A school teaching assistant claims to have been sacked for talking to the press about her personal campaign to change online dating laws after being conned on Tinder.
Anna Rowe told Kent Online last week that she had launched a petition calling for a change in the law to act as a deterrent against men or women misrepresenting themselves online.
The article was followed up by the national and international press.
This week Kent Online reported that the 44-year-old had lost her job at Faversham’s Ethelbert Road Primary School, Kent, with Rowe claiming she was sacked “just for speaking up about my campaign”.
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This was despite the original story having not mentioned her job.
Rowe told the title: “People were horrified to learn that I had lost my job just for speaking up about my campaign.
“The school was saying it had to do it because of the sexual content of the article and the mention of Tinder.
“This really is null and void. There was nothing overtly sexual in the article.
“I had to talk about what had happened to me as a vehicle to get the campaign to change the law moving. That is what all this is about.”
Ian Carter, editorial director of Kent Online owners KM Group, told Press Gazette: “It’s deeply troubling that she seems to have lost her job simply because she spoke to the media.
“The experience she went through had absolutely nothing to do with her work.”
A Kent County council spokesperson has said the authority was unable to comment as the matter is an employment issue.
Picture: Reuters/Mike Blake/Illustration
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