Now I'm not getting paranoid on you or anything, but I just came across this very interesting news tidbit. Apparently, a Catholic prep school teacher started her own website called, "Burn and Rot in Hell!" Catchy title (well, not really). The website's sub-line is "I vent, therefore I am." Now that really is catchy, and it signifies precisely what you might think. Her website is dedicated to venting about all sorts of things, from personal kinds of issues, to politics, to school-related items. Hmmm...wait a minute!...that sounds a bit like this blog (though it is different in ways). Nevertheless, I like this lady!!!
But hold on, her school isn't so smitten with the whole idea. They are firing her! Admittedly, she has categories titled "bad teachers" and "bad students," and if they actually name names, I personally do not find that in good taste. But is that kind of website something to get fired over?
Here's the story if you want to read: click me.
Ok, the issue in my mind is: could The Critically Pissed blog land in hot water too? What if names were named in the blog posts? Remember a number of posts ago with the idea of www.ratemystudents.com? What if we started that as a sub-category here? What if we outed out bad profs and horrible students who should have never enrolled in the first place? Are these things that might prompt UWW to force this blog to shut down, or worse, bring punishment on the moderator?
This blog is not hosted on UWW server space, and no UWW email account is associated with the blog. Wouldn't "freedom of speech" or "academic freedom" be enough to kill any attempt at a takedown? Couldn't the Catholic prep school teacher also use that defense? Of course, the Catholic school is a private school, and those institutions seem to be able to do whatever they want to their staff.
Or might I be fooling myself...do I need to start looking behind my back? Is The Critically Pissed gonna burn and rot in hell? I mean, I even invited our Chancellor to be a friend of The Critically Pissed on Facebook. lol
When you become an adult, you should have learned to think. A blog like critically pissed is one thing, but a blog where you out your colleagues is a horse of a different color. She should have remained in Dante's Inferno and learned something from Virgil and the Pilgrim. Second, and this is to the poster, there exists a wide array of laws, both state and Federal, governing public educational institutions. Free speech is covered in public institutions, including Whitewater, not so much in the privates. So relax, have a beer, you will not be prosecuted for anything "within reason" that you write on this blog or utter in class. The gestapo is not coming to get ya. Third, I suspect that the fired teacher was working under some sort of annual contract without tenure. Under annual contracts, a teacher or any employee for that matter can be dismissed at will, without any reasons given. The courts have upheld the legality of at will contracts. These kind of contracts allow you to get rid of assholes you don't like without going through a lot of red tape. A large percentage of school teacher in Wisconsin have similar at will contracts, including about 30 to 40 percent of the UW faculty. So, the bottom line, be careful what you say or do, especially now that democratic rights are under attack. If you fuck up or don't kiss the right ass, your contract may not be renewed for the following year. The motherfuckers in charge of your future are not always fair, sometimes they are some crooked assholes. In my humble opinion, a person has to use some common sense. You don't go out and create a blog designed to out or embarrass your colleagues. Policeman do not out other cops nor do doctors rat on other doctors. This is the Chicago code. Never violate the code of Omerta. The fired teacher violated the code of Omerta and like Jimmy Hoffa, now part of the Detroit turnpike, they fucked her up.
ReplyDelete1- Academic Freedom doesn't apply. This may be about UWW but it isn't OF UWW. Not a chance of salvation there.
ReplyDelete2- Freedom of Speech will only protect you from government censorship and then maybe not. You can't say whatever you want about somebody and then hope they don't punch you in the nose.
3- Slander is slander. You'd better clearly label opinions as such and make sure that what is presented as fact is true. As BlogAdmin you might be held responsible for posters and could be held responsible for commenters. If you see threats on these pages, you'd better report them along with IPs.
4- A teacher popping off about her students will be held contractually to a higher standard than students nattering about a prof. That's why the ratemystudents idea hasn't gone anywhere and why the Chancellor isn't having any part of our discussions here. I wouldn't be surprised if someone on the 4th floor was monitoring them, though.
@ Anon- Jimmy Hoffa isn't in Detroit. They found him listed in the Newark Yellow Pages under "Concrete."
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