Image Credit: Conestoga Valley School District release.
Conestoga Valley School District Disputes Claim in Stacy Snyder Lawsuit Against Millersville University
BBSNews 2007-05-02 -- A Pennsylvania graduate of Millersville University who was denied a teaching certificate and given an English degree instead has filed a federal suit asking for at least $75,000 in damages and her teaching certificate. Stacy L. Snyder, 27 was a student at Millersville University, made the Dean's list and managed to make it through school while a single mother of two sons.
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Photograph released by Conestoga Valley School District that they say is the real photo that was the subject of unprofessional conduct on the part of student teacher Stacy Snyder.
Image Credit: Conestoga Valley School District release. |
Millersville University issued a short statement about Snyder's suit saying:
"Millersville University denies the claims alleged in the federal complaint filed by Ms. Stacy Snyder. Although the University respects Ms. Snyder's opinion, these allegations only provide a single perspective of this academic situation.Due to federal student privacy restrictions, the University is unable to directly respond to media accounts related to the case. The University notes, however, that all of its educational decisions are based on a full range of academic performance issues, not solely on a student's personal website or social networking site. The University is committed to maintaining the academic integrity of its academic programs and degrees and will vigorously defend itself and the actions of its employees in legal proceedings related to the lawsuit."
We contacted the University and asked if others had been denied a certificate or degree based upon a student's personal Web page and Janet Kacskos, director of communications at Millersville University told BBSNews that a "whole range" of factors were involved in the decision to not award a teaching certificate to Stacy Snyder and that each semester there are other students who also do not complete the requirements necessary to receive a certificate.
Snyder was a student teacher at the Conestoga Valley School District who was not named in the lawsuit but was mentioned as threatening to not accept any further teachers from Millersville University unless Snyder was punished. We asked Ms. Kacskos if the University could confirm such a claim and she could not.
Conestoga Valley released a detailed and lengthy statement describing the case from their point of view and also released a different photograph of Snyder that they said was the actual photo that they made available to Millersville [see inset].
"Ms. Snyder's lawsuit admits that the school district's mid-semester evaluatin of her student teaching identified many areas where Ms. Snyder required 'significant remediation.' Indeed, her evaluation reflected serious performance problems...""...One of the concerns that Ms. Snyder's cooperating teacher, Nicole Reinking, expressed to Ms. Snyder throughout the semester was the importance of maintaining a professional working relationship with students and not to become overly familiar with them regarding her personal life. Among other things, Ms. Snyder had been inviting students to log onto her MySpace Web site, and Ms. Reinking counseled her repeatedly to stop doing so."
Also according to the release, Ms. Snyder spoke directly about students logging onto her MySpace page writing on May 6th, 2006:
"First, Bree said that one of my students was on here looking at my page, which is fine. I have nothing to hide. I am over 21, and I don't say anything that will hurt me (in the long run). Plus, I don't think that they would stoop so low as to mess with my future. So, bring on the love! I figure a couple of students will actually send me a message when I am no longer their official teacher. They keep asking me why I won't apply there. Do you think it would hurt me to tell them the real reason (or who the problem was)?"
In a cover letter four days later dated May 10th, Ms. Snyder sent a letter of apology that was dated for the 12th of May writing:
"First and foremost, I wanted to apologize to every staff member at Conestoga Valley High School and Millersville University that is involved or affected by this incident ... Not only did I want to apologize for the information that has been identified, but I also wanted to apologize for any embarrassment or altered feelings that I have caused the members of the school district or the college. I never meant to hurt or offend anyone; I have a large heart that only wants to help others, not harm them."
Conestoga Valley denied that there were threats to not use any more student teachers from Millersville saying "Contrary to what is alleged in Ms. Snyder's lawsuit, nobody from the school district threatened that it would not accept any more Millersville student teachers unless Ms. Snyder was punished. Nothing like that ever occurred."
We tried to contact Ms. Snyder for this article but we were unable to reach her.
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