A school dispute over being "friends" with students on Facebook has cost a 79-year-old substitute teacher her longtime job, Headline News reported.
Carol Thebarge, a substitute teacher in Claremont, N.H., has been teaching at Stevens High School for the past 35 years. But a recent dispute with school administrators over making a choice between keeping her job and "unfriending" her students on Facebook landed her in deep trouble, according to CNN affiliate WMUR.
"Do we have the right as teachers, when we respect our students and our students respect us, to have that relationship?" Thebarge asked in an interview with WMUR. "I feel like mine is very safe. I have never been inappropriate."
While Thebarge's Facebook page is public, she claims to check the picture identities of her students before connecting with them online.
"The veteran teacher has been on Facebook for about five years now and says she began 'unfriending' more students when she was told to do so a couple of years ago," according to the New Hampshire Union Leader. "But Thebarge said when the students didn't take it so well and began asking 'what they did wrong,' she stopped"
"I hid my list, but then I realized I had always taught them to 'live their truth' and I unblocked, and she [the administrator] left me alone," Thebarge told the Union Leader.
"Facebook is a great way to communicate with people when you're going through stuff at home," a student, who credited "Ms. T" for being solely responsible for her graduation, told WMUR.
Even though Thebarge has been part of the community for a long time, school administrators said that rules applied to everyone and should be followed, HLN reported.
After another teacher was charged for sexual assault involving a 14-year-old two weeks ago, Thebarge was given her final ultimatum, she told the Union Leader.
But she claimed that she shouldn't be punished for someone else's mistakes.
"I'm like a grandmother to these students," Thebarge told WMUR. "That's my role. I'm like a grandmother."
