Junkie Brewster (198 posts) Sat May-29-10 09:03 PM
Original message
Atheist fired for self-identifying on internet message boards
I think this story should serve as a warning for all of us, atheist or theist alike.
Catholic School Fires Math Teacher Who May Not Believe in God
A math teacher who said in an online survey that she did not believe in God has been fired by an Iowa Catholic school after her views were discovered on her Facebook profile and after officials found she had posted a comment at an atheist website.
Last August the teacher, 27-year-old Abby Nurre, who had just been hired to teach eight-grade math at St. Edmond School in Fort Dodge, checked "no" in a Facebook survey about whether she believed in God, heaven and angels. Then in November she posted a link to a news article about federal funding of research on prayer in an online discussion forum run by atheists.
In December, five weeks after that posting, a student brought printouts of the websites to school officials, and Nurre was fired. The Catholic school, backed by the bishops of Iowa, also sought to deny Nurre unemployment benefits, which prompted a court hearing that concluded in her favor this week. She will still not be able to return to St. Edmond School, however.
She shouldn't have added any of her students as her friend, in my opinion. But what is so objectionable about this that she should be fired and potentially denied unemployment.
In the Iowa case, Nurre was confronted last December by Monsignor Kevin McCoy, head of the Sioux City diocesan school system, with evidence of her Facebook survey response and the comment she posted on Atheist Nexus.
At the meeting, Arlt said, McCoy asked Nurre point-blank if she believed in God. According to Arlt, Nurre said she did not, and that she stood by her two web postings. The teacher was suspended from her position and barred from school grounds for making "atheist statements in a public forum," according to an account in the Des Moines Register.
A few days later, the school's board fired her, saying she violated a policy that prohibits employees from advocating "principles contrary to the dogmatic and moral teaching of the church."
Nurre challenged the board's ruling in January, but it upheld the original decision.
To make matters worse for Nurre, the school and the Iowa Catholic Conference -- which is the lobbying arm of the state's four bishops -- then sought to deny Nurre's application for unemployment benefits.
I'm kind of torn on this. My company, like a lot of companies, forbids its employees from criticizing the company on line as an employee. In other words, saying "I'm Modem Butterfly and as an employee, I know for a fact that every time you buy from XYZ company a kitten dies. I would know this because, as I said, I work there," But if my company made and sold widgets and I said, "Widgets probably aren't necessary and they suck anyway," I wouldn't be terminated.
Be careful what you attach your name to on the Internet, especially if you have a minority opinion that incites prejudicial rage.
boo hoo, you.
don't you just love the internet and the willingness of those that wish to display their true intentions for all of the world to see?
oops. except when their intentions are caught by those that employ them.
i guess i should feel sorry for those types, but i don't.
and yet even as you see this kind of story again, and again and again...
another will emerge again tomorrow. dummys never learn.
i would tell them to keep their yaps shut. keep their vile crap to themselves...
but why bother? they wouldn't listen. they love to gab.
