Melinda England, a 28 year old teacher at Inskip Elementary School in Knoxville, Tennessee is in the the news today. It seems that she posted some pictures of herself on her site on myspace.... They are not very good pictures actually... one of my sons is a photographer and I have looked at a lot of pictures through the years.. and these are nothing special...

So why have they been shown on every news channel in the country and most of the news channels in the world? Because someone reacted to the fact that she is not wearing a lot of clothing.... not that she is showing as much skin as you would see if she was wearing a bathing suit... The photos, which I am sure you have all seen by now are in the style of what is known as glamor shots.... The art of not wearing much, but of not showing much either and looking seductively at the camera. The art of making nothing appear to be something.....

And these were not particularly well done and actually are a poor attempt at being provocative. However, they have certainly been well publicized.

Parents have reacted to the situation in a variety of ways... some parents have felt that while the photos are in poor taste they are not in any way related to her performance as a teacher.... Other parents are very concerned that she is in contact with their children.

The school administration has been besieged by upset parents and has reacted with a letter sent out to all parents pointing out that even though Ms. England is a teacher, she still has First Amendment Rights that must be respected. They also point out that Tennessee has laws that provide for disciplinary action against teachers guilty of unprofessional behavior.

The school is investigating the situation and has, at this point, found no indication that Ms. England has done anything inappropriate during her work hours at school. There has been no indication of any inappropriate relationship with her students.

The whole issue brings up questions as to how far can an employer go into an employees private life.... at the same time... how much of that right to privacy does an employee give up when they make that private life public on the internet? The answers to these questions will help us define privacy in this new internet world.

On the advice of her attorney, Ms. England has made no statement to the press.

here is the letter sent out to the parents...

http://media.graytvinc.com/documents/Letter+Home+to+Parents0001.PDF