Teacher forced to resign over inappropriate pics on her phone. Something is just wrong here

[Allons-y!]

I don't understand why some people seem to be trying to make this an either-or scenario. I think they were both wrong, although I believe the student was criminally wrong and while her actions were dumb I don't think she should be fired.

The student should have charges filed against him and the teacher was incredibly stupid to leave her phone accessible and unlocked. (And no, I don't buy the suggestion that maybe her phone doesn't lock right away. Even if that's the case, she would know that and should have taken that into account.)

Yes, RitaE, most schools strictly forbid any access to phones for students...
I have heard, first hand accounts, of teachers who sit in their classrooms on their phones, even playing little electronic games.
Some leave the classroom go to the break room or cafeteria, come back with food, and spend a significant amount of time sitting in the classrooom with students, messing around on their phone and snacking.

And I've heard of parents who micromanage their kids and post mortifying questions about them on message boards. That doesn't mean every parent is like that, any more than your anecdotal stories about teachers playing on their phones reflects all teachers, including the one in the article.

 

[declansdad]

Sure, I would too!!!!
To take something and distribute it, without express permission is a criminal act.
I have never thought that kid should be let off the hook.

But, it still stands that I agree with MM and a few others here.

I, just personally, have little sympathy for this woman.

I didn't expect you to.

 

[Wishing on a star]

I was responding to the post just above which did specifically mention that there are schools where teachers phone use IS restricted, and why.
But, hate away... quote a poster you think you don't like and try to derail the thread.
Whatever...

I don't think anyone here has been suggesting that this teacher was slacking off by sitting there on her device.
I certainly haven't.

There has been absolutely nothing here to bring up the parent-vs-teacher arguments.
Nobody here has made any big negative general statements about 'parents' or 'teachers'.
Any thinly veiled accusation that I am a parent who micro-manages would be completely and totally untrue and unwarranted.

Perhaps we might continue to discuss the valid issues here regarding cellphones and this incident.

 

[Wishing on a star]

Good grief, another one just came in.
WOW, I must be very very popular with my 'haters' today!!!
Always good to know.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

Most of these kids can readily and easily access any kind of porn from their own phones or home computers. I wouldn't call nude personal pictures of a person's body porn.

How many kids go to art galleries, museums, and such and see nude pictures and statues? Is this "porn" too?

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

There was an article that said she didn't have a pass code or anything.

I think "pornography" is not really applicable, racy might be more of an appropriate term. I believe she had a reasonable expectation of privacy. She was careless, yes. To be more or less fired (what did they say resign now or go through the termination process?) is punishing the victim.

I know of an incident personally where a student went through the address book of a teacher's phone and wrote down like all the numbers of school related people and was prank calling them. There were several angry people over this, but not a fallout or anything. This was a teacher who was dumb.... err trusting enough to let a kid borrow her phone and left the kid unsupervised with it.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My phone doesn't 'time out' immediately; it takes like a minute or two of being idle before it does that - can't remember what I put the setting at.

I don't know what kind of phone you have, but if you have an iPhone, and I imagine other phones do this too, you just click on the "Off" button when you're done using it, and there's no lag time waiting for it to turn off - it turns of right away. Just FYI. I didn't realize it for a long time myself until my DD showed me, now I do it automatically.

 

[loves to dive]

I have a partial nude photo of my honey on my phone right now. He got a bug bite on his, ahem nether area, while cutting grass. How this happened I don't know, I'm assuming he was not out on the riding mower nude, wouldn't that hurt a man? Anyway, said bite was hurting and swelling and it needed to be diagnosed. He wanted me to look at it but since I can't see squat, he said take a picture of it and let me look at it. My phone was closer than his (and I don't know how to operate his) so I snapped a picture. I haven't erased it yet, because, well I don't know, just haven't gotten around to it. It is sitting on my desk right now, when I get up to go to the bathroom it's entirely possible any one of my co-workers can come in my office pick it up, scroll through my screens, find the photo ap, scroll through the wonderful pictures of my dog, the sink we are thinking of buying, the snow coming down, the picture of honey and the dog sleeping, my tea last time I was at WDW and get to the picture of my honey's nether area. We have a line in our handbook about porn. OMG, I'm going to get fired now for sure. I think I'll go through all the above steps right now and delete that picture, he didn't die from the bug bite so we don't need to keep it.

