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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Barrow teacher done in by anonymous “parent” e-mail about her Facebook page | Get Schooled


Barrow teacher done in by anonymous “parent” e-mail about her Facebook page Get Schooled:

"I have spent a good part of this week working on the story about Barrow County teacher Ashley Payne. Payne resigned – under pressure, she alleges — after her principal said she was going to be suspended for her Facebook postings of photos with alcohol and her use of the word “bitch.” She is now suing the system. (See earlier posting on this for more background.)

Payne posted that she was headed out to play Crazy Bitch Bingo, a popular game played weekly at Joe’s On Juniper in Atlanta.

Her photos are just standard tourist shots of Payne on vacation in Europe, sitting at pubs and beer gardens. Of 700 vacation photos, 10 had alcohol in them.

Somehow, the principal told Payne that a student had seen her Facebook page. I asked several times this week for Barrow to explain to me how it learned that a student saw the page since Payne says her buddy list does not include any parents or students. It does include fellow teachers.

Barrow officials told me a parent had brought the information to the superintendent’s attention, but the district would not release the parent’s name."