Punishment Too Harsh? Maryland School Employee Fired For Responding To Student's Mispelled Twitter Post

A Maryland school district employee was fired after she responded to the tweet of one student. In the tweet, she joked about the student, who was asking for classes to be suspended, on how will he know to spell the word tomorrow if he will not be coming to class.

News 4 San Antonio reported the employee, identified as Katie Nash from Frederick, Maryland, was fired on Friday. Her job, which pays $44,000 annually, was with the Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) and a spokesman for the district confirmed the news that Nash was removed from the system. They did not, however, provide the details.

Nash was in charge of the district's Twitter account. The exchange of tweets took place on January 5 after a student asked for classes to be suspended "tammarow." Nash's full response read, "But then how would you learn how to spell 'tomorrow?'" After the tweet was sent out, Nash said that she was advised to no longer tweet.

New York Daily News added the student did not take offense in the reply of Nash but that did not have any bearing as the district still terminated her from her job. The boss of Nash, Michael Doerrer, gave her a letter of her termination on Jan. 13 then they asked her to hand her badge and ID to them. Students and other Twitter users have defended Nash as they made the hashtags "#KatiefromFCPS" and "#freekatie" trended online.

A Care2 petition was also created for Nash that aimed to have her be reinstated on her previous job. Around 2,000 people have signed online to show support for Nash. The petition added they hope if Nash will not get her job back at FCPS, she should be employed somewhere else.

In a tweet from Nash's personal account, she said that she wishes success for FCPS and that the students deserve only the best. She added that she does not regret the tweet. She did say in a statement, however, that because she was hired for the job only last November, she was hoping to be guided as to how to handle such tweets rather than be dismissed. The school system has not yet commented on whether she will be getting her job back due to the petition and support from students.

Below is a related video of the person involved in the reports. The video shows Nash talking about mediation: