Four years of college, tens of thousands of dollars, and a large amount of hard work and determination were ruined by these two words, "drunken pirate".
Stacy Snyder was a 25-year-old mother of two trying to make a better life for herself and her children by becoming a teacher. She was studying at Millersville University, a state university in Pennsylvania, when she posted a picture of herself, on her MySpace page, at a Halloween party drinking from a Mr. Goodbar cup while wearing a pirate hat. The caption underneath the picture said "Drunken pirate". The day before she was to graduate Stacy was told she would not receive her degree in education or receive her teaching certificate because of this caption.
Here is a link to the complete story with along with the first pages of the lawsuit Stacy has filed.
SmokingGun story
There also many shorter versions of the story appearing from the AP all over the web.
The idea that a person at a University can decide to destroy someone's future career over a caption is beyond ridiculous. I am currently a part-time science student at Millersville University. I have seriously been considering becoming a science teacher as my advisor thought I would be excellent teacher and the need for science teachers is great. But the idea that I could go through the two years of education courses and student teaching, do well, and then be told the day before I graduate that I can't be a teacher because the University found a picture of me, drinking from a cup with the caption "This man is drinking alcohol" has really made me reconsider.
Stacy was told that she could not become a teacher she violated the "professional" ethics the state requires of teachers. The Dean of Education at Millersville, Dr. Jane S. Bray, directly stated that Stacy was promoting underage drinking because of the picture. Stacy apologized and took down the picture but it didn't matter to the dean. In the picture there is no 'glorification' of drinking, there is nothing illegal being committed, no shenanigans, no nudity. It is just someone drinking from a cup with a caption that indicates a person of legal age may be drinking alcohol.
So what else can be considered "unprofessional"? Attending a protest, how about wearing a shirt that says " the President Sucks", maybe a picture of you making funny faces, how about a picture of me in jail, that was taken for a MDA fundraiser, and the caption says "Freemark in Jail". That of course would be glorifying crime, very "unprofessional".
I have nominated Dr. Jane S. Bray as worst person in the world at countdown@msnbc.com.
Dr. Jane Bray's email is Jane.Bray@millersville.edu. If you write her please be polite.
Update:
Governor Rendell's email address
The Officious Intermeddler also posted on this earlier