College Student's Facebook Folly Could Cost $80K

A student at Boston College may have cost her family US$80,000 -- and cost herself a trip to Europe.

The student, Dana Snay, posted a Facebook status update boasting of her father's victory in an age discrimination case.

The father, 69, was the headmaster of a school for years, but his contract was not renewed in 2010. This prompted an age discrimination suit, which was settled for $80,000 in late 2011 between father Snay and the Gulliver Preparatory School.

Alas, the settlement was contingent upon a confidentiality agreement -- an agreement that was egregiously breached when Snay posted this update on Facebook days later: "Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT."

A number of Dana's 1,200 Facebook friends were Gulliver alumni, and the post was eventually relayed to attorneys. Thus did an appeals court tossed out the settlement last week: "His daughter then did precisely what the confidentiality agreement was designed to prevent," a judge wrote.

The father in question can appeal the decision.