Teachers on Facebook and night out

[GreenGreenGrassBlue]

I’ve name changed for this, my friend was showing me photos of her children’s SLT (Dep Heads, other teachers) out on a night out in a City. She’s friends with one of the Teachers on Facebook.

There are photos of them enjoying a night out, doing shots etc and this Teacher is friends with a number of parents on Facebook.

AIBU to think it’s probably not appropriate to share these sort of photos on Facebook?

It is titled like a pre back to work night out with a number of parents commenting things like ‘are you ready?’.

Im not saying don’t go out but not sure how appropriate it is for teachers to be sharing like this on Facebook.

I did once work in a Catholic school were an unmarried teacher was put on additional leave ahead of her maternity so that parents and children wouldn't know she was pregnant. She was told that she'd only have a job after her maternity was done if she had married her partner by then.

It wouldn't have held up in court but, in the end, she did it and returned married with a baby 20 months later.

Our LA Social Media policy would strongly advise against having parents on your SM for this reason. Yeah , tell teacher to bin the parents.

My DC's TA attended a parent's party (which also included the parent's primary age children this TA taught) in blackface (they are in the same social circle). She also had form for having public, drunken, sweary shouting matches with her husband at community events (again, often in front of parents/children from school). It was hard to respect her as a professional.

No it isn't. I'm a teacher, and we were simply reminded to keep our Facebook pages 'friends only'. It says in the OP that the person showing the photos to OP is a friend of the teacher.

You know teachers are real people with the exact same rights as you or anyone else right? of course they are allowed to be on facebook and go out.

If they posted pictures of them doing Jager Bombs in class with your kids then you can be pissed but otherwise stop discriminating.

It isn’t a sackable offence for teachers, where did you get that from?
Teachers are encouraged to maintain a professional presence on social media and the updated safeguarding policy for this September tells schools to check all social media for anyone that they are considering inviting for an interview for any position in a school.
It is disappointing that teachers and other professionals get judged for having a life and wanting to share things with their friends and family on social media but sadly that is the reality of the society that we live in.

My DSis is not allowed to be on fb. Teacher in UK.

It is not a big deal? It does not mean she does not have a life!

Pupils will always search for you on fb. My DD and her friends were looking at their maths teachers posts only last week.

I have a friend I've known for years but it also happens that she's a teacher at DD's school. The day DD started she unfriended me on facebook and sent a note explaining it would be unprofessional to be friends with a parent on social media. DD left at the end of the summer and after the GCSE results came out I got a friend request from her.

That's professional

Teenagers will try and hack into everything also... they are so much more media savvy than us.

Instagram seems a nightmare, who is following who etc... they can track down all sorts of things.

I agree it is thee way of the world now. I steer clear.

If I read it right ..you saw these posts because a friend is a friend on FB with one of the teachers ...so the photos were not out in the public domain your friend shared them with you ....so .......
I'm a teacher
I use FB
I changed my fab name so I'm not easily findable plus my security is as tight as it can be,I'm friend with one parent as I've known her for years but even if she saw anything on my page she would never show another parent !!!!

I think being fb friends with parents is unprofessional, unless obv they were friends first but then it's unfair of your friend to show them to you. It probably does go against school policy - I'm a health professional and when I was training we heard some horror stories of people being struck off because of what they shared on social media (one I remember is an AHP got struck off for skinny dipping abroad).

I'm all for having a life outside of work but I share it carefully!

Ah, back to school looms and the teacher bashing posts have begun. Can't imagine any teacher would accept a friend request from a parent of a kid in their class, so while I haven't RTFT I am calling bullshit on this, OP. Nice attempt at whipping up the teacher hate though.

Rules must me inconsistent then as all the teachers I know are on FB, and are allowed to be. If children can see their posts, then the teacher hasn't got the simplest of security settings in place. Teachers are given guidance on that.

Of course not having FB doesn't mean you haven't got a life. Lots of people don't have F!B, through choice. But no one should be saying teachers can't post on social media. I'd never heard of teachers being told they can't be on FB at all until this post

I think most people realise that teachers and school staff are actually humans and are perfectly entitled to a night out.

Of course they can have whatever social nights out they want.

But putting it on Facebook where parents of the school can see it shows a poor lack of judgement.

The thing is, people make up fake accounts, get you to accept them via this or that. fb is not a good idea for teachers. It makes them vulnerable.

Likewise dating sites. NIGHTMARE

How come your friend doesn’t know you better and didn’t know you’d be weird Snd judgey about it? They are teachers, not the Finnish government.

If a group of nurses posted pictures of themselves at a night out-would you be up in arms at that as well?!

I see nothing wrong with it; except that it's probably best for parents and their children's teachers not to be FB friends. But that's not what you asked. The teacher wasn't doing anything scandalous. Does anyone really think that teachers never go to the pub?

But why? What's unprofessional about going to a party ? If we are allowed out where parents might actually see us at a party in the flesh, what's so different about a photo? If a parent happens to be at the same party as us do we need to leave?

That's not the point for the thousandth time.

I own a business, however, I do not befriend clients/customers.
My Facebook is private, plus I do not ever post anything that might be seen as contentious.

They are people with the same rights as ALL other people... they arent posting porn for god sake.

Just as they are allowed a night out they are also allowed

• friends
• ways to communicate with friend/family
• to take photos of fun times
• to show photos of fun times with friend/family

You/your kid is more likely to see them out in person in real life than on social media for god sake weather thats them at the beach/swimming pool in a bikini, at the shops, jogging through the park in tight work out clothes, out on a date night in a sexy dress or hell if your kids are teens and trying their luck or your the type that goes clubbing even in the pub doing shots.

They are allowed to post pictures of nights out, date night, holiday snaps or the race they just ran etc... just like you and other parent's can.

Your kids are equally as likely to google their classmates mams, do you ban them and yourself from social media 'for the kids sake', frankly I would have been far more traumatised by my parents having social media than a teacher (luckily my school days predate facebook) too or are you just hypocritical.

This was an existing friendship that started before the parent/teacher relationship. There is almost always an exception for such cases in my experience, or at least should be.

Wow, September 3rd must be a record for the earliest in the academic year for teacher bashing threads to start.