While I am being a little silly, the same thing could be said for the teacher. Who knows where in her album the pictures were and the article said the little darling took a picture of her picture, seriously the kid went through a lot of trouble here. I wear a bikini when I dive, I'm old, I'm sure there are pictures of me in that bikini, heaven knows they could be all over the internet since I dive internationally. If her pictures were partially nude they probably didn't show any more than a bikini would. Was she smart in leaving the phone out where it could be picked up by anyone, nope. Should she be punished, probably should get some sort of suspension or something in her file. Should she be made to resign, no. These are high school students, seeing someone partially nude shouldn't be that shocking to them. Should the little darling be punished, you bet ya. If he were my kid, he wouldn't see the light of day until he was well into his 20s.

 

[nkereina]

The teacher didn't have porn on her phone. I disagree with the folks who said she should not have brought it into the classroom in the first place. Its not as if she has printed 8x10s in her purse that they found. It was one photo in an app on her phone where she has a reasonable expectation that no one will go viewing without her permission. Why should she take steps to further conceal or remove the photo on her own private personal cell phone? Should she delete all her emails every time too? Where does it end? She did not do anything wrong by having it on her personal cell phone. From a morality perspective of sending nude photos, thats a different debate entirely.

I can't fault the school, though, for asking her to resign. There's no good resolution here. The students will likely not take her seriously and/or she will be the talk of the school. It puts the other faculty members in a weird spot who may overhear students talking about it. Parents are probably miffed that this went on at school. I think the school was trying to play it safe by cutting the ties, as unfortunate as it is. The kid should most definitely be disciplined as well.

 

[morgan98]

It is very possible that I am just grumpy today, but this story is ridiculous in my opinion. Was it the brightest idea for the teacher to have those almost nude pictures on her unlocked phone? Probably not. However, it is also possible that she really did not think about it. I mean perhaps it was only a few photos out of a hundred, or whatever.

However, the student is really the one who should be paying the price. If I read the article correctly, these kids were 16. Sorry, at 16 you should have learned long ago to not touch what is not yours and what stealing means. In addition (again I am not condoning almost nude pictures), 16 year olds are not like innocent 5 year olds who may be shocked by seeing nudity. So, I do not really feel too bad in terms of the poor student seeing something that will scar them for life.

I continue to be shocked an amazed at how we do not hold people accountable for their own actions. Do not touch what is not yours and none of this would have happened.

 

[RedAngie]

Student should definitely be punished; at most teacher should just have received a reprimand.

Omg! Is anyone else thinking about some of their past teachers and seeing them naked!?! (shudder)

.

How about thinking about your current teachers naked?

I attended this high school.



During my senior year, this soft core film was released and played in theatres.





Yep, we had lots of fun fantasizing which students and teachers may have been in it, creating all kinds of twisted scenarios.

 

[Kitty 34]

Most of these kids can readily and easily access any kind of porn from their own phones or home computers. I wouldn't call nude personal pictures of a person's body porn.

How many kids go to art galleries, museums, and such and see nude pictures and statues? Is this "porn" too?

Agree. Probably why so many young men back in my earlier teaching days loved the National Geographic magazines!!!

 

[smiths02]

Most of these kids can readily and easily access any kind of porn from their own phones or home computers. I wouldn't call nude personal pictures of a person's body porn.

How many kids go to art galleries, museums, and such and see nude pictures and statues? Is this "porn" too?

They were semi-nude pictures meant to excite the teacher's husband, it wasn't exactly seeing Michelangelo's David or a picture of her doing laps at the pool or a medical picture she was sending her doctor

I don't know that she should have been forced to resign, but it wasn't a great move on her part. Heck, my DH took a picture of me coming out the shower or something once and I sat there and watched as he deleted it from his phone.

 

[JJZMgailey]

I don't know what kind of phone you have, but if you have an iPhone, and I imagine other phones do this too, you just click on the "Off" button when you're done using it, and there's no lag time waiting for it to turn off - it turns of right away. Just FYI. I didn't realize it for a long time myself until my DD showed me, now I do it automatically.

