A New York teacher is under fire over his social media attacks on police – and now the school is under fire for protecting him as well. Most public servants fall under department-issued mandated social media policies. This sometimes collides with one’s 1st Amendment rights to express one’s personal views, but one’s personal right of expression and speech are sometimes sidelined when it comes to them being entrusted to serve the public as a whole.
Teacher bashes cops online, and the school is fine with it
Public servants are just that, paid employees to serve the public, all of the public, and therefore should remain apolitical, open-minded, and whose personal views both displayed while working and not working, should instill trust and confidence in who we serve.
A Long Island, New York, high school English teacher named Jeffrey Stotsky, employed by the Levittown School District, flipped out after watching a pro-Trump mob storm the Capitol. He was most outraged at Capitol Police, who were seen in several videos posing for pictures with the people rushing into the building.
Stotsky wrote, “Cop taking a selfie with a terrorist. F—k your Thin Blue Line. F—k your Blue Lives, F—k every single one of you back to elementary school who voted for him. I don’t give a flying f—k that you know a good cop.”
Community outraged at school faculty
More than 50 police officers were injured, one has reportedly tragically succumbed to their injuries, another officer was forced to use deadly force, all to protect our elected officials, and this is what a high school english teacher concludes?
Apparently parents, teachers, students and other school board members saw this public post as a problem and began to alert the school district who shortly sent out a statement authored by Dr. Tonie McDonald saying in part:
“The district has been made aware of an offensive social media post by an employee, and that sentiments expressed are not those of the district and does not align with the values of the district. The post was written on a private social media page and as with all American citizens, this employee is guaranteed the right of freedom of speech.”