School Employee Fired For Correcting Kid’s Spelling On Twitter

You really have to watch what you say over Twitter now, or you might get attacked online, or worse, sacked, for very, very little. So think about that next time you comment. #

No one would have seen the outcome of this tweet. Katie Nash, an employee at Frederick County Public School System, which ran the school's Twitter accounts, has been fired over a single tweet! To be honest, this story is a bit tame. She didn't say anything rude or salacious at all and a quick skim of her Twitter feed shows she's a pretty chill person.

A boy named Nathan asked the school over Twitter "close school tammarow PLEASE" and Katie replied for the school "But then how would you learn how to spell 'tomorrow'?"

Here's the exchange.

Credit: Twitter

It was retweeted thousands of times and even got its own hashtags #KatiefromFCPS and #freekatie. That's pretty good publicity for the one tweet.

The kid may not be great at spelling, but I think Nathan probably got the teasing tone.

But the school didn't and Katie got fired.

Katie commented: "As a new employee, I think I sort of would have expected that there would have been some counselling or some suggestions on how to improve."

"Any social media manager is looking for increasing engagement, and that's sort of the expected parameter.''

"I think a conversation about how we engage with students would have been completely appropriate and I would have welcomed that."

Frederick County Public School System hasn't commented at all, but Katie doesn't hold any grudges.

Other firings...

You have to be so careful with social media when you work at a school. This maths teacher got fired after she tweeted this picture - you can see why - she said she was naked and stoned. She sounds fun but maybe not someone you want to look after your kids.

And now to one of the most famous Twitter screw ups of all time. In 2013, this went viral - and let it be a warning to anyone who thinks they're a Twitter comedian. We all remember Justine Sacco who made an unfunny joke about not getting AIDS because she was white. As a communications officer on a work trip, you think she'd know better.

No wonder social media is full of pictures of food - you'd do well to get fired over food.

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.