Ashley Payne Georgia School Teacher Fired for Photos on Facebook

Her facebook is private. No students saw the pictures. Now everyone has seen them.

I don't see how you can fire someone for doing nothing illegal and nothing that had to do with job performance. It is insane what they hold teachers to now. They are damn adults people –– they do have a life.

How the hell is that a "tough one" anyway? These newscasters are morons!

this is such bullshit.

I would sue the school AND Facebook.

While I don't believe she should have been fired, I do believe when you have a career/job you represent a company or business to a certain degree. She represents the educational system of this country to some degree, and as such, her actions both in and out of school are reflected upon her occupation and her company (school district.) Being that she interacts with youths for a living, and alcohol is pretty hazardous to brain development before the age of 20 or so (that's why we have laws at 21 when you can die for your country at 17,) I think some form of disciplinary actions (short of termination) would be appropriate....maybe just a stern warning.

Facebook accounts do not need to be hacked in order to see her "private" photos. You simply need to be a Facebook "friend" with one of her "friends" on her account to see them. If your buddy was "friends" with her and commented on one of her photos, you could access her photos though your buddies comments. It appalls me how often I am able to access "private" photo albums on that site...the same albums of people whose profiles I am blocked from accessing, but whose photos I am not. Try it. I see "private" photos like this at least once a week.

I promise I am not trolling with these comments, but while drinking is a perfectly legal thing to do for adults, any adult who works with children and publicizes their practices of drinking, however casual and responsible, will come under some form of public scrutiny in this country. I know she probably thought she was protected as such with a private profile, but the fact of the matter is she wasn't. All a student (and they, as a whole, know way more about Facebook than I do)...all a student needs to do is be friends with an acquaintance of hers to view those photos. Sure it is a longshot, but given the possibility of a student coming across, say, a photo of her sipping on an alcoholic beverage, in this society, in this day and age, that is pretty much considered inappropriate. Once again, I do not believe she should have been fired, but when you have a job such as hers and you desire to have an online, social life, I do believe it is 100% up to you to make sure you are protecting yourself. Just as you can't offer a ride home to a student walking in the rain anymore due to sue happy individuals in this country, you have to be diligent in protecting yourself in other manners. I do feel and have empathy for her, but I do feel as a grown ass woman, she needs to draw the line somewhere....we all do. If she was teaching my 14 year-old child who thought she was just the bee's knees and such a "cool, young" teacher, I would no doubt have issue with my kid stumbling upon those photos. I am aware how seemingly inane this may seem to some, but that's the country we live in. To be a success you either need to be a damn good anarchist or play by the rules...and the rules are not always black and white.

I hope she sues the hell out of those backwards retarded hicks!

lol....STUPID!!!!!!!
If I uploaded my photos to a web site hosted network drive (photobucket) and made it private and you had to get my permission to view them....how is that different from having the photos in a physical folder in my house? They are both private. A mass of information is hosted online. If she had made them public...then I could see the school reacting.

It's Georgia. 'Nough said.

wow, because a "free" individual wants to have her own life in private on vacation does not mean she is unable to properly uphold her job as a teacher. bullshit!!!

LOL @ the male announcer at the end... "just dont."

That's a real shame. It's not like she was doing something against the law.
Suwanee@Etsy

What do you wanna bet that somebody in that system had an ax to grind that had nothing to do with ol' girl's educational image? I promise you that this had nothing to do with teaching or employee decorum.

She needs to sue!

I don't know which are the bigger fascists, the school admin or the 2 complacent news anchors.

Goddam the U.S. can be uptight...! In the the words of David Cross, "Are we a nation of FOUR-year-olds?!"

Who gives a shit? Lots of people drink, and she a teacher, its not like shes a priest or something.

Are you kidding me!!! Where in Georgia is this? near KKK headquarters? My God, she drank in Europe. Unbeleivable.

What kinda town is that ? WOW I am glad i don't live there , she should move !

Does Deliverance come to mind.

And in other Georgia news, a teacher has been arrested in Clayton County for terroristic threats. He tried to hire one student to kill another. But HE'S on administrative leave, not fired.

Yeah completly unfair and not right, BUT my good friend is an asst principle and my sister is a high school teacher. And guess what, they're not on facebook! I think you give that up when you get the job for that exact reason. especially living in georgia.

It might be a mixed blessing for her. Teaching can be a very draining and unrewarding profession at times. Hopefully she will be on to better things.

not fair!!

wha people dont think teachers drink? its not like shes a nun!

If it happened to me, I would also file a lawsuit. I hope she wins.

...She wasn't doing anything illegal. And she was doing it in her freetime, not at school. Therefore the law is on her side.

Come one people, this isn't hard.

The teacher's union is absolutely USELESS.
I'm so sorry Ashley.

What most likely happened is that she was sabotaged by another teacher. It almost happened to me, but I didn't have anything that would have warranted being fired.

She shouldn't be teaching young boys. Its hard enough doing school work when they have an average looking teacher.

No, it's not a tough one. . . WTF is wrong with people. . .

This is just another case of politics playing an inappropriate roll in education. Taking the side of the parents and not their own teacher! Perhaps we should hold the administrators responsibe for hiring "rogue" teachers...how many administrators would be out of a job for "bad" judgement?

which "B" word?? Bitch, Bollocks, BULLSHIT???

Im calling shenanigans!!!!! She better win big on this lawsuit!!!!

she didnt do anything illegal, thats really unfair! shes a normal adult doing what normal adults do on a european vacation... im sure a lot of the students have pictures of them drinking on their facebook as well.

Welcome to the new prohibition, Georgia style.

that definitely could have been the case this time, but I always am told to beware of employers looking at your facebook page and I just don't think that a friend would share your page with your supervisor, especially for potential hiring purposes

how do employers hack into your facebook and twitter accounts if they are private? they make it sounds so common!

Why do we put these people onto pedestals when they graduate from college with the same BAs everyone else does? Seriously, it's not like they have to take some test to be sainted before becoming a teacher.

Let's all just hide in the living room, wearing seven layers of clothing and sipping filtered holy water.

I'm tellin ya, everything crazy happens in gawgah.

That's MESSED UP. Her page was set to private. All that junk the news anchors are saying at the end about potential employers seeing her photos and all that... That couldn't happen. It's PRIVATE. She didn't "add" students or strangers. She didn't do anything inappropriate, as far as I'm concerned. If she had "the 'B' word" on her page and it was public, that MIGHT be a different story. I certainly hope she gets some justice here. This is ridiculous.

Sounds like she was pressured into quiting over nothing. Come on she's an adult doing normal things in a public place. How petty.

What the Frig,shit she can't have pictures of her with a beer or wine! What the hell.What a bunch of shit.