School not taking note of creepy behaviour

You are assuming you know what’s happened to the ‘creepy’ boy, ie how the school have dealt with it, and you don’t.

if they’ve addressed his behaviour sensitively they won’t take out an ad in the local paper telling everyone exactly how they did it.

Well they're correct to say there's no evidence of wrongdoing. If he's saving publicly available photos or photos posted by them he can keep them can't he? He is also entitled to comment and keep notes about girls he fancies in his diary or journal or similar. He's not been accused of harassment or stalking so yes I'd be a little more concerned with his privacy. That is the kind of violation that can start a descent into suicide for young boys.
How would you feel if a diary written by your daughter where she fantasies about the boys she admires was stolen, photocopied and sent to every student - you'd be furious and terrified for her. You'd be extra pissed off if she was then labelled creepy and bullied for it for the rest of her school days.

Important to remember that schools have a duty of care for children, not for updating parents about how they have responded to an incident. It’s right that you don’t know what they’ve done with the child who had his iPad stolen. That’s not your business any more than it was his classmates business to share his writing.

In what way is this 15year old boy writing about these girls he has compiled files for in his iPad? From what his parents have said about him writing fantasies about them indicates that he could have been writing sexual fantasies about them with their photographs. If the girls have been made aware of this of course they're not going to want to interact with him at all and the schools head teacher cannot force them to be friendly with him. What has this boy now done with the contents of the iPad? I know you said the kids who came across it all and took screenshots has been suspended for sharing them across school and been made to delete all those screenshots but what consequences has the boy had for his seemingly stalkerish behaviour towards the girls he has been writing about?

While the behaviour of those who shared the contents is a problem, it's not the only problem. The boy's behaviour is common, but it's not good. Focusing on your colleagues as an unreciprocated romentic/sexual focus is behaviour that needs to redirected, nto accepted as okay. It is creepy. And yes, lots of people of both sexes engage in that sort of thing when they are young and most grow out of it.

But a significant number do not. And when they are focusing on individuals in their social/school/work circles in this way it changes the way they treat them and others of the same sex as their targets. So there are two reasons to not just say - it's okay, it's normal.

One - it's not okay because it affects the atmosphere those girls have to put up with at school. I is particularly common for girls to find school environments treats them as less rounded than their male counterparts and find they are ignored other than for their potential as romantic/sexual partners and this sort of behaviour is part of why that happens.

Two - this is how stalking starts, an unreciprocated focus on others. Obviously, as said before, most teens grow out of it, but by no means all. Not realising that it's unfair on your colleagues to focus on them like this is not surprising in a teen, but to not be told that when it's out in the open and for your targets to not be given validation in their upset at it, gives the message that actually it's fine. It isn't. As I'm sure the female teachers in the school would feel if they found out one of the male teachers was collecting photos on them and making notes about how they felt about seeing them.

Both can be a problem. It’s not an either /or situation.

I called a guy at my school "creepy".

He wasn't. I didn't know him, and when I got to know him, he was lovely.

You are getting one side of a story here, and second-hand facts.

No, they are responsible for much more in law including dealing with criminal behaviour in schools and overseeing the discharge of a schools responsibility under statute. Schools have a responsibility to meet the outcomes of laws governing schools. That's what the local authority Education Dept. Is there to ensure, together withe the transactional stuff you've mentioned.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65ce3721e1bdec001a3221fe/Behaviour_in_schools_-_advice_for_headteachers_and_school_staff_Feb_2024.pdf

The other kid had no right leaking another kids private iPad contents. it’s the distribution of the content that’s the problem, not the having of them.

Our council education department deals with school admissions, term dates, transport, and special educational needs. Where exactly would this situation fit?

What Education Dept do you think I mean? Apart from the government theres only one locally and that's in the council. So wow how uninformed are you??

Na the school can get fucked. He can't tell tales on girls because they won't talk to him. Creepy af

I assumed they meant the local authority, but was also a bit confused

Um wow. This is nonsense. Which ‘education department’ are you repeatedly referring to?

If I was you I would speak to the parents of the other girls and all go to talk to the headteacher. I would also see if it was possible to retrieve the photos that were deleted as the may be in the bin folder and make threats of;

1. pulling all the girls from the school
2. going to the police
3. going to the press If you don't get a satisfactory answer.

The school is putting these girls at risk. Where do people think stalkers and rapists start? Do they just spring out of the ground? No just like serial killers they all start somewhere and it is usually in adolescents. If some of the other teenage boys thought this was bad enough to hack his tablet and share screenshot of the folders it shows you that this is wrong.

If these were inappropriate images the police would have to be called. The school can’t deal with this internally. If the images are inappropriate, the boy and anyone he shared them with will face legal consequences

Please don’t drop this, it isn’t normal behaviour by any stretch. A young male should not be left believing this is normal behaviour. The school have made a dangerous decision and I wouldn’t leave it.

we have just finished a court case because if a teacher who sent my child sexual messages and photos via WhatsApp.

