Free expression is an essential guarantee of the First Amendment — the freedom to speak and write as we will, without censorship by the government.

But the freedom to express oneself doesn’t necessarily provide a buffer against the reaction to what is said or written. For public employees like schoolteachers, that’s increasingly an issue in the Internet Age, when off-campus postings easily reach the school community.

Example: A recent Washington Post story that reported on area teachers who had placed personal material or photos on social-networking sites like Facebook. The article is headlined, “When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web.”

The Post’s report might just pass as noting a titillating curiosity — if not for the potential pitfalls it and other news reports highlight for public school educators who might assume speech away from the workplace is protected by the First Amendment from on-the-job consequences.