XENIA — A Greene County school district is investigating some of its employees because of their social media posts.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, the Xenia Community Schools Board of Education gathered for a special meeting on Monday to discuss personnel matters.
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Parents who attended the meeting told News Center 7 that they wanted the district to hear their concerns; however, a public comment section was not included.
Instead, more than 50 people waited two and a half hours for an answer.
After an executive session, the board members read a statement regarding the investigation into multiple school employees for their social media posts.
“We, as the Xenia Community School Board, are against any type of violence, viewpoints that promote violence, or do not reflect the core values of Xenia Community schools. We are investigating a situation and taking all necessary steps to resolve it. This is a very difficult situation, and we are working hand in hand with our legal team,” a board member said.
The school board wouldn’t clarify how many employees were under investigation or what the posts said.
Some people were not happy with that answer.
One parent said he thinks the response seems appropriate.
“Regardless of how I feel about it, I just think that it seems like it makes sense that likely if the public system did want to terminate somebody, they would have to go through a process to determine (if) this was misconduct, or did this fall in line with free speech,” Jason Thompson said.
News Center 7’s Mason Fletcher asked Thompson if he thinks a teacher should be able to be fired for something they post on social media.
He took a minute to think before saying it’s a gray area.
“I think, again, it depends,” Thompson said.
It’s a line some think can be hard to define.
News Center 7’s Mason Fletcher talked to Cedarville University’s Senior Counsel John Hart for a legal perspective on the issue.
“People confuse, often, that the First Amendment applies to everything, and it doesn’t. It really implies as a restriction against the government restricting the free speech,” Hart said.
Hart added that any business, public or private, has the right to make employment decisions based on social media posts.
“It’s their determination, their own discretion to say, in the judgment of the employer, we’re the boss. We get to decide whether it impacts our brand or not,” Hart said.
He said a school district could have several reasons to fire a teacher based on their social media posts.
“One, certainly, the law does permit it with certain guidelines. Number two, the age of the students or the type of disruption that it would cause within the school, and thirdly, perhaps, is another factor of when is this just an isolated incident, and the emotional reaction to a specific situation, or is this a pattern in practice,” Hart said.
Hart added that even with the rise of social media, these rules have stayed the same for companies.
As for Xenia Community Schools’ decision, they couldn’t provide a timeline on the investigation.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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