Is this GDPR breach

[Harass3d]

A complaint has been lodged with my employer about a comment I made on social media (not upheld!). This complaint has come from the head teacher at my son's school and he has identified himself as such (fine) but then goes on to identify me as a parent (which has no relevance to his complaint) am I right in thinking this is a breach of GDPR? It is no business of my employers where my son goes to school.

One secondary school. There are various primary schools. It doesn't necessarily mean my son attends there he could (for all my employers knew) be in private education 🤷

private data ?
The obligation not to disclose personal data.

all children in one area attend the same school!!!

The correct term is

... all children in one area may attend the same school

The OP has no obligation to send her child to the local school.

The opening post

but then goes on to identify me as a parent [...of the school where he is Head]

The Head has changed an assumption to a factual disclosure that her child is a student at his school.

For all the LA knows she could have told her employer that her child had been accepted early to Cambridge.

You keep distorting the facts to try and make them fit a narrative which exonerates the Headteacher @gingerlybread when the OP has stated them clearly multiple times. She did not post in a parent group. She responded to a comment made by one of her Facebook friends on her normal Facebook feed and neither of them named the school or the headteacher nor did the OP say she had a child at that school on facebook.

You repeatedly say you are highly trained and experienced in this field but you don’t seem to understand basic data protection principles nor are you starting from the premise that the law is there to protect the rights of the data subject (in this case the child) and that the role of the DPO or responsible person is to protect the child’s rights by ensuring the employees and ergo the Head do the right thing not to protect the Head when he messes up.

I suspect that you may be a Business Manager in a school who reports to a Head and has had basic data training but sees their loyalty to the school and not the data subjects when these issues arise.

However hard you try to contextualise this, the child (who is the data subject) cannot have their rights waived by the behaviour of the mother. Not that the behaviour sounds in any way egregious but even had the OP done something totally beyond the pale, the Headteacher cannot decide in his personal or his official capacity that this entitles him to breach the data rights of her child. He could only do so if he had a legitimate interest (eg if he needed to contact the employer to get a message to the OP because her child had been injured at school and she wasn’t picking up the phone).

So what’s your plan then Op? How are you going to pursue?

and do you think the school is failing your son in terms of his education?

I am reluctant to answer this second question on a public forum - I am aware I should have carried on pursuing my original complaint down the official channels but it's draining. Posting the comment was very out of character for me, what was I expecting from posting such a comment I don't know, what I will say though is since then someone has been in contact with me about the initial problems so it's done something.

How I resolve this I don't know. I'm not really sure where to begin with it. As I said up thread I'm not annoyed he contacted my employer - I know I've never given my employer any reason to doubt that I don't respect my industry, role or that I am unprofessional. Had my employer found me to be in break of a policy I would have had to accept that & dealt with the consequences. Had he contacted them, provided a full copy of the discussion for context & not followed up with the false accusations I probably would have left it as it was. But he didn't, the letter he sent I honestly feel reads quite passive aggressive, is untrue & I believe he has tried to use his position to influence. For what its worth its worth my position is way lower down the ranks in my industry compared to him in his.

This complaint went right to the top of services, he didn't come in at local level despite knowing where I worked he went to the very top of the chains. Somebody has read this complaint about me and will now probably - as humans do - have made an assumption on me based on untruths and this is not okay.

Given what I feel is a clear over reaction, I am now cautious about entering into dialogue with him which isn't ideal.

I am awaiting further advice from my lawyers & will seek support from my work to.

I would like to reiterate, again, I have no interest in suing as has been suggested up thread as my sole reason for chasing this.

You have contacted “my lawyers” ? when?

I am aware I should have carried on pursuing my original complaint down the official channels but it's draining. you weren’t with other parents on this? And had you taken your complaint beyond the school? La? Ofsted?

That's irrelevant & quite frankly none of your business.

With other parents on what?

Surely all the dozens of other parents so appalled with the school are also complaining?

you are coming across as something of a bully @TicklishRubyCritic

OP has a child with additional needs which may well put her in a very different position to other parents who have low level dissatisfaction with the school if those additional needs aren’t being met.

I don't know. I haven't gone round parents quizzing them nor am I trying to gather "a gang". My complaint was specific to my child, that's my battle

Weird

so these parents all criticising the school, lots of them you say, you’ve never discussed with any of them or heard whether any of them have complained.

Oh I see your complaint was specific to your child. Seems a bit harsh to describe the entire school as shambolic on the basis of your experience engaging with them )and you son is happy there?)

The LA and Ofsted don't accept complaints about schools (Ofsted may if it's a serious safeguarding issue).

@Harass3d When pupils are failing at school, it's very rarely the school's fault.

Especially in this day and age. When I was at school, if you missed something in class, then you missed it. Nowadays, pupils have access to the internet and can basically teach themselves anything about any school topic. It's a mystery how anyone could score below 90% on a school maths exam today with so many resources online.

There are a lot of issues & ion general the parents are very unhappy with the school at present.

so not aware of any other complaining at all? This is all quite odd

Op says “very serious” and many issues and lots of parents are “very unhappy”

and the school would be response entirely for dealing with this unless safeguarding?

https://www.gov.uk/complain-to-ofsted

there’s even an online link to contact ofsted and makes no reference that can only be about safeguarding

OP's complaint is about the lack of SEN provision for her son. How is that not the fault of the school?

oh the complaint was isolated to SEN provision? I missed that apologies

Why do you assume my child is failing?

Trying to “gather a gang”

ok that’s one way of looking at engaging with other “very unhappy” parents to formulate a group complaint in order to be taken more seriously

I suspect you can move the UK bell curve to 100% pass rate at an average mark of 90% you can name your price and ask to be crowned king of education too 🎓

https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/education-skills-and-training/11-to-16-years-old/a-to-c-in-english-and-maths-gcse-attainment-for-children-aged-14-to-16-key-stage-4/latest/#data-sources

@Harass3d Why do you assume my child is failing?

Because that's generally the reason why parents have contact with a head teacher. My brother and sister in law had a lot of contact with the head, though it should have been clear that the issue was that their children were doing fuck all in terms of work and studying.

It's generally unusual for parents to have any real contact with teachers or school staff. The head teacher at my school was completely unknown to my parents and my parents had almost no involvement with my education, as is the case with any straight A pupil.

It is quite clear you don't want to take what I'm saying at face value - and that is absolutely fine - I don't think there's any point in me engaging with you any further at this point.

Congratulations to you & your parents. My child will never be a straight A pupil. Perhaps if you read the thread you will see why.