This morning, a snippet of a blog post from a middle school secretary was among my Google Alerts. I clicked on it but was unable to open it--the blog was locked. Other people saw the post before the blog was locked and what they found was appalling. A middle school secretary in Northern California had read the medical and other records for an incoming peanut allergic student. She provides details from the student's records in her blog and also shares her less than sympathetic views about the student's allergy. As a parent of a food allergic child, it's incredibly disturbing to read her blog post. I think, however, it is important to be aware of the different attitudes that exist.
Gina Clowes (www.allergymoms.com) with some assistance from a friend was able to contact the school district where the secretary is employed. From what I understand, the school district has been notified of the secretary's blog and activities. Way to go, Gina! You can learn more about this story on Gina's Allergy Moms blog, over on Food Allergy Support (http://www.foodallergysupport.org), and also on Debra Legg's fantastic blog, 9 to 5 to 9. According to the folks over at Food Allergy Support, Debra is the one who actually broke this story! Great job, Debra! Life really is stranger than fiction...
Gina Clowes (www.allergymoms.com) with some assistance from a friend was able to contact the school district where the secretary is employed. From what I understand, the school district has been notified of the secretary's blog and activities. Way to go, Gina! You can learn more about this story on Gina's Allergy Moms blog, over on Food Allergy Support (http://www.foodallergysupport.org), and also on Debra Legg's fantastic blog, 9 to 5 to 9. According to the folks over at Food Allergy Support, Debra is the one who actually broke this story! Great job, Debra! Life really is stranger than fiction...
6 comments:
Thanks for sharing this article to us. I'm also allergic to some foods like crabs and prawns, and the blogs you've mentioned are really helpful. Nice job!
"that wacky fad, the death peanut"---this woman should be fired IMMEDIATELY. But let this serve as a warning to all of us out there, there are a lot of unsympathetic school staff and you need to be prepared to deal with them.
Ugh. What an undereducated, bitter mess that woman is.
On my way over to Gina's to read....
Our school is going peanut free (finally!) in the fall. I can't wait to hear the fallout.
There is a response stating that she didn't mean it, that it was for a blog writing class and I really hope that is true.
I have mixed feelings on this. Her opinion, if true, is awful, hideous, unforgivable and should be looked into. BUT, the blog was a personal blog and I'd hate to see anyone get fired for a personal blog (unless it was totally lewd toward children...). There is a thing such as freedom of speech and even though YOU KNOW I totally don't agree with what she said (and I couldn't see the whole thing, so if she personally threatened a child that's different) I have to say that firing her for this would not be my first choice. I know, you're shocked aren't you? I'm usually first in line ready to beat them down, but I wouldn't want to get fired over something I said on my personal blog. Just my 2 cents, and believe me, it's not worth even that.
Thanks, everyone, for your comments. If anyone is interested, you can see all of the posts (I think all of them!) by subscribing to the feed for the middle school secretary's blog.
Just to clarify for those who did not read the original post from the "secretary"--as a freelance writer, blogger and political liberal I'm all for freedom of speech on a personal blog. You betcha! :) However, this secretary was not posting about her girls gone wild moment in Cancun or airing her views on Sarah Palin. No, she violated the law by sharing a student's personal medical info on the Internet. This is not only unethical but it is also illegal.
That's my first problem with her. The second thing: what she did amounts to cyberbullying. It is crucial that this is not tolerated, especially in the middle school or high school years because kids will single out those with differences, sometimes in cruel ways. Add life-threatening peanut allergy to the mix and you may end up with a dangerous situation.
Thirdly, when you become a "middle school secretary" you enter a tacit agreement to protect the rights and privacy of all students. How could this student feel safe attending school when the school staff are publishing tracts against him on the Internet? Clearly this person violated a basic code of ethics. Consider if this blog were posted by another student. They'd likely be expelled. I feel a school staff member should be held up to even greater scrutiny.
In these tough economic times,I do not want anyone fired unfairly but in this person's case -- if it's even true, now, supposedly, this blog was written for a "class assignment" which is even more pathetic--firing would be an appropriate step.
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