School used DD to advertise private businesses without our knowledge.

[m011y]

Sorry, new to MN and posted under staffroom, but should have been here. AIBU.
DC school has a 'business club'. We are not part of the club and as far as I can work out its a networking organisation for parents of small businesses. Financial support of the school is not a prerequisite to joining. The business club produces a termly magazine, mostly of advertising stuff, which is also uploaded to a website. This week the magazine came home with photographs of our DD in her school uniform holding placards promoting private businesses. We don't know the businesses or their owners and didn't consent to this. We agreed (signed the form)that DC could be photographed and appear on the school website/prospectus or around the school, but this is , in our opinion, entirely different from using our DD to promote private businesses, some of which don't even support the school financially. We are furious and have emailed the club and the head and are waiting a reply. AIBU?

thank you all for your responses. I've got stuff to do (filing Yeeeha), so won't check again until this evening, so I'm not being rude, just going silent. thanks x

the school isn't getting ANY benefit, the businesses are getting benefit.
Do you know this for sure OP?

The school should not be using your DD in this way. Regardless of what you signed, it's an abuse of trust and they should know better IMO.

I'm sorry, but I think the term "outside agencies" 100% covers this situation. You should really have crossed that bit of the consent form out.

Outside agency is a red herring. The key here is the words “school publications”. This is, technically, a school publication. However, since most schools don’t promote third party businesses in this way, I would strongly argue that it was not reasonable to expect you to know that this type of use would be covered by that term. It implies school newsletters, prospectuses and the like. At the very least, I would expect the school to make this potential category of use clear in the consent form and possibly also to seek specific consent as a separate item on the same form.

I’m sure your lovely DD was chosen because she is cute, pretty and well turned out. But I’m also about the singling out of one child in this way.

So do I ceto.
It sounds to me like a school parents club like the PTA (so totally different to m&s doing an ad campaign).

An old school of mine had a business card jar scheme for parentats with small businesses. I can't recall how it worked now but essentially it was businesses donated to the PTA and then had space on PTA fliers or something.

The school or church will be getting some financial reward - hence why school allow pupils to be photographed under the "outside agencies and promotional" clause.

I would email to say you did not sign up for your DD to be a free model for local businesses. Ask for financial accounts showing how they are financially connected to school/church and say you withdraw future photographs, you don't give permission for these to appear online and in future you don't consent to any photo being used on a generic basis but will consent on a case by case premise when you have the information about how and where the photos will be used.

She is standing/sitting (there are 3 different companies she is photographed with) holding professionally made placards with all the business details on them. That's totally not on. Taking photos of the children doing school activities is one thing, using them for a blatant advertising prop is another. You've gotta nip these things in the bud, if things like this aren't picked up and pointed out as wrong, it'll be a slippery slope of worse to come. Good for you OP. Most people are sleep walking through life.

This isnt a school photo is local businesses using the school kids to promote thier business for free. Thars not what you sign for wjen you sign to say your child can be photographed at school doing school stuff. This club is not run by the school its run by local businesses they have no right to use someones child to advertise thier business. What if op,as she has said, did not agree with one of the business's methods or what they were selling yet finds her dd doing their advertising for them?

Its ridiculous. Kids are in school to learn not to be used as free models for local businesses.

The school has overstepped the mark here. If they allow the business club to be run by parents then fine but it should be seperate from normal school activities. Op didnt sign up to allow her dd to be used willy nilly to promote somone else's business.

I wonder how many parents who signed forms at school even considered that it meant "we will use your child to actively promote businesses who have nothing to do with your childs learning experience"?

I think YABU.

You agreed for her to be photographed for the school - this is what this is. What difference does it make that it's for the business club? I am not sure why you're "furious".

I'd be furious actually.
I do think your consent form may cover this situation but I'm struggling to understand why this club has a connection with the school at all,as it is essentially a club for the owners of small businesses. The fact that some of the owners are parents of children in the school doesn't seem relevant.
Even if they provide financial support it seems a bit off,and as a parent I'd like to know if any strings are attached to that.
But from how you are describing this OP it does sound as if a group of local businesses have an arrangement which allows them to use children at their local STATE school for advertising purposes without any specific consent, which I think is way off acceptable.

I am a governor at a Cof E school. This is the most bizarre thing I have heard in a while. Using small children to promote businesses by taking photos in school on school premises would annoy me even if it wasn't my own child. I am sure there are actually rules about this but even if there aren't, this is very un C of E. But then so is having a 'business club' !

