The Snay Family Chronicles: How Clueless and Classless Can a Family Be?

the ever-charming Dana Snay

I recently read of a case others may have heard about as well. It involved a school administrator, Patrick Snay, whose contract for the position of Headmaster of Gulliver Preparatory School in Miami, Florida, was not renewed. Mr. Snay alleged age discrimination and filed suit. A settlement was reached, with a confidentiality clause in place. Terms of the confidentiality clause were that Mr. and Mrs. Snay (Mrs. Snay had also been involved in the litigation) could discuss the terms or even the very existence of the settlement only with Mr. Snay's professional advisers.

An incidental, or perhaps not-so-incidental, party to the allegations made by Mr. Snay in his litigation was his daughter, Dana Snay.  Dana Snay had been a student at Gulliver Preparatory School during the latter portion of  her father's tenure as headmaster at the school and during the aftermath of the non-renewal of his contract. Snay alleged that Dana suffered retaliation in his battles with the school. Because of the alleged recrimination against his daughter, Snay claimed that he and his wife, even with knowledge that sharing such information was a violation of the terms of the settlement, disclosed information regarding the settlement to their daughter. They claimed that they felt such was necessary because of psychological problems Dana incurred as a result of her treatment at the hands of Gulliver Preparatory School personnel.

What happened next appears to be that Dana Snay posted a rather unfortunate status update on her Facebook page. "Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my trip to Europe. SUCK IT!" (via Miami Herald)

Among Dana Snay's approximately 1,200 Facebook friends were numerous past and present Gulliver students. Word reached the school's administration and lawyers, and Snay was told payment would not be remitted.

Patrick Snay initially appealed the ruling and prevailed, but then lost an appeal. His appeals have yet to be exhausted. In my opinion, if he had any dignity whatsoever, he would "man up,"  admit he violated the terms of his settlement, and cut his losses. Furthermore, a concession  was warranted that his daughter behaved crassly and ungraciously, and that she was not deserving of a trip to Europe or anywhere else other than perhaps to charm school.

I find this to be the epitome of karma, poetic justice, or whatever fairness-promoting force in the universe might be at work.

I don't know Patrick Snay or his daughter Dana, but from what I've read of them, I don't like them. I find their lack of responsibility for their own actions to be off-putting almost beyond belief, to the extent that it casts doubt on both the initial claims of age discrimination as a factor in Snay's dismissal and on the subsequent allegations that Dana suffered reprisals as a consequence of legal action her father sought against the school.  Mr. Snay does not portray himself as an honorable education professional, nor does he present himself as a parent who holds his child responsible for her own actions.  His actions reveal him, instead, to be an excuse-maker as both an educational professional and as a parent, who looks to cast blame for his or his child's own misfortune upon whomever happens to be standing in sufficient proximity to be hit by the resultant fallout.

I'm not willing to write the actions of Dana Snay off as a youthful indiscretion, as she's older than I am and should have known better. I would love to know for certain as to whether her father neglected to mention to his daughter that the settlement was to be confidential and that even she, due to the terms of the settlement, should not have been privy to the information, and most certainly not all 1,200 of her Facebook friends, or if he did apprise her of the necessity for confidentiality, which she subsequently disregarded. Either way, I think her Facebook posting was almost unbelievably stupid. Furthermore, had it not been so unabashedly "in your face" disrespectful to her former school, there's the chance, however slight, that her father's employer might have been willing to overlook her imprudence, impudence,  or idiocy.  I concede that it would have been unlikely at best, but  she sealed the deal with her tasteless utterance.  Even now, her father doesn't seem to be encouraging her to take any responsibility for her communication. He's still proclaiming her as a victim. She's a victim, all right, though only of her own lack of intelligence.

I have some background knowledge in the subject matter. I was the victim of a violent crime when I was fifteen. Both criminal and civil proceedings took place. Because the school district where in assault took place was not cooperative, it became a co-defendant in the civil action. My mother was employed by the school district at the time. She resigned during the course of the litigation because of the obvious conflict of interest.

In my particular case, my father refused to allow any confidentiality on my part to enter into the settlement. I was the victim of a violent crime (though I refuse to say I am a victim and to let the status of "victim" define who I am), and my dad felt that as such,  I should have every right to disclose anything or everything I want about it.  If I want to author a book about it when I'm twenty-one or forty-three, and if I want to mention the terms of the settlement in my book, it should be my right. It's also possible that my settlement would have been larger if a confidentiality clause had been a part of the settlement, but I can live with that possibility.

That being said, I've never posted any sort of "thumbing my nose" post at either the school district or at the perpetrators of my assault. The reason is in part that I'm attempting to fly under the radar with my blog. I've posted enough details and pictures  that, even though I don't use my actual name, a person who knew me and came across the blog would deduce my identity. Still, I'm trying to be a bit discreet. I'm not going to do anything to incur the wrath of someone who might ultimately point a future employer in the direction of comments that might eventually haunt me. I try, for the most part, to keep inflammatory comments to a minimum, but I've been known to let my guard down on occasion.

In any event, I feel that justice has been done in the case of the Snay family. They appear to me to be little more than shameless scammers whose utter lack of class resulted in their ultimate undoing.

Postscript of sorts: If Dana Snay did, in fact,  incur bona fide psychological damage over alleged mistreatment from school personnel in connection with her father's termination from his job and the subsequent fallout, I hate to even think about the state of her fragile psyche after the various media outlets and every blogger in the sphere has weighed in with  his or her opinion on the matter.  Suffice it to say that some therapist stands to get rich, assuming the Snay family can afford to pay for Dana's continued therapy.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/26/3961605/daughters-facebook-boast-costs.html