At 79 years old, Carol Thebarge, a long-time substitute teacher, is out of work.ย Itโs not because sheโs retiring but because of a flap over Facebook.ย โThereโs a paranoia about the Internet and I think that weโre not realizing how valuable Facebook can be used properly,โ said Thebarge.ย Affectionately known as Mrs. T, Thebarge taught for nine years at Stevens High School in Claremont, New Hampshire.ย
A substitute teacher in Claremont, N.H., was fired last week after she refused toย defriend the studentsย sheโd become connected with onย Facebook. ย Carol Tebarge, 80 (below), has worked as a substitute teacher in the west New Hampshire area for 35 years. Sheโs spent the last element at Stevens High School. Last Monday, the school saw the arrest of another teacher, 29-year-old Christopher Leblanc, who allegedlyย sexually assaulted a 14-year-oldย in his classroom.ย School superintendent Dr. Middleton McGoodwin tightened social media restrictions on faculty after that, declaring that students and teachers could no longer connect or be friends on sites like Facebook. Most teachers complied. Tebarge,ย who told WMURย sheโs like a grandmother to her students, refused. She received her walking papers Friday.