An earnest, yet ultimately toothless last-ditch effort to save Lindsey Stone from termination proved no match for the thousands clamoring for her head.
The 30-year-old Massachusetts native, who gained overnight infamy for posting a Facebook photo of herself mock-disrespecting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while on a work-related trip to Arlington National Cemetery, was unceremoniously fired by her employer yesterday after it was reportedly inundated with angry emails and calls.
LIFE (Living Independent Forever), a Cape Cod-based nonprofit organization that assists adults with learning disabilities, released the following statement on its own Facebook page:
We wish to announce that the two employees recently involved in the Arlington Cemetery incident are no longer employees of LIFE. Again, we deeply regret any disrespect to members of the military and their families. The incident and publicity has been very upsetting to the learning disabled population we serve. To protect our residents, any comments, however well-intentioned, will be deleted. We appreciate your concern and understanding as we focus on the care of our community.
Speaking with a local Fox affiliate, LIFE director Diane Enochs said Stone had been with the group for 18 months, and was a "good employee."
Stone and fired co-worker Jamie Schuh, her now-former supervisor and the person who snapped the photo, released their own joint statement, apologizing again for the gag:
We never meant any disrespect to any of the people nationwide who have served this country and defended our freedom so valiantly.
Meanwhile, the question posed in the initial post still lingers: Should Stone be made to suffer potential unemployability for a bad joke posted on her personal, private Facebook page? For many, it seems, the answer is, without question, a resounding yes.
Not only did over 30,000 voluntarily join a group devoted to her firing (now deleted), but a further 3,000 signed a petition demanding the same.
"She's devastated," Stone's father told the Boston Herald. And her future might be, too.
[photo via Facebook]
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