Editors's Note: This story has been updated to reflect the version that appeared in our weekly print edition.
Like some other students, Claire Hutchins can be found in a bar Uptown on a Saturday night.
But it’s difficult to find a photo featuring her in a bar Uptown on any of her social media accounts.
“It’s crazy how you can go out and not expect anything to happen,” Hutchins, a junior studying early childhood education, said. “Then your whole life can change with one picture.”
Some Ohio University students would not think twice before posting a photo of themselves drinking Uptown to their personal social media pages, so long as they were of legal drinking age.
But for others, one photo taken in a dimly-lit bar — no matter the OU student's age — could wreck a potential career in teaching children.
“I think we're held to a different standard,” Hutchins said. “I don’t know any other major that the rules applied that hard. I mean you go out one time and something happens you're done. I mean it really affects your life.”
Education majors may be more cautious with their drinking habits and are less likely to drink due to the potential professional consequences, Holly Corns, a junior studying adolescent-to-young-adult integrated language arts, said.
“There is a lot of pressure for college students who are education majors to not get arrested or to be caught drinking underage,” Corns said. “With the job market currently, if you have an arrest record, it’s really hard to get a job, even if you were caught as a freshman and you’ve grown as a person.”
Brigitta Schultz, the president of Sober Bobcats, a student organization that provides alternative events for students to take part in Friday and Saturday night that do not include drinking alcohol, said the organization's members come from several different majors and schools, though she added that there are “a lot” of education majors.
“All the education majors have heard the stories of teachers who, ‘oh, they found this photo of her online, and now she’s suspended,’ ” Schultz, a senior studying middle-childhood education, language arts and math, said.
One example of that comes from Barrow County, Georgia, when high-school teacher Ashley Payne resigned from her job after someone complained about Facebook photos in which she is holding alcoholic drinks, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report. Payne said she was pressured to resign after the complaint, and she sued to get her job back but lost in court.
Kathleen Haskell, the coordinator for professional internships in teaching, said every year she has to remove one or two students from their professional internships or student teaching positions, due to inappropriate behavior via their social media accounts.
“When an intern comes in their room, I’d say (the students) look them up and know within a half hour all their digital footprint,” Haskell said. “There’s been cases where even junior-high students looked them up on social media and then proceeded to pass that around or forward that to their friends. They’re laughing with the intern in the room.”
She added that during the students’ time at OU, starting with their introductory courses, many education professors will tell students to be aware of their social media usage. Employers check social media accounts before even bringing teaching candidates in for interviews, Haskell said.
“It seems like teachers are held to a standard which some may say is ‘old fashioned,’ and c’mon, it should be about my ability to teach, not what happens outside the classroom," she said. “I don’t know if we still use the cliche 'it’s a double-standard,' but it is.”
Jacob Duty, a sophomore studying education, said it is “definitely interesting” that teachers are examined more closely than other professionals.
“We just have to be really cautious not only about going out ... but we have to be cautious about posting political views, religious views, things of that nature, because you're supposed to be fairly unbiased as a teacher,” Duty said.
Haskell said one time a student was tagged in a photo at a street fest, and despite having the photo deleted, still faced repercussions.
"It makes me sad when I see a potential teacher, and I can just tell how much they can offer to the profession, and some little, silly mistake or oversight (happens) that could actually balloon into you having to change careers," Haskell said.
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