"My co-worker and I went all over Europe this summer," Payne said. "We went to a Guinness brewery up there (which is terrible and I didn’t drink all of it), and went to Italy and had wine there; we went to the Temple Bar District in Dublin."

She said the trip was not school-related, and the pictures merely showed her holding the beverages, not drinking them or displaying drunken behavior.

According to Payne, McGee told her he had spoken with Superintendent Dr. Ron Saunders, and disciplinary action against her would be taken. She said she assumed they had decided to suspend her.

"They went on to say that if it was just the language or just the picture that would be one thing, but since it was both, there was no way I could win this," Payne said. "I took this to mean there was no way to win my job."

Payne claimed McGee encouraged her to immediately resign, telling her a suspension would only hurt her chances of future employment. She also claimed that Mansburger helped her write a resignation letter, which stated she was leaving for personal reasons.

Those actions, if proven true, may violate the Georgia Fair Dismissal Act. By law, teachers who are suspended can only be put on suspension for 10 days and must be given a hearing. Furthermore, they must be paid until that hearing takes place. Payne said she was never told any of this, and was led to believe she had to make a decision -- to resign or be suspended -- right away.

"I did trust him, and I trusted that he was telling me everything, and that was not the case," Payne said. "I didn’t have time to look at my options or look at the process, or even process in my mind until I got out of that room."

"In a sense, our position is that her principal held a gun to her head and forced her to resign, and in effect he did so under false pretenses," said Richard Storr, one of Payne’s attorneys.

McGee declined to discuss personnel matters, as did Saunders.

"Our school system has a long-standing practice not to discuss personnel issues in the public," Saunders explained. "We just don’t think it’s beneficial to the district, its employees or its former employees...to hash these things out in public."

Storr and his associate, Robert Friedman, will soon take Payne’s case before a judge, hoping the judge will order the Barrow County Board of Education to give Payne her hearing. They have petitioned for a writ of mandamus, which a judge can issue when a state entity does not comply with state law.

"We don’t know what the judge is going to do, but we hope he’ll give us a hearing," Friedman said. "We don’t know what the board will do, but we hope they’ll reinstate Ms. Payne."

Friedman went on to say that, no matter the board’s decision on Payne’s employment, the important thing is that she get her hearing.

"We’re not asking that Ashley be automatically reinstated; we just want fairness, what’s called due process," he said. "We would accept whatever decision the board decides."

They are also asking that Payne be paid for the time from her resignation until her eventual hearing.

As she waits for her day in court, Payne said she is convinced she did nothing worthy of punishment.

"It just doesn’t seem inappropriate or unethical to me. I didn’t have a caption that said ‘Ms. Payne thinks all her students should drink this,’" she said. "I don’t promote drinking alcohol to my students and I don’t talk about drinking alcohol with my students, and I never intended for them to see photos of me with alcohol...What matters is how I am as a teacher and what I do [in the classroom.] It just upsets me that the focus on what I do in my classroom has shifted to what I do in my personal life, when that has nothing to do with [my job.]"

At the time, the school district had no policy governing social networking sites – although such a policy is now being discussed by the Board of Education -- and the 2009 Code of Ethics for Educators only prohibits alcohol use during school functions, on school property, or while supervising students. Payne doesn’t believe her actions violated that code of conduct.

"It’s the same thing a student would see if I were having a margarita at Applebee’s and a student walked by and saw me," she said. "There’s nothing unethical about it."

Regarding her use of the word "bitch," Payne said there is stronger language in "Of Mice and Men" and other books she used as part of her literature curriculum.

Payne said she has no idea how a student and parent had access to her Facebook page.

"I’m very sure [my Facebook page] was always set to private, and I wasn’t friends with any of my students. Keeping my personal life personal was very important to me," she said.

The crux of Payne’s case is whether her lawyers can prove the district is in violation of the Fair Dismissal Act, which outlines eight situations that justify suspension or termination of a school employee.

Those eight grounds are incompetency, insubordination, willful negligence of duties, immorality, inciting or encouraging students to violate any law or policy, reducing staff due to loss of students, failure to secure and maintain educational training, and "any other good and sufficient cause."

Additionally, the Fair Dismissal Act states that employees may only be suspended for 10 days and must be given a hearing, and that "the names of the known witnesses and a concise summary of the evidence to be used against him."

Payne said she was never told the name of the student or parent who complained, or told specifically what photo was objectionable.

Friedman said that should the judge deny them a hearing before the Board of Education, the case could be taken to federal court. Payne and her lawyers have not discussed this step.

"We want to take it as it comes, and hopefully get it resolved in the easy part," Storrs said.

The evidenciary hearing before the judge has not yet been scheduled, but Friedman expects to present their case within the month.