I find it to be a real slippery slope to start firing people from their job for doing something completely legal totally outside of work. I agree when I am on company time or using company property, I'm playing by their rules. I also agree that if I am convicted of some sort of criminal activity, they can terminate me if they want. But none of that stuff happened here.
What's next? Some uptight prude of a coworker finds out that I went to the nudie bar last night and turns me in to the boss and has me fired? When an employer starts making moral judgements based on activities completely outside the work place, you are going to run into some messy issues. Everybody has a different opinion of what is or is not acceptable, just look at the responses in this thread. Are we going to have to have HR departments around the country drafting up morality handbooks for off work time so that we are all on the same page as to what we can and can't do in our private lives?
There is no slippery slope in this case - the guy knew he was an "at-will" hire for the first 3 years of his contract and could be fired for any reason, and he gave them plenty of ammunition to do so, even if his actions were on his own time and on his own equipment.
Some people on this site seem to forget that he's a role model at this school, and his actions will be closely watched by those attending the school, and those kids will emulate behaviors by role models that they are "taught" to be right.
Kids already post way too much information about themselves on the web - they post pictures on and far too much personal information on Facebook without realizing the harm that they could potentially cause themselves, either by being exploited by people who could care less about them, or jeopardizing their ability to find a job years down the road because, however legal it is or isn't, potential employers do check sites like Facebook profiles and albums as a judge of character. The actions of this guy not only do nothing to dissuade such destructive behavior out of teenagers who look up to him, but it validates such behaviors.
I'll go on the record as saying I don't necessarily agree with the firing, but disciplinary actions had to be taken, even though legally the guy did nothing wrong. I have no problem with a 32 year old man being in a relationship with a 20 year old, and I really don't care as to when that relationship started because neither does it pertain to this case nor can they prove that he did anything illegal. I also have no issues with him taking "dirty" photos of himself, and in itself I have no issues with him e-mailing them to his girlfriend. What I do have problems with is by e-mailing them, he lost control of them, and as a result they became "public". As such he can no longer be a credible role model to students at that high school, especially since there is such an emphasis on stressing the importance to children about not posting personal information about themselves on the internet.