If they had to do it, they should have arranged for one of the DCs of one of the business owners to do it, surely?? I am presuming a range of children was used and not just your DD?

Technically it may not be advertising. The photos are in a newsletter about the business club. If it's made clear that it's listing membership of the business club (with a photo of each business' details) then it could be argued that it's purpose isn't to generate publicity or sales but to inform.
I don't think the school have breached the terms of the consent form so all you can do is withdraw your consent going forward. I doubt they'd consider the business club newsletter to be an outside agency so even if you deleted the outside agency clause, they could still use your DD's pics in internal publications for different clubs regardless of how you felt about the activities/businesses/principles being mentioned.

willow
I'm not saying I morally agree with it, just that I think it probably will be covered under thr form OP has signed.

Our consent form for school is split into sections e.g.

1. Images/videos can be taken in school (including trios and extra clubs etc) and used at school events e.g assemblies, inset etc
2. Images/videos can be taken in school (includong trips etc) and uses in printed material e.g. newsletters/thr prospectus /local paper
3. Images can be used online but not social media
4. Images can be used in all categories

And then i think there's a box about wider use than school but not sure. We don't tend to have anything that doesn't link to those categories.

the school isn't getting ANY benefit, the businesses are getting benefit.

My DC go to a school that was built by a local firm (old school just new building on new site) around 3 years ago. We fly a flag with the companies name on it on the school site (even now 3 years down the line) for which the school gets £3000 a year from the building company. The company is well known around here and nobody pays attention to the flag, but it's free money for the school so to speak, so we happily put up with it.

I'm surprised that people think this is OK.

Who took the photos and did your DD hold the advertising signs or were they digitally added to some existing photos that were taken as part of normal school activities?

If they were specifically taken during school time solely for advertising I'd be pretty cross as well, that's not a normal thing for a school to do.

Because it's not for the school,heron98,its for a group of local businesses.Its not a club children are involved with,like choir!
It may financially benefit the school but that seems unclear here,and in that situation I would want to have been asked " do you consent to your DCs being used in advertising material to promote businesses who support the school financially"
And I'd like to know how much support!

I'm surprised that people think this is OK.
There is a difference between:

1. A situation we would choose for our child
2. A situation where someone has ticked a box allowing this to happen.

I wouldn't consent for my child's photos to be used by external agencies and would query any questions on a form before signing. 'I didn't think x y z would count' isn't really a defence when someone has signed something.

If the OP has signed a form allowing this then it is ok for the school to have done it, regardless of what any of us personally think of the business club.

I have never heard of a school 'business club', how bizarre!

I would definitely speak to the school and raise your concerns, setting them out clearly as you have here. I imagine they will just say it's covered by 'outside agencies' but like you I would have imagined that to be local paper or a visitor that has come in and wants to use the pics on their own social media. Not your kids being used in free advertising for local businesses, wtf? Is that even allowed (I guess so?)

I guess it is if you are the sort of person who files a consent form for having photos taken! Who has time for that sort of stuff?

Consent forms have a basis in law - you are actively signing to give someone else a "right" to do something... damn right people file them.

(Anything I sign gets copied and put in "the school folder" which gets reviewed and emptied of most stuff every summer - helps to keep track of what has been sent back to school etc)

I would also be unhappy OP. I would ask for a meeting with the governors/head to discuss your concerns making it clear to them that you did not give consent to this.

I’d be very cross about this too and I’m not the cross sort.

I think you are going just a tad OTT OP, you signed the consent form. The way I. See it and I’m prepared to be corrected but companies usually put up raffle prizes, support the school football team etc, so having a child holding a placard with a business name on isn’t such a big issue especially if said business supports School functions. I wouldn’t be furious though, just say that consent is now withdrawn, but I should imagine after your complaint I doubt they would involve you DD in things again anyway. Hope you get a satisfactory resolution.

Our school also has a business club where parents who own their own business meet to back scratch and “network”. I avoid it like the plague.

It is a massive cheek for the club to use your child to promote the businesses, I would be very annoyed!

I have never heard of a school 'business club', how bizarre!
I have. Usually they are linked to the PTA so the PTA may run networking evenings for small business owners or in order to cober the costs of printing programmes for concerts and plays etc members of thr businesses club would donate to the printing costs and they get a busienss card sized advert inside the cover (similar to small sports teams getting sponsored by a local business).
I've not come across the sort of get a child to model business cards that's in the OP's situation though.

But I have known of business clubs having a newsletter that has slotted into the main school one once a year.

YANBU. I would also be furious about this and schedule a meeting with the head to calmly discuss it.