BRADENTON, Fla. — The Manatee County School District instituted changes to its School Guardian training program this week. Specifically, trainees will now receive guidance on acceptable social media use as school district employees.
- District learned of questionable Facebook content posted by a guardian earlier this week
- School Guardian John Cinque subsequently terminated
- Background checks for new class of School Guardians now includes social media check
Days after the district was made aware of questionable Facebook content posted by John Cinque, one of their new school guardians, Cinque was fired from his job.
The district will not comment on the details of why he was let go. However, they have responded by making some changes to the guardian training program.
Each class of guardians go through 144 hours of training hosted by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. During the training, they are also taking part in a 12-hour legal seminar.
That seminar now digs into what's acceptable to put on social media.
"It has to be in good taste — you are an employee of the district and have to be held to the highest ethical standard," said Mitchell Teitelbaum, General Council for the School District of Manatee County. "Then, most importantly, you're a role model."
The district's second class of guardians will be graduating from training on Friday morning. On Monday, they will be taking their posts inside Manatee County schools.
School Board Chairman Scott Hopes says every guardian has also been through an extensive background check, one that now includes social media accounts.
"They sat down in front of a psychiatrist. It's the same evaluation as if you were going through a Florida Department of Law Enforcement training program to be a police officer or a sheriff's deputy," he said.
On Monday, the district will have 37 of their 38 guardians in place.