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“Can I get an email back after I sent it?” a teacher I will call Pete asked as he rushed into my classroom.
“If the recipient is part of our school email system and hasn’t opened it yet, you can retract it,” I replied.
I could see the panic in Pete’s eyes. “What if they aren’t in the system?”
“What did you do, Pete?”
“I sent another coach an email about a parent. I thought that I was forwarding the parent’s original email to the coach, but I hit reply to the parent instead.”
I didn’t hesitate. “Call the parent now and explain. And apologize. Then go to the principal and do the same thing.”
The story ended awkwardly, but Pete didn’t get fired or even written up with a reprimand. The event served as a learning moment for many about email etiquette but also about the fact that every school email can become public no matter the original intent. Pete’s mistake reinforced my own habit of assuming that emails are like comments made in the privacy of a booth in the middle of a small town diner, i.e. no privacy at all.
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