Grievance #5: Harassment regarding my blog

Background

My Professional Knowledge

I have been an active participant in the online teaching community since I began working as a private tutor and instructor in 2003. I have a Master’s in Information Science from UC Berkeley (2004), and did my final project on online communities. I know a great deal about blogging, discussion forums, and all major issues in online discourse. I am also well-versed in the type of discussions that go on in teacher and education school student weblogs. I am certain Dr. Lotan knew this, for the following reasons:

• She had access to my application, which discussed my education.
• She knew that I kept a website of my work at College Track concerning the raised test scores of disadvantaged minorities, as I referenced it in my application.
• She received an anonymous email about my online discussion forum by someone who wanted her to be aware that I was discussing her attempts to be rid of me.
• She saw from that scrutiny that I had engaged in a disagreement with [name omitted], a teacher who she respects as a Stanford cooperating teacher (note: this was an error; he has never been a cooperating teacher, but Rachel did bring him up as a possible cooperating teacher). She thought this alone was reason enough to want me to go elsewhere, as she felt our disagreement meant she couldn’t place me with him and that this was an undue burden.

When I began my education at Stanford, I began a blog, separate from my online discussion forum. I called it “Surviving Stanford”, a humorous reference to the troubles I had just getting permission to attend and my fears that I might not graduate. I am not much of a blogger. I like to write essays and stories about my students and experiences at school, and that’s what my blog focused on. As an expert, I had my own opinions about what was acceptable information to reveal online. For example, I thought [teacher blogger] went well over the line of my comfort zone, as he used his own name, his school name, and discussed his students in often negative terms.

I used pseudonyms for all students and a pseudonym for myself. At first, I used real school names, primarily because my blog had no audience to speak of and I thought student pseudonyms sufficient. I never discussed students negatively.

These were my own rules, because Stanford has no blogging policy. I knew that FERPA referred to a school’s responsibilities, not teachers, but I still felt that a teacher might be violating FERPA by mentioning an individual’s grade issue by the teacher him or herself. As a student teacher, I have no access to official records, so any grades I discussed (infrequently) would be student reported and not due to my knowledge as a teacher.

In short, I was certain that my blog was well inside the boundaries of many teacher blogs, and to the extent that any student was able to identify themselves (something that was highly unlikely) they would not read anything that made them uncomfortable. I consider my stories to be much closer to that of a columnist or raconteur, as opposed to the professional assessment of a teacher.

None of these assertions mean that I might not be wrong. Perhaps there have already been test cases of blogs such as my own that I simply wasn’t aware of. But if my blog violated any law, then there were thousands of others that were in far worse violation, and that I had made a strong good faith effort to keep student confidentiality safe by not revealing anything meaningful, using pseudonyms, and rarely telling stories that could be readily tracked to one student. Moreover, I was reasonably certain that there was no serious debate about this in the online teaching community.

I didn’t spend hours mulling this when I opened my blog; I had already been working as a teacher for years and had my own code about what I would and wouldn’t discuss online, whether it be in comments sections, a blog, or my forum.

My blog was, if not common knowledge at STEP, something I referenced quite often in class. It wasn’t a secret.

STEP Confidentiality Instruction

The STEP website contains exactly five documents mentioning the term “confidentiality”, eight mentioning the term “confidential”, and 7 mentioning the term “privacy”. The entries relevant to this issue:

• A technology requirement document for teaching credential, stating that a requirement is that the candidate “demonstrates knowledge of privacy, security, and safety issues (e.g.appropriate use of chatrooms, confidentiality of records including graded student work, & publishing names and pictures of minors)” (emphasis mine)
• A handbook on the Elementary Graduation Portfolio instructions, telling candidates to “be aware of confidentiality needs”.
• An identical comment in a document “Step Graduation Portfolio”
• A “STEP Release Form” for STEP students asking for permission to use their work—“ Unless I give express permission otherwise, pseudonyms will be used in any publications, presentations, websites or other education or research documents.” (emphasis mine)
• The Parental Permission Form for Case Study: “The student will not be identified by name in any written document or oral report resulting from the study.” (emphasis mine)
• Literacy (EDU 228) course description: “Please also guard the privacy of students and teachers by using only pseudonyms for those who appear in your writing.” (emphasis mine)

To the extent the STEP website mentions privacy or confidentiality at all, the clear impression received is that changing the name of the student is deemed considerable privacy protection.

To my knowledge, the only time STEP secondary candidates have been told to change the name of a student for an assignment was for the Adolescent Case Study, which was entirely appropriate given that we discussed the student’s official records. In our other papers, we often discuss students as examples; in our Equity Class we are required to select a student to evaluate for signs of equity issues. We were not told to keep the student’s identity private.

Moreover, at no point in our STEP courses have we ever been forbidden from sharing our course work with anyone. We have never been told to refrain from sending it to our friends or family, or from putting it on our website as a homework assignment.

Dr. Lotan and Dean Callan “Discover” My Blog

In early September, [name omitted], the principal at my placement school, asked to see me. When I met with her, she revealed that Dr. Lotan had informed her two days earlier about my blog. The principal wanted to know why I was writing a blog; she seemed to think I was interested in a book deal. I told her that I wrote the blog as a journal of my ed school travails, and assured her that I never discussed student performance and always used pseudonyms--and that she flattered me by thinking I could get a book deal. She asked if I would consider also changing the name of the school so that Sequoia couldn’t be identified. I readily agreed. Her primary concern was due to a previous incident she had with a teacher-writer; the author of My Posse Don’t Do Homework (filmed as “Dangerous Minds”) taught at Carlmont and used her anecdotes to get herself a book deal without giving Carlmont any credit. I reassured her that, in the unlikely event I was contacted about a book, I would give Sequoia approval over any anecdotes I used from my student teaching experience. I felt absurd, but this clearly reassured [name omitted] and at that point she appeared to have no further issue with the blog.

