Johnny Cook is not just a Georgia bus driver but a father. It was perhaps the later status that led Cook to voice a concern on Facebook over children who were going hungry at Haralson County Schools. He posted a comment on Facebook after learning that a sixth-grade student was denied lunch because he was 40 cents short to buy lunch. Cook wrote on Facebook “This child is already on reduced lunch and we can’t let him eat. Are you kidding me? … The next time we can’t feed a kid for forty cent, please call me. We will scrape up the money.” That was posted on May 21. On May 23 he was fired by Superintendent Brett Stanton (left).
Superintendent Brett Stanton insists that Cook had to go because he violated the school’s social media policy that warns staff members “who post or contribute any comment or content on social networking sites that causes a substantial disruption” in the school are subject to termination. Stanton considers voicing concern over a child going hungry is a “substantial disruption” of his school system.
Stanton also insists that he has looked at surveillance videotapes and does not believe the child ever went through the line. The child however wrote a letter insisting that it did happen: “I sat at a table with no lunch while other children ate lunch. … No one offered to pay for my lunch and no one offered me a sandwich or a banana or apple.” Other parents say it is Stanton and the school which is lying and that they have seen this occurred with other children.
In the end, the veracity of the child is not important. It is the policy, and its interpretation, that needs to be addressed. I fail to see why public employees cannot voice objections of the treatment of children without being fired for causing a “substantial disruption.” If a single Facebook posting meets that definition, I cannot imagine what would not do so. It is all part of this growing authoritarian environment in our schools from zero tolerance rules to monitoring the private conduct of teachers.
Source: CBS
We need some musicians to put some of the recent events into perspective. Can Bob Dylan come out of retirement and sing something about answers which blow in the wind?
A “whistleblower” is a person protected by the civil rights act. A whistleblower is petitioning the government for redress of grievances. He is exercising his First Amendment rights of free speech and in certain cases his right to assemble with others to exercise free speech or to petition the government or the People as a whole to redress grievances of a public nature. Snowden, for example, was addressing issues of a public nature. The school cook here was doing the same. This whistleblowing is important and though our Framers of the First Amendment and the Framers after the Civil War in the Reconstruction Period who framed the 14th Amendment, did not use the term “whistleblower”, this is exactly the individual they were determined to protect.
You do not need to be named Ellsberg to know which way the wind blows. Soon it will be blowing in favor of the whistleblowers and the likes of Feinstein, Boner, Al Frankin, and Jeffrey “The Cheater” Toobin will be thought of by the majority of Americans as old artFays, dumbschmucks, mis guided, or scumbags
Brett Stanton should be made to skip more than a few meals, (along with the dim bulbs who appointed him.) His callous disregard is a preview of how heartless schools will become if con. governors like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and the like are able to shove privatization down our throats.
Let us posit the problem in some legal terms which will get the attention of the Superintendent who is a “state actor” who has violated the First Amendment right of the fired employee to petition his government for redress of grievances and to freely express himself and to exercise his right to participate in a “Free Press” which is what Facebook is. He sues the Superintendent as a state actor for violating his civil rights, protected under the constitution and protected by a certain statute which Congress was authorized under the 14th Amendment to pass to secure those liberty interests. The civil rights act is found at 42 Untied States Code, Section 1983. Section 1985 allows suits against co conspirators and Section 1988 grants the successful plaintiff the right to receive attorney fees in addition to damages for actual losses or punitive damages. He can get declaratory judgment relief and an injunction to put him back on the job.
If he had a BarkinDog for a lawyer down there in Pin Head, Georgia, the lawsuit would have been filed and we would be in the hearing for the injunction in a federal court today.
Dan,
Well said
“This comment would also admirably fit in with the current dehumanizing attacks on Snowden. ….. I am starting to look at our elected Representatives as bureaucrats. Gerrymandering has turned many districts into a lifetime guaranteed job.”
This goes right to the heart of the matter. We often criticize “bureaucrats” but that is the wrong terminology. Bureaucrats and civil servants are ordinary people (like the bus driver). Politicians and appointees are the ones who hold power and make decisions. I don’t know, but I suspect that the Superintendent is high enough to be an appointee, nominated and confirmed by politicians. And thus serving their interests.
Dan,
You’re correct, there needs to be a distiction made about the term bureaucrat, which I didn’t make and I was one. To me as a civil servant bureaucrat was an epithet for those among us who eere rigid, or who rose in the prganizatipn through “toadying”, or political cpnnections. Using the term among non civil servants conveys a wrong message. Most civil servants are dedicated workers, who are underpaid. They sre resented by politicians who would prefer to be able to reward followers with jobs. That is why civil service was set up in the first place, to stop governmental services from being controlled by a corrupt spoils system. Thank you for pointing this out and correcting me.
Methinks the school administration fails to understand the power of social media. My guess is the super is also unaware of the Streisand Effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Ditto what Mike S said…
Johnny Cook is just another whistleblower being hung out to dry. Meet the same boos, same as the old boss. Over and out.
Mike Spindell,
“the ability of a bureaucrat to take negative actions to save face and then justify it in terms of serving “vital” regulations is unlimited”
This comment would also admirably fit in with the current dehumanizing attacks on Snowden. ….. I am starting to look at our elected Representatives as bureaucrats. Gerrymandering has turned many districts into a lifetime guaranteed job.
A lack of good judgment goes a long ways.
I suppose the bus driver can be thankful that the school district didn’t have him arrested for exposing school secrets.
“voicing concern over a child going hungry is a “substantial disruption” of his school system. ”
I would hope so. A substantial disruption should result in change to the policy or practice, the shooting of the messenger. In this case, it’s the administrator who should be fired and the bus driver should get his job back with a raise, or the bus driver should prevail in a wrongful termination lawsuit.
I have to wonder what administrators are being taught.
As a former bureaucrat I can assure you that the ability of a bureaucrat to take negative actions to save face and then justify it in terms of serving “vital” regulations is unlimited. Bureaucracy, like corporate life tends to reward the liars and the self-servers. The school district was embarrassed by the bus driver revealing the truth about their lunch program and so he needed to go.
Fire the super and give the bus driver his job back.
It’s the great equalizer.
Authority HATES social media, be it Iranian dictators or educational bureaucrats.
Does this Superintendent “earn” a six-figure income? lol
No ‘Good Deed’ goes unpunished………….
The school’s claim of substantial disruption is baseless. I can not see any reason for the dismissal other than it was retaliation for an employee who exposed something the school administration considered embarassing.