Normally, I would not respond to such articles but in my opinion the actions of the school went too far. However, anyone posting to MySpace shows a decided lack of good taste. How many of the school's administration engaged in under-age drinking and illegal drug use? If the school administration is going to start citing morals as grounds for granting or withholding an earned degree, there are a lot of people who should loose there earned degrees. Politicians, law enforcement officers, public servants (though they prefer to think of themselves as masters of the public), clergy, lawyers/attorneys/barristers, teachers at public and private schools including elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, particularly if these lapses in moral behavior transpired prior to their graduation/convocation. Had the individual in question had a photograph of herself, whilst employed as a school teacher, consuming alcohol at a party attended by minors, then I could see there being some grounds for rescinding her teaching certificate and/or education degree. But even then under exceptional circumstances. Criminals can earn education degrees while incarcerated, though they might never be able to teach due to a criminal record.
Notice what the college did. They did not revoke Stacy Snyder's degree, they just retroactively changed what the degree is in, from Education to English. That seems really strange to me. "Because you rather stupidly posted a picture of yourself 18 months ago, we are changing the subject of your degree so you won't be able to teach." What a precedent. When a 25-year-old with a mechanical engineering degree is seen drinking, will his alma mater change his degree from engineering to dairy science, so he can't get licensed as an engineer.
I don't understand how she was encouraging under age drinking? She was well over 21. From the little information given, it appears that she'll win her lawsuit.
And was she even drinking alcohol? The cup she's using didn't give a clue, and the caption could just be a joke. The school really over-reached on this one.
If Millersville University is going to revoke education degrees for students who are drinking in public - there's going to be a teacher shortage.
I just keep thinking that there has to be more to this than the little bit that is in the article. It doesn't make sense.
UF's college of education recently made all their graduate students attend a seminar on "How not to present yourself on MySpace", or something along those lines.
I'm sure there are stories out there, but I've heard of very few positive things that have come out of MySpace pages.
According to the discussion forum on the Chronicle's site, the school where this person was student teaching brought the page to the university's attention and demanded that she be punished. If this is true... I can understand how that might have an effect on underage drinking. At least some of her students have probably Googled her once or twice. If she's supposed to be setting an example for the younger generation, then that picture with that caption doesn't present the best image. True, we don't know that she was drinking alcohol, and she's of legal age, but she also works directly with children who probably have some curiosity about their teacher and her life outside of school, and the caption alone is enough to suggest that she might not have lemonade in the cup. In that case, I can understand that the school wants her to be reprimanded. How about a simple "revise the page, take off the picture and the caption, and be a little smarter about what you post about yourself on the Internet"? If it's caused too much of a stir already, have her do some presentations at the school on the dangers of underage drinking, drinking and driving, or alcohol in general. There's a whole continuum of appropriate punishments that could be explored. I think the college's response bypasses "appropriate punishments" and enters the other end of the continuum, somewhere around "she did something dumb, so we're going to enact the most severe and inappropriate punishment we can possibly imagine - we may be an institution of learning but we don't allow our students to make mistakes". Sure, the student could use a lesson in professionalism and common sense, but it doesn't appear that the college's administration has the ability to teach it.
