Recently in my hometown, the town’s Youth Advocate has come under scrutiny. This is a man who, for the past 24 years has seen children – mostly middle school and high school students through tremendously difficult times. He has provided counseling and served as a calming factor for students in the wake of deaths, suicides, car accidents, family difficulties – and even a stabbing death that occurred in the high school, in addition to helping students cope with the everyday issues of adolescence. He has served on committees, promoted awareness of all sorts and extolled altruistic values.
Money has been tight in town over the past couple of years, due in part to an accident that left a police officer paralyzed with the town responsible for the continuing medical bills. The problem is that instead of raising taxes to pay for the additional costs, the townspeople decided to take the money from the schools instead. This resulted in the closing and subsequent combining of elementary schools and laying-off teachers. During this time, the purpose of the youth advocate came into question -after all, if they laid him off, they could recoup his $68,000 a year salary – his job is still targeted for elimination due to budget cuts.
Fast forward to last week -controversy erupted when pictures from the youth advocate’s youth group’s trip to the beach were posted on his website. Mind you, waivers were signed by all children and parents to allow these pictures to be posted. Opponents of the youth advocate argue that the pictures are inappropriate, “the photographs depicted youths, all of them clothed, at the beach, participating in games and activities and showing off fake tattoos and striking model-like poses” (The Standard Times). Yet, the youth advocate defended the pictures stating, “The photos were always meant to promote a sense of belonging and community among the young people who attend our programs". The youth advocate was also criticized for having a nude picture of his one-year-old grandson on his blog, which he took down upon request.
Perhaps because I know this man, his daughters and his grandchildren I am more outraged by this than I should be. I have pictures of my kids in the bathtub on my facebook page – will I be accused of being inappropriate when I begin teaching? Is this better or worse than photos of teachers drinking? I cannot help but believe that this is just another attempt/excuse to fire a man to save some money. Thoughts?
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2 comments:
Because I am preparing a presentation with the subject of personal freedom for teachers, I feel the need to say the pictures of teachers drinking are MUCH more innocuous than people would think.
Copy and paste this and tell me:
http://www.iconocast.com/EB000000000000075/S2/News1_1.jpg
Can you see the alcohol?
Does she appear obviously drunk?
Nope.
As far as posting pictures of naked children online... some of that depends what all is shown, in my opinion. It sounds like the media/town is using the naked blog photo as a point in making a case to dismiss the Youth Advocate... "showing cause" so to speak. I DO think that it is wiser to keep these kinds of pictures off of the internet and err on the side of caution. If a teacher IS brought to trial for the pictures being posted, whether or not they are central to the case, the photos may be presented as evidence in open court... which brings to mind, would you want the WHOLE public, pedophiles and all, seeing these photos?
~amanda~
Wow, Liz. It sounds like somebody has it out for the Youth Advocate. Of course, we all have to be careful about what we post online. Evidently we need to censor baby pictures, too!
Your story is the first time that I've ever heard of a Youth Advocate. Is he a teacher too?
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