Freedom of speech or inappropriate behaviour?

This article appeared online a couple of days ago.

Basically, a teacher - assistant head teacher at that - is being investigated after a newspaper drew attention to some things she had posted on twitter.

What had she said?

Well, she tweeted about blow jobs, masturbation, and used the word "cunt", amongst other things.

Well, OK. So what? Everyone is entitled to say what they think online, as long as it does not involve defamation, of course. This teacher can say what she wants and act as a bit of a common oaf if that makes her life more complete.

People have gone absolutely nutty online, attacking the newspaper and questioning their journalistic credibility. Twitter is swimming with rants about freedom of speech and protecting our real lives from our online antics.

What utter bollocks.

First off, as usual it is the same old comments over and over. Develop a thought of your own or shut the fuck up.

Secondly, this teacher got herself in this mess.

How?

She decided to contact the newspaper from her twitter account about a news story they had published about her school. She identified herself as a teacher at the school publicly. At that point, she lost all of her privacy rights. She chose to associate her rather childish tweets with her employer. It would make it much easier for current students to find her account and see exactly what she was like. Parents would also be exposed to her attitude and that would make them question her credibility as a teacher.

If you found out your child's teacher worked weekends as a prostitute, would you consider that perfectly acceptable?

Honesty would make you say no.

I am unbelievably careful about associating my online persona with my work life. I work in a highly sensitive industry and have to be vetted extensively in order to get placements. Why would I then allow my employer and all of their prospective clients know that I regularly get threats and abuse from crazy people that cannot understand that individuals can have differing opinions?

Why should this teacher not be held to the same moral standards, just because a group of loudmouths on Twitter think everything is a fucking political issue?

She may be a perfect teacher. If so, apologise for a stupid mistake and consider how you appear to others from now on.

Don't ever try to justify linking your employer with such puerile behaviour, though.

And I don't think anyone could ever use the "c-word" as a freedom of speech argument without seriously taking the piss.