I was extremely angry that Dr. Lotan had contacted my placement school about my blog without letting me know. The most likely outcome of that notification, as Dr. Lotan acknowledged in the ensuing meeting, was that [principal] would terminate my placement, as it was still early in the school year. I could not understand why Dr. Lotan had not contacted me first.

When I got to the CERAS building that afternoon, I was told that Dr. Lotan wanted to see me right away. When I went into Dr. Lotan’s office, I found her waiting with Dean Callan, associate dean. The two of them informed me that I was being reprimanded for my blog.

They couldn’t identify any specific reason for this reprimand. Dean Callan said that my blog “might possibly” violate teacher conduct obligations, although he wasn’t specific. He showed me a copy of the American Teacher Association Code of Ethics; I pointed out that my blog contained none of the elements on the list. They both agreed that neither STEP nor Stanford had a blog policy for me to violate, and that they had next to no idea of what online discourse existed in the teaching community. They acknowledged that they simply felt as if it was inappropriate, and couldn’t readily point to any clear violation. However, the fact that I identified Stanford meant that they had particular concerns over what was written in the blog.

I asked them to read more of my blog to be specific about what the problems were. I reiterated the history I described above, telling them that I was quite certain that if I was in violation, then many other blogs were as well. I didn’t offer this as an excuse, merely as a reason why I shouldn’t be reprimanded, given the lack of clear standards, no Stanford policy, and their own admitted ignorance of online discourse. I also pointed out that the post that most offended him, one about “Gigi” (name changed) was an assignment for Literacies class, and if our assignments are by definition violations of student privacy, we’d never been informed. Moreover, I brought up [teacher blogger]'s blog and Dr. Lotan’s knowledge of it, as this certainly played a part in my belief that I was blogging acceptably. The meeting ended with Dean Callan agreeing to review my blog.

Two weeks later, Dr. Lotan asked me to remove my blog, per Dean Callan’s announcement that he had found “egregious” violations. The egregious violation was a paper I had written for Equity and Democracy, describing a student “DeWayne” (name changed) as African American. I am still unclear as to the exact nature of the violation. I protested, but pulled down the blog, telling Dr. Lotan that I fully expected to continue writing.

I removed all references to Stanford from the blog, changed the name, change the moniker I used. As added insurance, I password protected the blog so that only a few trusted friends could read it. At that point, I no longer considered my blog a Stanford concern. Once the name was removed from the site, I believed Stanford had no grounds for demanding access or ascertaining my blog’s suitability.

In the intervening months (from September through mid-December), neither Dean Callan nor Dr. Lotan made any effort to ascertain if other STEP students had any blog or face book accounts. They didn’t clarify any guidelines for online discourse. They have never informed us that our assignments for class are de facto “egregious” and “severe” violations of student privacy and must never be shown to anyone else.

In fact, they never mentioned the subject again until a meeting on December 10th (held to express concerns about my suitability for teaching), when Dean Callan told me of an “anonymous email” he’d received telling him that my blog was up and password protected. He was clearly perturbed by the news, and demanded access to the blog. I told him I had no problem with it on first consideration, but would be checking with my advisers. After the meeting, I would never have allowed Dean Callan access to my blog, as his animosity and bias became clear.

When I wrote to inform Dean Callan of my decision, I also informed him again of the fact that he and Dr. Lotan were not only holding me to a different standard than other STEP candidates, but that one of Dr. Lotan’s cooperating teachers (note: I have since found out that [teacher blogger] has never been a cooperating teacher, but his school is a Stanford Associate School. My point about the blog still stands, so I haven't removed this), [teacher blogger], had a blog that used his own name, the name of his school, the names of his students, and routinely violated FERPA by discussing student performance. Dr. Lotan was well aware of this blog, as she mentioned it in the meeting I’d had with her last April with the ombudsman--mentioned as evidence of the problems I would cause her by having a contentious relationship with [teacher blogger]. This specific post described a girl who had failed Algebra four times until she was finally able to get a concession to use a calculator.

I told Dean Callan that, as Dr. Lotan saw nothing wrong with [teacher blogger]'s blog and she regularly referenced him and the school positively well after our April meeting, I had no reason to think that anyone at STEP would have a problem with my blog, which revealed nothing substantive and never violated FERPA. I encouraged him again to come up with a policy so that he could give himself the right to demand access to student journals.

On January 8th, Dean Callan emailed me another demand about my blog. This time, he copied the principal of my placement school, an action I found profoundly inappropriate. He again charged me with having “seriously breached confidentiality” without ever being specific or mentioning what confidentiality requirements I breached.

Again, this is for a password-protected blog that does not mention Stanford. It does not mention Sequoia, my placement school. It uses pseudonyms for students, and discusses no student grades or specific stories. It is simply an account of interesting stories of student interactions, school debates, and an account of the difficulties of being someone with my views at Stanford.

I would like to be very clear on this point: I will not give access to Dean Callan or anyone at Stanford access to my blog to review for unspecified “confidentiality” concerns. I believe that the blog is outside Stanford’s jurisdiction. While I would normally be happy to allow someone to review the site to have a genuine discussion on appropriate Stanford policy, Dean Callan’s behavior has convinced me that his primary goal has nothing to do with protecting student confidentiality and everything to do with controlling a student he finds objectionable.

I am now the only person with access to my blog. I hold that this is a private journal that Stanford has no jurisdiction over. Should Stanford as a whole determine that the university does, in fact, have jurisdiction over private journals, then I will pull the blog down rather than give Dean Callan the ability to manufacture more complaints that I am unsuited for teaching.