to want my head teacher to take this seriously?

[DrSeuss]

Yesterday, I became aware that kids at my school knew the name I use on FB (not my real name as I am a TA and we are advised to use a pseudonym). Yesterday evening, my profile picture was changed while I was out of the house with no internet access. I confirmed the time at which it was done and no way was it me. My son was also out at that time and there is no one else it could have been. Today, a Y9 plainly knew details of a conversation i had last night on my page on a fortunately unimportant thing. During a lesson today, some Y9s kept looking at me, then whispering and laughing.

I reported all this to the head. He says I could not have been hacked unless they had my password. Clearly not interested. Suggests I see the IT tech for advice on security. My settings are already at the max possible and I never have my phone at work. I have reported it to FB, changed my password, even though there was no way for the kids at school to have found it out, then changed my user name to something really obscure.

AIBU to want them to take this seriously? To at least speak to the kid who seemed to know about my private on line conversation? I copied my union rep into my email to the head. What are the legalities of this? Our school has form for students being treated differently depending on the seniority of the staff they did something t e.g., tell a lowly TA to fuck off, get an hour in isolation, tell a member of SLT to fuck off, get a two day exclusion. Doubt the head would be so laid back if it was his account.

Should I take it further? I would be happy for someone fairly senior to see the kids involved and just point out that, while we can't prove anything, they should be aware of the consequences of trying anything like that. I am pretty sure that someone more tech savvy than me does't need a password to get into my account.

All advice gratefully received, thanks.

Don't have any advice on the head teacher but you should be able to find an option in facebook to see all log ins, which part of the country that were from and what device was used

What was your profile picture changed to? Was it a previous profile photo?

No, a picture from my timeline earlier that day.

Check your settings. I know that anytime I log on from a different device I get an email telling me that an unknown device has logged into my acct (and tells me what the device is). If you don't get those emails then you are not as secure as you could be.

The Head can't access any info to verify anything either way.

Facebook can verify the IP address and the Police could be asked to speak to the children to shake them up as they have committed an offence. Depends how strongly you want them warned?

How did the kids know your pseudonym & password?

I get notifications up the yingyang if I sign in from another other device.
Can you go through your emails and that to see if any match up with when it changed

Don’t use Facebook but it is easy to know peoples pseudonyms.

If a friend of a friend etc knows a mutual friend then your name and picture will be offered up as Do you want to make friends type thing.

I only have FB because of a certain site I use.

You would be supervised how many people try to connect with me.

If a friend of a friend etc knows a mutual friend then your name and picture will be offered up as Do you want to make friends type thing.

Yes but why would a link to a pupil show up?

Loads of ways. OP had a son about the same age, plenty of scope there. Friends with colleagues so are friends with their children Argo attends the same school or are friends with OPs son.

Oh I just assumed that there wouldn't be a link as I thought there was an privacy edit which stops anyone outside of your friend list from finding you using a search.

There's been two occasions where there's been one family member between dd and her teacher.

Primary school, dds reception teacher turned out to be my brothers wife's best friend. I knew it was her because once asked my dd if she knows a,b,c and d family members, wed had a death in the family and because I didn't change my name on marriage when the teacher realised my surname matched with her best friends husband and we'd both lost a parent with the same name she raised her best friend was married to my brother. She used to come up in my "people you may know" under a different name. I never told anyone, not dd it even dh her Facebook name but it's possible other parents would.

Her current y10 teacher turns out to be my stepsons friend from school. He also has a different username but more of a daft jokey one along the lines of "hugh jass" and had been coming up in my people you may know for years. Dd isn't the only pupil with an older sibling who will have attended school with this teacher and there's a very good chance family of his pupils are on his friend list.

and i thought by restricting your "who can see my stuff" to yourself & deselecting search engines like google linking your profile it reduced the frequency of you appearing in suggested friends list & that other users can't see mutual friends or list of followers.

Log on to the account and see what devices have the account details saved and you will also be able to see where you’ve recently signed in. This is all available in settings and you can remove unrecognised devices. Change your password.

Thank you all for your excellent advice. However, what is really annoying me is the Head's attitude. I know that if it was, say, a Head of Department, he'd be bothered. Just another example of how low level support staff don't really count.

I understand your frustration but this isn't really the head's problem. You have no proof yet that a pupil hacked you, and there have been no severe consequences (yet). So you need to work with your social media provider to work out what's happened and how to increase your online security.

Yabu . The HT advised you on contacting IT. Not a lot else to do.There's have no proof of any child doing anything really except viewing your FB page. The hacking seems separate. Children search and find school staff by various means and ever thus it shall be . You are responsible for your social media I'm afraid. See IT, close it or change frequently. Chip on your shoulder about HT driving this !

It’s not necessarily because you’re support staff, maybe the head is sick of Facebook and the problems it causes, or worried about accusing a child without proof.

I'm not sure what the head can do tbh.

His advice was to speak to IT and that's good advice.

How did they get around the two factor authentication ?

Contacting IT sounds sensible to me

They don't need to know password or pseudonym if they managed to get hold of your phone during the day. They would obviously need to unlock your phone but I doubt it's that difficult.

I feel like if a Y9 had hacked into your Facebook and changed your profile photo, surely at that age they would be immature enough to change your picture to something really silly rather than just a picture from your timeline..
What did the Y9 say that indicated they knew details of a conversation you had on your FB? Is it definitely from the conversation or could it just be a coincidence?

OP I agree with you. The HT would take it a lot more seriously if it was SLT.

There is absolutely no reason he can’t haul those pupils in and give them a talking to.

I know how bad TAs are often (usually?) treated.

And how little they are valued. Teachers / HTs moan (quite rightly) incessantly about how budgets have been cut and they can’t afford enough TAs. Yet they very often treat the ones they have appallingly

Im not sure what you expect. The head has no proof that students have hacked your account.

Going to IT first sounds like an entirely reasonable step to suggest.

As others have said, check your emails for the login notifications. If there's not one then there has to be another reason.

Out of interest, what's your phone security and did you leave you phone lying around at work? Have you ever signed in to social media on school devices? That would also be worth passing go the head depending what IT say.