to think that a teacher contacting my 15 year old cousin via twitter is gross miss conduct?!

[winniesmum]

Just that really. The content its self was not inappropriate in its self by surely the situation is???!!! I'm not her legal guardian but might as well be :/

winnies as far as school is concerned you have PR if she is resident with you - there is DoE guidance on this if you google.

Is it a school twitter account? I would email my pupils re work and homework or they follow my "teacher name" to ask me questions but I have a filter and would never give them my private email or let them follow my personal twitter account.

Have to admit I wondered if it was a school twitter account - a couple of schools in my area have them and pupils are also able to follow teacher names. He's the ICT teacher - so if the school does have a twitter account it would be totally in his domain.

I run a secondary school and I would say that if this is not a school twitter account, you are absolutely right to contact the school, if only for the sake of the teacher who is exposing himself to great risk of accusations. He will probably have to be spoken to by the head but they may not put any disciplinary sanctions in place if the messages aren't inappropriate. Wewould certainly issue at least a management instruction and make him refamiliarise himself with safer working practices guidelines etc. It protects students and teachers if the boundaries are clear and this teacher needs telling

In my sixth form college, if we have a Twitter or Facebook account which is to be shared by students and staff, the passwords and other details have to be handed to management.

I think this teacher is being inappropriate. He could email her via the school's email system or send her a text through the school's system if he needed her to come in for coursework etc. I know we have been told under no circumstances should we communicate with them in any other way. It leaves you open to accusations. I don't like the fact he commented her on her deleting him and the fact he's sending her private messages.

My students are on Twitter and if I was desperate I could put a message on there saying, "Oy, come and see me, your coursework's late" but it would still be considered unacceptable and I could be disciplined for it. I wouldn't send a private message though, even though my students are 16 and over and the message would never be about anything but work.

Report him, for his own sake if not hers. He could end up being accused of all sorts.