The College Fix

A beloved 79-year-old New Hampshire teacher has been fired because she refused to “de-friend” her students on Facebook.

According to CBS News, Carol Thebarge, a long-time substitute teacher in Claremont, NH, is no longer employed by the local school district.

It is a violation of school policy for teachers to be “friends” with students on the social networking service. Thebarge is friends with about 250 current students.

“They gave me an ultimatum–either take them all off or you are terminated,” Thebarge told CBS News. “And I decided that I would not comply and so I was terminated. And it’s caused a firestorm across the entire area.”

At first glance, it sounds like an overreaction. Can it really be such a bad thing for a popular 79-year-old teacher to be connected to her students via social media?

On the other hand, I have to say I’m with the school on this one. In this era of seemingly endless teacher-student sex scandals, keeping appropriate boundaries between teachers and students when it comes to their private lives is prudent.

In all likelihood, Ms. Thebarge is a positive influence on her students–her online connections to them harmless, perhaps even beneficial. But it would be hard to make an exception to a policy like this merely on the basis of the teacher’s advanced age or grandmotherly rapport with students.

Plus, it’s not like the school fired her without warning. They gave the teacher an opportunity to correct the situation. And she could have explained the situation to her students before de-friending them. Or she could have simply deactivated her account.

What do you think? Was the school right to make good on its threat to fire this 79-year-old teacher?

Nathan Harden is editor of The College Fix and author of the book SEX & GOD AT YALE: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad.

Follow Nathan on Twitter @NathanHarden

(via Drudge)

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