Really??? Are You Kidding Me???

All I can say is… "Really????? Are you kidding me????"

If you don't want to click on the link, here is the story. A long-time high school football coach and teacher was forced to resign his teaching and coaching positions after accidentally posting a nude photo of himself on his Facebook page. He maintained that the photo was only supposed to be viewable by his girlfriend, uh huh. It was estimated that the photo was online and viewable to the general public for no more than ten minutes—long enough for a parent of one of the coach's players to see the photo. The parent reported the incident and the coach later resigned his teaching and coaching position.

It is said that with age comes wisdom. Apparently, that wisdom skips over 40-something guys who are trying to impress their girlfriends. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I realize there might be a learning curve for those of us that have not grown up immersed in computers, instant messaging and social media. However, I would think that common sense would intervene and would tell a 40-something man, a high school teacher and coach for Pete's sake, that it's probably a dumb idea to post a photo of his naked self anywhere, much less on a social media site!

I proposed in a recent media law class paper that school districts need to start educating not only their students on the ins-and-outs of social media, but also their teachers, administrators and quite possibly, the parents of students on social media and the potential pitfalls. Policies that mandate limited usage of social media for employees of school districts are one thing but perhaps it is time they actually bring some social media professionals into the schools to show the adults how to (and how not to) use Facebook, Twitter, etc.