Charlotte-Meck teachers disciplined for Facebook postings

Offensive postings on the social networking web site Facebook led the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to fire one employee and discipline seven others.

An after-school worker was fired for posting a photo of himself shirtless and listing “Chillin wit my n___as” as a favored activity.

An elementary school teacher was suspended for listing “drinking” as a hobby and “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte” under activities.

Her attorney, John Gresham, said she was merely being factual. Only 3% white, the school where she teaches meets the dictionary definition of ghetto, Gresham told The Charlotte Observer. “I guess the question is, can you be terminated for telling the truth?” Gresham said. “Should she have said, ‘I teach children at a starkly resegregated school’?”

The district suspended a high school special education teacher for writing “I’m feeling pissed because I hate my students!” CMS Chief Communication Officer Nora Carr told the Observer that the teacher would likely lose her job after a hearing.

Carr said she found it “mind boggling” that the employees deliberately opened their pages to public access and identified CMS as their employer.

CMS Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh wrote a memo to the district’s 19,000 employees reminding them that public postings, even if made on personal time, could jeopardize their jobs and diminish their professional reputations with parents, students and colleagues.