Why are allegedly intelligent people so farking stupid about email? I once helped a lawyer flush a stuck email from their outbox that was obviously a love letter to a non-spouse. Thank you so much for confirming the suspicions thrown up by the subject and address fields, Preview Pane. "I miss you so much my widdle snoogiewoogie."

This was someone who was part of drafting the company's email archiving and preservation policies. The one where every incoming and outgoing email was saved indefinitely.

Why on earth would anyone use their company email system to conduct an affair knowing every single one of those emails is being saved for as long as the company exists?

Andulamb: Meh. Pretty dumb thing to fire a person over. Was she doing her job or not? So what if she was using the district's computers to exchange sexy e-mails with her love. When she would go meet him for a quickie during her lunch break, on her way she would walk across district floors and through a district parking lot. When she would think about him in her office, she would do so while breathing district air.

I don't get businesses that expect their employees to stop being human beings. If she was spending an inordinate amount of time conducting her affair while at work, fine, fire her. But she sent 40 emails to her lover over a 30-day span. Ooh, not even two emails per day. Only a dozen or so were sexual. Big. Farking. Deal.

It shows that the person has mindbogglingly poor judgement. A school administrator should assume that their email is essentially part of the public record. There's very little expectation of email privacy in a position like superintendent. There's no excuse for using the school's email system to send and receive emails that should clearly be private. There are plenty of free email systems that will get the job done. And many of them can be used just fine from a smartphone so there's also no reason to be using the school's equipment.

If this is an example of how she handles what is likely the most sensitive information of her personal life, how careless is she going to be with sensitive work information?

At orientation I remind people that they should have a personal email account. Do not use your work email for personal communications. I suppose they did not remind people of that.

WhippingBoy: Who the hell is banging all these ugly broads???

As it was explained to me once by a male acquaintance of mine after I questioned the quality of one of his sexual partners: "An oil change is an oil change."

jafiwam: In general, most of that snooping takes tons of times that most IT guys won't invest in it unless there's a reason.

One glorious summer I had an apartment with a window five feet away from the bedroom of a woman who never closed the blinds. She wasn't gorgeous, but neither was she the kind of person you'd look away from when she was coming out of the shower. Or getting dressed. Or getting undressed. Etc. This woman found a lot of occasions to take off her clothes, and my apartment was a studio, so it's not like I had a whole lot of other windows to look out of.

It was so blatant that I figured it was just exhibitionism or a serious "who farking cares" attitude on her part. Then I happened to get invited to some function in the apartment below hers, and I saw how my building's windows looked from that angle. She might never even have noticed that there WAS a window, and it would have been easy for her to forget my building was even there.

My point being, I'm not a voyeur, insofar as I'd never hide in someone's bushes or plant videocameras or whatever the hobbyist pervs are doing these days. Except of course when voyeurism suddenly became effortless and risk-free. Then, yeah, I was a complete voyeur. I just wondered if a similar (hopefully nonsexual) nosiness afflicted people in a similar situation with computers.

Pert: mesmer242: Unless those school system are different from elsewhere, "resigned" is code for "we don't want to deal with paying unemployment, so resign or we won't give you a reference." I know this because a family member who was a teacher was asked to resign (not for wrongdoing, but for budget reasons) and he was flat out told that if he didn't resign he wouldn't get a reference.

So, no, I'm pretty sure she was fired from both jobs. School districts don't want explanations; they just want to look good in the eyes of the public.

Looks like you have really shiatty employee protection laws over in the US

It varies by state, but generally speaking.... Um, yes?

It is strongly hinted at in the article that she was forced out of both positions, although what their leverage was in doing so is unknown. If I were to hazard a guess, the first district said "resign or we'll tell your new job" and the second job said "resign or no reference for you" OR "resign and we'll pay you a stipend long enough for you to find a poorly paid job somewhere desperate."

Either way, it's pretty harsh treatment for the mistake but that's the way most school districts are these days. The places with strong unions just end up paying teachers to sit in empty rooms instead. The districts just can't handle the liability of anyone being less than perfect.

Pert: Hermione_Granger: How is this a fireable offense?

mesmer242: She was stupid, yes, but a pretty common kind of stupid.

