For 19 years I worked in a Catholic school. Now that I don’t, I have freedom in a way that I didn’t fully comprehend until the initial joy of being out of there finally settled. When you work in a Catholic school, at least in one that belonged to the diocese where I was, you sign a contract every year. You also sign a piece of paper each year that acknowledges you have read and agree to the contents of the diocesan employee handbook. In that handbook is a section devoted to your behavior when you’re not at school. Everything you do outside of the school can be used against you as an employee. That is, if people at your school were to find out and complain and/or bring it to the attention of your principal. Which they will do. Over the span of my time there, I witnessed multiple co-workers getting in trouble and being threatened with dismissal over things they have posted on Facebook. Even something as innocent as holding a class of wine got a group of my coworkers in trouble. Not just them, but also one of the other teachers who wasn’t in the picture but made a comment on the post that showed approval or support of what they were doing in the picture. Remember, all they were doing was holding a glass of wine and smiling for the camera.
I had to be extremely cautious about not only what I posted on social media, but what I showed support for. I couldn’t click the ‘like’ button on the posts of my friends if their post showed support for something that may have been controversial or went against the teachings of the Catholic Church. As a Catholic school teacher, I was perpetually representing the values of the Catholic Church as they were taught to the children of the school. I mean, I certainly could click that ‘like’ button. But there was always a risk that someone would see that I had clicked it or commented, and all it would take is a screenshot taken to my principal for me to be in trouble and possibly lose my job. Good times.
But now that I am not an employee of the Catholic diocese of my area, I can click on whatever I want and show my support for, again, whatever…I…want. I am still conscious, however, that what I post has the potential to be scrutinized by any future employer. But now that it’s an election season, I am loving the fact that I can click on the posts of my friends who are pro-choice in the abortion debate. If they post something in support of the LGBTQ+ community, I can show my support with a click and sometimes a comment. I can post on my own page that I support a certain candidate over another, even though that candidate has views that don’t align with what the Catholic Church teaches. Even something as small as the fact that I can now post something on Sunday morning without being afraid that someone is going to question why I’m posting instead of being at Mass. That never happened, but the hesitation and fear was frequently there. My freedom of speech has returned! My old job definitely had a way of stifling it while I worked there.
I even got carried away recently with the thought that I could start making videos on TikTok! How fun would that be?! Well, actually, it wouldn’t be fun for me. I’m much better at the written word than I am with doing things in front of a camera. To be fair, I could just make videos like my sister does. She posts reaction videos where it’s literally just her sitting there on the other side of the screen watching a video. She doesn’t provide any commentary or contribute anything to the video. In fact, she doesn’t even nod her head in agreement! She just sits there! Why does she do that? Why are reaction videos a thing?! But I digress. TikTok videos would be…interesting to make, but I’ll stick with writing my opinions for now. But just the thought that I now have the freedom to make a video and maybe build a following on TikTok and have my videos be about anything I want them to be, is a really cool feeling.
I feel like I have finally caught up to the rest of the social media using world in that I too can now post and show support for whatever I want. Definitely an odd thing to take for granted in the country we live in where freedom of speech is a guaranteed right.
Leave a Reply