Is this grounds for termination?

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There is a staff member at my school that has been creating some problems. She is gossiping a lot and targeting certain teachers. It's becoming a hostel work environment. She did tell me once that if you get on her bad side you will remain there forever. I now see it. I am not sure if snooping is grounds for termination in this case on two occasions she looked at the personal text messages on the phone of another teacher. She is not aware that I know but she once told me she saw a text pop up and read the message and she slipped the other day with details about another text she could not have possibly known about without scrolling through the messages. Is this grounds for termination?

Additional Details

Yes, hostile. I realized my error.


The phone was locked. Just not password protected. She took the phone, opened it, went to the messages she wanted to read.

Sorry bdancer. There is so much more to this that I did not go into. The bottom line was I wanted to know if searching through someone's personal messages was illegal. It is hostile. She is aggressive towards my assistant, another teacher, and the owner of the school when she is not looking. We are a small preschool. She dropped out of training. She is trying to get that teacher fired by manipulating things so it appears this teacher is not doing her job. She decided what families of our students are on her good side and bad side. She ignores and is unfriendly to those she does not like. She was talking to one of my student's mothers and abruptly stopped when she saw me. I asked what the conversation was about and she said it was a private conversation and she does not need to share private conversations with me. The parent was contacted and it was determined the private conversation was about her babysitting. It is school policy that teachers disclose babysitting. So while rea

So while reading private texts messages are not grounds for termination, there are certainly other reasons. Poor performance, misconduct....you name it.

Is this grounds for termination?