want to connect.

That's.

Why.

They.

Use.

Their.

Real.

Names.

Wow, that's a scary thought. Employees of public schools that have friends and a social life outside their work! They must be up to something! The school district "should take disciplinary action against educators who cross the line on the Internet." Pronto!

All that said, there are practical steps that teachers should absolutely take to protect themselves. And this is especially true for those who created their profiles back in the day when they were not employed as educators. (Something I suspect is true of many of the teachers from the original article.)

First, check your privacy settings. Your profile should be private and only open to invited guests. Do this immediately!

Second, use some common sense about protecting your identity. Use a first name and last initial for instance, to limit who is able to even see that you have a profile. It's a lot harder to find "Mark A. Smith" if his profile lists himself as "Mark S.".

Third, be generic about your job. It's OK to say you are an educator in Florida, but risky to list yourself as working for "Palm Beach County Schools at XYZ Elementary School." Be generic.

Finally, your photos--particularly your profile photo--should be innocent enough to show any student or parent in your classroom. If you have something more "fun" that you want to share post it on a photo-sharing site like Flickr and lock down the access. Better yet, if you want your friends to see the great time you had in Key West send them an e-mail attachment (using your personal e-mail account of course.) But for gosh sakes, never put anything online that can be tracked to your name that you wouldn't want to show your grandmother.

It pays to be wise about your online persona. Otherwise some crackpot editor at a local newspaper may take potshots at you and your career and accuse you of being a predator. That's wrong of course, but it's best to protect yourself from the nitwits of the world.

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