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Except that most public school teachers have a legal binding contract. There are also teacher’s unions who provide support. In states with strong unions they also provide protection.</p>
<p>Generally public employees are covered by laws that do not allow the at will assumption. It is very hard to fire a public employee except due to lack of money reasons or direct job performance issues.</p>
<p>a lady friend of mine, 20 yrs ago, she was 25 or so, was threatened not to renew her teaching contract.
legal drinking in a bar, but not the impression students were to have according to her school board. So she refrained, and it all blew over. Not renewing is different than firing, but the result would be the same. There is no law that they must renew the legal binding contract.</p>
<p>If they have tenure there pretty much is without proof of major violations of law. A lot of employment case law has happened in 20 years. Once you have tenure or pass probation government needs a legit reason to fire anyone in most states.</p>
<p>“not the impression students were to have according to her school board.”</p>
<p>What in the world were students doing in the bar? Seems like their parents needed to look in the mirror if they were concerned about the impression on their students.</p>
<p>^^^Good point.
What, a parent sees a teacher in a bar (because the parent was there), then tells s student, and then that is not the correct “impression?”</p>
<p>Hmmph.</p>
<p>I was relaying only what the board said to her, without making my personal judgment on their comment.
Who said the students were in the bar? Where did Hanna get that? I heard a man was on the moon, but I’ve never been on the moon. Certainly, students might hear about a teacher in a local bar without attending the bar themself. And, as with typical gossip, the word that gets to students may be an accurate portrayal of the bar events, but most likely it would not be. She was very attractive physically too, and that may have lent itself to (wrongful) speculation as well.</p>
<p>The quickest way to end an affair, emotional or physical, is to expose it to the light. It is the teacher’s husband who should be informed the information, not the principal. It could be the teller at the bank or the lady at the dry cleaner. When ever it is someone that you are in contact with everyday the only hope of having it stopped is by notifying the other betrayed spouse (I have soooo been there done that with my first husband…thank goodness my current husband has his head screwed on straight). But here is the reality. If those two people are “destined” to be together (and that is a whole other thread) then they will be together. If it is simply a lapse of judgement and then exposure will bring everyone back to reality.</p>
<p>And to the poster that spoke about the definition of “emotional affair”: It is simply when a relationship outside of your marriage begins to take time from your marriage and when you begin to share details of your life that you would normally share with your spouse. Basically its a receipe for disaster.</p>
<p>An “emotional affair” is a recipe for disaster for the marriage, not for the other children at your kid’s school. This woman should focus on fixing her marriage and forget about the teacher. The fact that she wants to inform the teacher’s boss and husband—an act of vengeance—shows that she is focusing externally when she should be focusing internally. Maybe that’s why her husband is investing his emotions elsewhere. (Not that his behavior is okay, either, but it’s a clear sign of where the problem really resides.)</p>
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<p>I never heard of her before now. And now that I’ve read several of her columns, I think she’s a dimwit who lucked into a writing gig.</p>
<p>You know who the best advice columnist is? Emily Yoffe, the current Dear Prudence, not to be confused with the former Dear Prudence, Margot Howard, whom I thought was kind of nasty.</p>
<p>I actually like Dan Savage.
Yes, he does veer into the TMI, but he balances that with quite a bit of common sense.</p>
<p>I like Emily Yoffe as Prudence, but I REALLY like her Human Guinea Pig columns on Slate. They are hilarious.</p>
<p>I enjoy the Carolyn Hax column myself.</p>
<p>“students might hear about a teacher in a local bar without attending the bar themself”</p>
<p>Yeah, but this might happen even if the teacher never went to the bar at all. The “impact” on the students (to the extent there is any) is the same when the story is fiction. So if students are to be protected from the IDEA of a teacher in a bar, then parents need to control gossip, not teachers attending bars.</p>
<p>Ok you win Hanna. Let’s close all bars, or fire all teachers, or arrest people that gossip. Or all those!
You were the one that said kids were in the bars.</p>
<p>I relayed here the comment the school board made to a young, good looking female teacher who was soon due for a review and nearing the end of her contract.
I’m not here to argue for or against the validity of their opinion. I haven’t said specifically what may or may not have been her behavior. Only to pass on that such opinions do exist(or at least did) 20 yrs ago. The school board wasn’t dealing in fiction. It was true, it was real-life, the individual really was attending a local bar. The school board really was concerned about that. I was trying to pass on what one school board said, when the topic in this thread was morals of a teacher and that it might affect a teacher’s employment. I’m not discussing the specific case of how rumors may affect little Johnny.</p>
<p>Did this teacher sip on one 7-up and then leave? Did she win the wet t-shirt contest? Somewhere in between? No comment from me, it isn’t necessary here. I’m expressing that the school board was concerned and that her continued employment hung in the balance. I am not expressing my opinion on her behavior, or the validity of the school board’s opinion.</p>
<p>Our district doesn’t care if teachers drink, although some organizations like Americorps forbid you from doing things like drinking or buying cigarettes while in uniform ( even if on your way home)</p>
<p>The state auditor found that I think as high as 50% of gas purchases on the school district cards were made between the hours of 1am and 4 am.
Do meetings really run that late?.</p>
<p>My hospital had a policy that we remove our identification badges if we go out and about in our scrubs. I often go out to dinner with my family after work and have a glass of wine. I just make sure to take off my badge. That’s a policy I can live with.</p>