But there also should be ethical constraints, not to mention the good old Golden Rule. I would argue that those are just as important as laws.

I was actually thinking about this long before I saw blogging secretary’s post. The article I posted this morning I’d started on a week earlier, when I first saw the research, but put it aside because I wound up in a muddled internal struggle.

It could have been a much more compelling post, much more convincing on the points that job evaluations are not a good starting point for merit pay because evaluations usually are flawed. I have a lot of experience in that area, both on the giving and receiving end.

I could have written about my own evaluations and the confidential information would have been fair game because it was my information. Some years they were better than I thought they should have been, some years I was scratching my head, a very few years they were spot on. But that wouldn’t have been fair to the bosses who wrote the evaluations.

I could have written about evaluations I’d given, but that definitely wouldn’t have been fair to the employee being evaluated, not to mention a violation of confidentiality. No matter how hard I’d tried to fudge details, someone would have figured out whom I was talking about among the dozens of employees I supervised over the years. Or, even worse, would have guessed and guessed wrong.

So I held back. The result was a lukewarm post that’s probably still a bit muddled. But it’s one I can live with ethically.

Bottom line: Even absent privacy and libel laws, there’s still an ethical responsibility to be fair. It’s entirely possible to do that and still back up your opinions. There is little that’s ethical or fair about an entire blog built around a mix of confidential information and taking pot shots at co-workers, which is largely the content I found on the secretary’s blog.

Deb, as you know I have two blogs on the internet…my employer has full knowledge of and access to those blogs because I sometimes use their equipment (during lunch break, in the middle of the night) to post my writing. If she not only posted confidential information about a child’s medical condition on line as well as did so on school property during the time she is supposed to be working???? We are not only talking about a potential lawsuit by YOU but she is now in violation of school policy and in danger of losing her job.

That always gives me pause…and then I think, “She is not smart enough to be allowed to vote or drive a car…why do I want her around Big Guy or Little Guy?”.

aaaggghhhh…..ok, calm down….say a prayer…no, I promise not to pray that she walk in front of a moving school bus…honest.

I think this really should give us pause about new media, the internet, and the world we live in.

In my opinion when you accept a certain position you accept the responsibility that comes with that position. While we live in a country with free speech-there is a such thing as crossing the line.

People get fired for posts on twitter, facebook, and myspace.

Aside from the obvious-the bloggers negative attitude and disclosure of confidential information-regardless of whether one could identify the blogger, the child, or the school-she crossed the line in blogging period. It’s unprofessional and perhaps she should not be a school secretary.

I for one would not want my food allergic child at that school.

I hope some action is taken. Something tells me that won’t happen-or at least she won’t get more than a slap on the wrist. Then she’ll probably blog about the whole thing.

I hope the food allergic family at that school is able to get past this. Middle school is hard enough without being the center of such an issue.

Thank you for addressing this!

“Now that I have been made aware of the situation it has been taken care of. I am not a blogger myself and do not spend time on the computer outside of school, so all of this is new to me. Since many people have blogs these days it is situation that will be addressed in a staff meeting.”

I doubt the public at large will ever know the outcome of this unless the secretary chooses to go public, because as a public employee she has a right to privacy, the right for her work record to not be made public. A right I would defend, by the way.

And I don’t think her head should be chopped off. It sounds like she has a lot of skills that are valuable. I do think she needs educated, though. Nothing like seeing a kid gasp for breath in the throes on anaphylaxis to create a true believer – I know that convinced a lot of my relatives who initially were skeptical that my son’s condition is serious.

People in the school system are our front-line defense if something awful happens when our children are in their care, whether it’s an allergy attack or an accident. After reading this woman’s post, I love my school district more than ever this morning because employees there are so conscious of their responsibility and of my son’s right to a public education.

Thank you for bringing it to our attention!!