I do have an iPhone and I use the off button on the top-right all the time. But here's the thing...if you don't use that all the time because you don't know about it and you just set your phone down on your desk, it does not time out automatically and immediately. That was the point I was trying to make in my original post. I'm thinking that pic was not the first thing on her mind. Heck, if she's anything like me, she probably already forgot about it! I'd forget what I had for dinner last night if it weren't for the leftovers in the fridge! LOL

I have a partial nude photo of my honey on my phone right now. He got a bug bite on his, ahem nether area, while cutting grass. How this happened I don't know, I'm assuming he was not out on the riding mower nude, wouldn't that hurt a man? Anyway, said bite was hurting and swelling and it needed to be diagnosed. He wanted me to look at it but since I can't see squat, he said take a picture of it and let me look at it. My phone was closer than his (and I don't know how to operate his) so I snapped a picture. I haven't erased it yet, because, well I don't know, just haven't gotten around to it. It is sitting on my desk right now, when I get up to go to the bathroom it's entirely possible any one of my co-workers can come in my office pick it up, scroll through my screens, find the photo ap, scroll through the wonderful pictures of my dog, the sink we are thinking of buying, the snow coming down, the picture of honey and the dog sleeping, my tea last time I was at WDW and get to the picture of my honey's nether area. We have a line in our handbook about porn. OMG, I'm going to get fired now for sure. I think I'll go through all the above steps right now and delete that picture, he didn't die from the bug bite so we don't need to keep it.

While I am being a little silly, the same thing could be said for the teacher. Who knows where in her album the pictures were and the article said the little darling took a picture of her picture, seriously the kid went through a lot of trouble here. I wear a bikini when I dive, I'm old, I'm sure there are pictures of me in that bikini, heaven knows they could be all over the internet since I dive internationally. If her pictures were partially nude they probably didn't show any more than a bikini would. Was she smart in leaving the phone out where it could be picked up by anyone, nope. Should she be punished, probably should get some sort of suspension or something in her file. Should she be made to resign, no. These are high school students, seeing someone partially nude shouldn't be that shocking to them. Should the little darling be punished, you bet ya. If he were my kid, he wouldn't see the light of day until he was well into his 20s.

Is there a *love* button on this thing? I couldn't agree more!

 

[smiths02]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-teacher-leigh-anne-arthur-resigns-nude-pictures/

Reading this story, I'm wondering if all the facts are or were straight when the school asked her to resign. In terms of whether she voluntarily showed those pictures to the student or her phone was stolen. Because the school said something about contributing to delinquency of a minor.

If the case is exactly as teacher said, she should not be fired. Kid should be punished. All staff at those schools should get a training on securing their phones and not having pictures like that on technology they bring to school.

 

[kaytieeldr]

To take something and distribute it, without express permission is a criminal act.

He didn't distribute her pictures. He took pictures of her pictures - that he had to go deep into her phone to find - and distributed his pictures from his phone.

 

[declansdad]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-carolina-teacher-leigh-anne-arthur-resigns-nude-pictures/

Reading this story, I'm wondering if all the facts are or were straight when the school asked her to resign. In terms of whether she voluntarily showed those pictures to the student or her phone was stolen. Because the school said something about contributing to delinquency of a minor.

If the case is exactly as teacher said, she should not be fired. Kid should be punished. All staff at those schools should get a training on securing their phones and not having pictures like that on technology they bring to school.

You may want to read the article again, there is nothing different in what she said in this story or in the OPs story. The superintendent is just trying to deflect and cover his butt. He said:

Superintendent David Eubanks told WSPA the school was concerned that Arthur could be contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Could being the key word.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

They were semi-nude pictures meant to excite the teacher's husband, it wasn't exactly seeing Michelangelo's David or a picture of her doing laps at the pool or a medical picture she was sending her doctor

I don't know that she should have been forced to resign, but it wasn't a great move on her part. Heck, my DH took a picture of me coming out the shower or something once and I sat there and watched as he deleted it from his phone.

Oh there are pictures and statues in art galleries meant to excite.

You may not want your picture taken in that way but obviously the teacher had no such issues with it. Different strokes.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I didn't expect you to.

But, hate away.

Being aware of or predicting how someone will react to a topic based on experience isn't hate. Or 'hate'.

Good grief, another one just came in.
WOW, I must be very very popular with my 'haters' today!!!

Interesting, if egotistical, interpretation of - what coming in? There's no hate button on this forum

Is there a *love* button on this thing? I couldn't agree more!

Um, wouldn't you be the go-to person to get that created ?

 

[kaytieeldr]

Oh there are pictures and statues in art galleries meant to excite.

You may not want your picture taken in that way but obviously the teacher had no such issues with it. Different strokes.

I think 'strokes' could be interpreted as a semi-pornographic term, potentially intended to excite