Teachers' Virtual Lives Conflict With Classroom

In Snyder's case, she argued that Millersville violated her First Amendment rights. In court papers, Snyder, who graduated with an English degree, claimed that she was given good marks as part of a student teaching program at a local high school until school officials discovered her MySpace page.

School officials claim in court papers that Snyder was unprofessional throughout the semester, with Snyder's supervisor calling the photo the "straw that broke the camel's back." They allege that she lacked knowledge of the subjects she was teaching, was unable to manage her students and that parents complained about her teaching.

Snyder allegedly didn't intervene when students discussed drugs and drinking, administrators said. She had already been admonished to avoid corresponding with students on MySpace and conceded that a student had seen her Web site and that the cup in the picture contained alcohol, the school said.

"Millersville University is committed to serving our students and the children they will teach, and we are confident that the university will be vindicated in this case," the university said in a statement.

Most school districts are only beginning to consider official policies that specifically deal with sites like Facebook and MySpace, said Tom Hutton, a senior attorney with the National School Board Association.

"As a society, we're trying to deal with this on the fly," said John Green, head of school for the Peddie School, a New Jersey boarding school.

"Boundaries are important for teachers to maintain," he said. "The virtual world makes those boundaries more blurry. Sometimes people are less careful in maintaining boundaries over the computer than they are in their own classroom."

Teachers associations and some school district lawyers are warning new teachers to be careful what they put online.

Todd Fuller, of the Missouri State Teachers Association, said a school superintendent recently told him he asked aspiring teachers about their MySpace pages during job interviews.

"He had a teacher come in and asked her if she had a Facebook or MySpace page and she said yes, and he said would you be willing to have a look right now?" Fuller said. "If that would be an issue for you, you should take pause and consider what's on your page."