posted by: Kristina Chew
Not only did someone impersonate a Bay District (FL) Schools middle teacher by creating a Twitter account in her name complete with her photo and hometown. The person used the Twitter account to post "derogatory comments" about autistic students. The teacher is a special education teacher was "unaware of what was going on and was mortified when she found out about the details surrounding the identity theft and Twitter posts," says EdWeek.
Superintendent Bill Husfelt said that, on Tuesday, the school district started to receive complaints via email as well as calls to fire on the teacher and not only from Florida, but from California and Australia.
Noting that the teacher has worked for the district for two and a half years "with no personnel issues," Husfelt said:
"It's pretty obvious to us it's an identity theft thing and she'd been set up."
"She's just a good teacher, a hard-working teacher."
Husfelt describes the comments as "terrible, vile remarks regarding autistic children." After he and other school officials read them, they notified the teacher and asked her to bring in her laptop for proof; based on speaking to the teacher, the district did not think she had written the comments. Computer technicians examined the hard drive of the teacher's laptop and "determined the Twitter account in question did not belong to her."
The Bay County Sheriff's office is investigating the incident, says WJHG.
One can only imagine what the teacher must have been feeling as her laptop was being checked. Not only her job but her career as a teacher, and a teacher of special education, were on the line. Husfelt describes what happened as "beyond a bad joke" and I more than agree. Whoever created the bogus Twitter account and sent out those comments via Twitter has a lot, a very lot, to learn.
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