October 16, 2005

Why I Don't Blog From School

Setting aside the fact that I theoretically can't get past the district's fire wall and filtering software (I suspect I know how, but choose not to make the effort because I like my job), there is a simple reason I don't blog from school. I don't want to have to justify or defend what I write to the powers that be in the district office if I ever give offense to a parent or district employee.

I don't write about students with any degree of specificity for the same reason -- posting my candid views about some of them would be difficult to defend. I love them all, but cannot say that I like every last one of them. And I won't get into my opinion of some parents I've had to deal with over the years.

That is why I think this former teacher was stupid to be accessing her blog from school -- ESPECIALLY considering the content.

A Mansfield elementary school teacher resigned after school officials found she used her class computer to access a personal Web log chronicling sexual exploits and containing disparaging remarks about her students.

Becky Pelfrey, 38, had worked for the Mansfield district for three years and had spent seven years working for Arlington schools.

Her log featured links to sexually-oriented Web sites and comments about her students, including a reference to them as "stinky kids."

School district spokesman Terry Morawski said the district has not sought to file criminal charges and he is not certain that Pelfrey committed a crime.

Pelfrey and her husband think his ex-wife (Becky Pelfrey's former best friend -- we won't get into the issues that raises) may have alerted the school to bolster her side of a child custody case. That really isn't relevant in my book. If you are a teacher, you should not have a sexually explicit blog that you are accessing from home (actually, I don't think you should have one at all). And if you do discuss your sex life on a blog, you really should not be talking about your students in that forum.

Posted by: Greg at 02:43 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 It doesn't seem like a very smart thing to blog about if you are a teacher and at work.

I guess it would be one thing if she blogged about something different than sex but it is hard to believe tax payers paid for this.

Keep up the good work.

Posted by: Jake at Sun Oct 16 14:49:53 2005 (lj88F)

2 A local radio host starts his show daily with the line "People are Stupid". This teacher demonstrates that theory is true. It's one of the downsides to blogging that many seem to forget, it's out there and it is accessible. Even if you delete there is a chance someone saved it or it is cached somewhere.

Especially if she was going thru a divorce she should have had the common sense to realize that what she was writing would be found.

Posted by: Lisa Renee at Sun Oct 16 17:27:09 2005 (rYqmu)

3 I'll admit I was an idiot for having a blog. I NEVER accessed my blog while students were in my classroom. I had been an EXTREMELY successful teacher for 11 years and didn't even start blogging until February of 2004. Did I learn a lesson, I sure did, but my god, the truths of this matter have been blown WAY out of proportion. There are a few things that should be noted.

1)I resigned because I was being harassed at my school by Tanya and Kevin Hanna. SHE is my HUSBAND's EX WIFE, and is mad because MY HUSBAND has custody of their kids.
2)I was NOT going through a divorce (where did you get THAT?)
3)TANYA HANNA was NEVER my FRIEND. She and her husband were friends of MY HUSBAND.
4)TANYA HANNA has been in jail numerous times, and her husband KEVIN HANNA is an ex-con. He has been arrested for making false claims to the police.

Unfortunately, none of this was revealed until AFTER the HANNAS called the news media and made up lies.

Lastly, my blog was NOT sexually explicit. I did not "chronicle my sex life" in my blog. Those of you who believe everything you read in the papers should hope that you never make a stupid mistake that is televised and written about. You will be surprised how things get distorted.

Posted by: Becky Pelfrey at Tue Oct 18 14:16:45 2005 (E64sN)

4 You must be kidding Becky (or should I say SK or Sarcastic Kitty)! Your blog, at times, was most certainly sexually explicit (and then you created your sex blog on the side linked to your main blog) and used to contain pictures of your students right bside your stories and pics of your sexual exploits with your husband. I hope you are never employed as a teacher of any of my kids ANYWHERE.

I always wanted to say that to you but was never able to. Hopefully you realize how stupid you were in this whole ordeal.

Posted by: Becky Pelfrey is an Idiot at Tue Oct 18 17:39:36 2005 (r05m7)

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