Do_wacka_Do: I guess all I can say to her is welcome to the world of Zero Tolerance! Hope you enjoy it as much as the students do.

It's not difficult people.

a) She wasn't fired. She resigned before she took up the post.
b) She could have easily stayed in her previous job and gone through the disciplinary process rather than resigning early and trying to avoid it and bury the news
c) She could easily have informed her new employers of her real reason for resigning early and put forward a case for them to keep her on.

She didn't do any of those things. She attempted to cover up something she'd done wrong, and when that was found out she resigned.

She did something relatively minor and (I presume) would have faced minor (albeit embarrassing) disciplinary punishment, but instead dishonestly tried to escape from the consequences of her actions.

I DO feel sorry for her, but she's only got herself to blame.

And I'll say it again for the people at the back - SHE WAS NOT FIRED, she resigned.

Unless those school system are different from elsewhere, "resigned" is code for "we don't want to deal with paying unemployment, so resign or we won't give you a reference." I know this because a family member who was a teacher was asked to resign (not for wrongdoing, but for budget reasons) and he was flat out told that if he didn't resign he wouldn't get a reference.

So, no, I'm pretty sure she was fired from both jobs. School districts don't want explanations; they just want to look good in the eyes of the public.

I guess all I can say to her is welcome to the world of Zero Tolerance! Hope you enjoy it as much as the students do.

Ed Finnerty: It's a shame free email accounts are impossible to come by.

For some stupid reason my last employer blocked external e mail applications such as Gmail and Yahoomail. not sure what they wanted to accomplish doing that. Can't say they wanted to keep the plebes working because they allowed Facebook, WTF?

relcec: how did the school board find out she was using the school computers to communicate beg her lover to shove his big cock in her tight pussy during school hours?

It might be obvious to all the Farkers who are l33t haxx0rs, but I'd like to know this myself.

Sure, I know the IT guy could be reading all my e-mails, or closely perusing my browser history, or reading every last file on my hard drive, etc. And I know that at most workplaces, doing something like suddenly downloading 10TB of copyrighted North Korean goat porn from a P2P site will probably set off enough alarm bells that the IT guy will notice even if he's not trying to be nosy.

But, realistically, how much semi- or completely unauthorized snooping goes on? I don't mean at places where it's super-important that they know every packet going in and out because of national security or industrial espionage concerns--just your average boring workplace.

I ask not because I'm worried about getting caught doing something wrong (everyone at work already knows about me and the goat porn) but because I know that if I were the IT guy, I'd do nothing but snoop.

Infobahn: Is operating a Gmail account THAT hard?

it is for 85% of the work force. The morons at my work are shocked when I ask them why they are sending all of their kids school stuff to their work email or why they have so much other crap like a thousand Groupon deals a day piping in our our email servers. It just amazes me how dumb your average person is these days and how they don't understand how corporate society works and how they should behave. People have their credit card information and statements being routed to work servers. It's just astounding the level of stupidity.

It's a shame free email accounts are impossible to come by.

Malt Liquor: From http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/tag/nancy-sebring/

"The Omaha board will have to work out the details of a contract with Sebring, who currently earns $206,178, a figure that excludes a $34,019 annuity contribution and a $6,000 annual car allowance."

FTFA: "In one of the emails, Sebring said the salary from her new job in Omaha would allow her to divorce her husband."

So making nearly a quarter million a year wasn't enough?

Gawd they pay these morons too much.

jesus, 206k in omaha dollars has got to be $750,000 dollars in real money.

From http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/tag/nancy-sebring/

"The Omaha board will have to work out the details of a contract with Sebring, who currently earns $206,178, a figure that excludes a $34,019 annuity contribution and a $6,000 annual car allowance."

FTFA: "In one of the emails, Sebring said the salary from her new job in Omaha would allow her to divorce her husband."

So making nearly a quarter million a year wasn't enough?

Gawd they pay these morons too much.

Lost two jobs because of a month and a half pump n dump relationship - that's gotta sting.

Stupid supernintendos, when will they learn?!

Who the hell is banging all these ugly broads???