Racy Twitter Updates Land Overland High Teacher In Hot Water
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A teacher in the Cherry Creek School District has been put on paid leave as the district investigates her Twitter account.
Carly McKinney, 23, teaches math at Overland High School in Aurora. Her Twitter page was filled with racy pictures and posts about smoking pot.
CBS4's Jennifer Brice spoke to McKinney by phone. She said she "didn't feel comfortable talking about the issue," and hung the phone up.
The Cherry Creek School District says they are now investigating to determine if what was on McKinney's personal Twitter page violates school policy and law, and if she made the posts herself.
The name used on the Twitter page allegedly set up by McKinney is "Carly Crunk Bear." The page states she's "crunker than most," and to "stay sexy ... stay high ... stay drunk."
The Urban Dictionary says the definition of "crunk" is smoking chronic (marijuana) and getting drunk or highly intoxicated.
The investigation has left Overland High School student's wondering if she will return to the school. Kerston Green is in McKinney's algebra class.
"I was just really shocked at first," Green said. "(It's) unbelievable a teacher would do this. But she's a really good person."
In some of the Twitter posts McKinney says she was high grading papers and had marijuana on school grounds. One that was posted during school hours at 10 a.m. Monday stated, "Just got called Ms. McCutie. Points for being clever, however, you are still jailbait."
"The three posts that we are most concerned about are the ones that may indicate that she violated school policy and/or law," Tustin Amole with the Cherry Creek School District said.
School officials say if policy or law are not violated there is a teachable moment for everyone, especially students who are growing up with social media.
"The public embarrassment is one thing. It can affect your ability to get a job or keep a job," Amole said.
The district says teachers are trained on social media issues.
Even though it's a teacher's First Amendment right to post whatever they want on their personal social media pages, the district says their recommendation is to treat social media as if being in a classroom.
