It’s been a long time since I posted a Facebook status update – does anyone really care what I’m doing or how I’m feeling? However, there are countless people I know that can’t go six hours without imposing themselves on the world. The girl in this story sounds like that, but I reckon she’s probably the only person whose incessant updates have actually ended up costing her family $80,000.
Images VIA
The story begins with a guy named Patrick Sway who was head of Florida’s Gulliver Preparatory School at the age of 69. His contract wasn’t renewed for 2010/11 and he thought that it might be because of his age. Being American he filed an age discrimination suit and after a lengthy trial he received a cheque for $80,000 and it was agreed that Gulliver Preparatory School would handle his lawyer’s fees. Nicely done. Here’s the man himself looking real smug about it all:
However, there was one snag – the settlement was also subject to a confidentiality agreement, which meant that Patrick couldn’t reveal the results of the case to anyone or announce them to the world. Unfortunately, he thought he could trust his daughter Dana with the result and for her not to tell anyone, but it turns out that he couldn’t because she immediately updated her Facebook status with the following:
Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.
Whilst I love the fact that she said ‘SUCK IT’ at the end of her status, I’ve gotta say this was a pretty stupid move, especially considering that she had 1,200 Facebook friends and many of them actually attended Gulliver. Predictably, the news spread like wildfire and the school found out about it and filed for an appeal.
After another lengthy legal process, Snay’s daughter’s post was eventually determined to have broken the rules of the confidentiality agreement and he was forced to return the $80,000. Bummer. Presumably Dana’s European vacation wasn’t happening after that.
Here’s what Sway said to try and justify the fact he told her in the first place:
What happened is that after settlement, my wife and I went in the parking lot, and we had to make some decisions on what we were going to tell my daughter. Because it’s very important to understand that she was an intricate part of what was happening.
She was retaliated against at Gulliver. So she knew we were going to some sort of mediation. She was very concerned about it. Because of what happened at Gulliver, she had quite a few psychological scars which forced me to put her into therapy.
So there was a period of time that there was an unresolved enclosure for my wife and me. It was very important with her. We understood the confidentiality. So we knew what the restrictions were, yet we needed to tell her something.
I mean yeah fair enough, I get that, but maybe also make it clear that she can’t actually tell anyone ever what happened otherwise you might lose the money. I mean I’ve gotta assume that Sway kinda did do that on some level, so the only explanation for Dana’s actions is that she is a complete and utter idiot unfortunately. That’s kids for you.
For other complete and utter morons, check out this woman who literally destroyed her whole entire life for cash on a game show and didn’t even win anything. Unlucky.
