Should what you say on Facebook or other social media be grounds for getting fired from a job? Why or why not? The following excerpt happened a few years ago. This is just an example. Does it depend on the extremity of what was said?

--The day after a sixth grader from Harlem drowned in the Atlantic Ocean on a class outing, a fifth-grade teacher in Brooklyn posted some rather impolitic comments about her own students on Facebook.

“After today, I am thinking the beach sounds like a wonderful idea for my 5th graders?” the teacher, Christine Rubino, wrote in 2010. “I HATE THEIR GUTS! They are all the devils spawn!” She added, concerning one student, “I wld not throw a life jacket in for a million.”

Ms. Rubino compounded her problems by trying to cover up and deny the online outburst, a hearing officer found, and the Department of Education fired her.

But a state judge ruled that while Ms. Rubino’s remarks were “offensive” and “repulsive,” she should not have been terminated.

And on Tuesday, a state appellate panel, upholding the lower court, ruled that Ms. Rubino, a 15-year veteran with an otherwise unblemished disciplinary record, is entitled to keep her job.