Some lessons can be very very costly. For Dana Snay and her father Patrick a lesson in social media cost the elder Patrick $80,000.

The story starts in Miami Florida where Patrick Snay was the headmaster at Gulliver Preparatory School for several years.

However that long tenure at Gulliver Prep ended in 2010. Yahoo reports that when Snay’s contract wasn’t renewed he pursued legal action by suing the school for age discrimination. Snay actually won an $80,000 settlement from the school.

That settlement came with a standard confidentiality clause which basically meant that no one outside the direct parties to the suit were to know anything about the settlement. That included Snay’s now college aged daughter Dana.

Patrick Snay has said that because of the suit, and the fact that Dana was a student and Gulliver, she suffered psychological damage during the suit. That’s why Snay felt compelled to share the good news of the settlement with his daughter.

Our lawyers have said that it’s pretty common practice for people in a lawsuit like this to share the information with their family, and in normal situations it never goes further then the family. Most family members understand the severity of confidentiality agreements and keep these things to themselves. No harm no foul.

However, technically speaking, to the letter of the law, a confidentiality agreement means that telling immediate family members is a no-no. In most cases it would be extremely hard to prove.

Well, Dana decided to take to social media. Obviously still distraught over her own experiences at Gulliver Prep, she posted to her Facebook wall, “Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver,” she wrote. “Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.”

Of course being a former student at the school, many of Dana’s 1200 connections either go to Gulliver Prep or have ties to someone who does. That Facebook status found it’s way back to the administrators of the school, and the schools lawyers.

The schools lawyers went into action and a judge found that Dana’s Facebook status update violated the terms of the agreement Patrick Snay had signed. Doh!

“Snay violated the agreement by doing exactly what he had promised not to do,” Judge Linda Ann Wells wrote. “His daughter then did precisely what the confidentiality agreement was designed to prevent.”

Patrick Snay is now the headmaster at Riviera Preparatory Academy while his daughter is now a student at Boston College. Yahoo reports that there are some legal appeals that Patrick Snay can try to use to get this ruling overturned but it’s not likely. With that in mind Dana’s European vacation is probably cancelled as well.

Photo: Dana Snay Facebook.