Teacher's Facebook Joke About Killing Students Might Get Her Fired
The day after a Harlem 6th grader died during a class trip to the beach, Brooklyn elementary school teacher Christine Rubio—who has been teaching for 15 years—updated her Facebook status to this:
After today, I'm thinking the beach is a good trip for my class. I hate their guts.
Minutes later, a friend responded,
Wouldn't you throw a life jacket to little Kwami?
A hypothetical question about a specific student: Surely this will rouse Rubino from her murderous revelry!
No, I wouldn't for a million dollars
Oh. Yikes. School officials are now investigating and Rubino might get fired—even though one of Rubino's friends came forward after the fact to say she had signed into Rubino's Facebook and posted the comments without Rubino's knowledge! (Yeah right, is roughly how the investigators responded.) Since "Facebook jokes about dead students" is right up there with "Facebook jokes about sexy students" in the official list of "Things Teachers Should Never Put on the Internet," Rubino's future is not looking bright.
Moral of the Story: Teachers should save their child-killing rants for drunken nights at noisy bars. You won't get in trouble if nobody is sober enough to remember (or tweet) it. [NYP]