Things happen - even in schools!

Have you considered approaching a solicitor for advice? Maybe a few parents could do this together and find out what can be done, not only about the boy in question, but also (and more importantly) the way that the school management is behaving. I think I might find out what, if anything, the suspended boy's parents are doing too.

I think what I am saying crystalises down to everyone get their ducks in a row and together, bring out the big guns and take the matter as high as necessary (outside the school).

This seems like unusual behaviour and this child could have special educational needs / social communication difficulties that need supporting. I wonder if there is an element of bullying here.
The child may be seen as different, quirky - being described as ‘creepy’. Does a friend really hack into someone’s devices and leak their personal data and share it around the school in this way if they’re concerned? Surely reporting it would be the thing to do. Perhaps they are the ones being targeted? Is this fact? Hearsay? Did it actually happen in the way you’ve described? Has it turned into a rumour-fest with kids fanning the flames? It all feels a bit off. I would imagine the safeguarding team are already on it. You won’t be told what’s going on.

It’s probably going to look a bit weird, but I teenager has got hold of standard photos and added text about each person. I take it that nothing derogatory, offensive, overtly personal details have been added?
granted it’s a bit weird, but teenagers can do that and I guess nowadays with the digital platforms they can quickly create and store many.

Another child has seen them and instead of carefully notifying staff they have chosen to share these images thus causing more distress, GDPR etc the school had to act. Some will say the child highlighted it, others may have wished a more discreet answer.

the boy who originally stored photos would be better having no access to any school media moving forward.

The Education dept may be a place to start or speak to NSPCC for advice and an independant opinion on the matter. I Would suggest you deal with the Education Dept in any event as they oversee the workings of schools and adherence to policies. Unfortunately if you don't give contact details you may hit a brick wall. However, if you speak to someone in Education safeguarding, they may well take it forward as they may be able to share the subject of the complaint with the school but not who made it as again, to do so would be a breach of GDPR. I would say a meeting with the girls and Education safeguarding would be astarting point. Cut the school out of it and let the Education Dept deal with it. Tell Education you are considering reporting the breach to the police and Information Commissioner. If they don't take notice put in a formal complaint. Howeverif they have any sense, they will deal with it.
If there is any bullying of children by the school in future report that to the Education Dept as well. Put everything in writting. Schools are not allowedto bully children to protect their own failings. If it was my child I would be at the school telling them that there is to be no further discussion on this matter without an adult present but you may also want to make that request to the Education Dept and ensure anonymity for your child and others.

I work in a school and am very involved in safeguarding. I agree that photographs on the school platforms need to be carefully checked as some children, will need careful safeguarding for multiple reasons and their images being available on the website can be very dangerous indeed.

There will also be an explicit clause, for parents who have consented to the publication of school photos, which states how the photos can be used, and that will be perhaps advertising of the school, and on their website to document activities.

I understand that what the boy has done will be seen as creepy by the children involved.
However, at 15, I don't think that children always understand about what is appropriate. There was a very serious incident at my daughter's school, whereby an image of a girl was altered from a photo (not from the school website), was extremely inappropriate and was also shared between the other kids. The police were called. The boys involved were suspended but now back in class, which I think is dreadful.
I am also aware that my own daughter has had to block one 16 year old boy who was trying to obtain pictures of her to pass around to humiliate her and shared an image of her on a group call where she was pulling a face. That wasn't sexually motivated, but she was very upset. Parents need to be aware of this.
It doesn't sound like this is what this boy is doing, it sounds like he has some crushes and is figuring out his feelings. It's not appropriate use of media and needs to be taken seriously by school, but it does not sound like it's anything as serious as the incident at my daughter's school. Those boys aren't being bullied or shunned by their peers and I do think the girl must feel pretty awful being around them, in my opinion the police should have taken it further and the school should have excluded them. It was very, very bad but it has apparently been 'dealt with' and I trust that the school will have followed procedures to safeguard the children despite parents not always being made aware of what exactly this may have entailed.

Perhaps you should request a meeting with the school to find out what has been done, it may be that there have been sanctions imposed or involvement of outside agencies, which have not been made public.

The boy must be mortified. We can't know what his intention with the pictures was, but he must be feeling quite devastated to know everyone thinks he's a creep and his parents must be upset. It doesn't however, take away from the fact that girls feel uncomfortable. He needs learning around this (pretty sure the shock of being exposed like this may be sufficient to prevent it happening again) and this topic should be covered extensively in PSHE lessons. His parents need to monitor what he's doing and, at the very least, the school needs to take away his camera!

Imagine if your daughter’s bullying and your enabling of her and her friends’ behaviour results in this boy hurting himself or worse. Speak to the school if you’re worried. But creating a petition against the boy? Disgraceful.

Where did you get thorough investigation, welfare officers and SLT (rather than just the deputy) from? The same place you got your bullying?