Worker fired over Facebook posting

CHARLOTTE — A school employee has been fired after posting an offensive message on the social networking site Facebook, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools officials said a teacher could be next.

School system spokeswoman Nora Carr said the after-school staffer was an "at will" employee who couldn't appeal the firing. He was among seven employees disciplined because of Facebook entries, The Charlotte Observer reported Tuesday.

A teacher at Thomasboro Elementary School also could face termination after writing on her Facebook page that she was "teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte." The teacher met Monday with Superintendent Peter Gorman, who recommended that she be fired.

The teacher's attorney, John Gresham, said his client didn't intend to offend her students and was telling the truth about the resegregated school, where only 3 percent of students are white and 93 percent qualify for lunch subsidies to low-income families.

Gresham said "ghetto" is defined as a part of the city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal or economic pressure.

"I guess the question is, can you be terminated for telling the truth?" Gresham said. "Should she have said, 'I teach children at a starkly resegregated school?' "

Gresham said if the teacher is fired, she will be entitled to a hearing by a case manager and an appeal to the school board.

He said the school system also cited photos of her at a bachelorette party.

Carr, the district spokeswoman, also said a high school special-education teacher was suspended after writing on her site, "I hate my students."

Carr said four other employees have received lesser punishments for photos or comments.

School system Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh sent a memo last week to the system's more than 19,000 employees warning that postings on networking sites could cost them their jobs.