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.

Not really he has had zero interaction with me professionally, I however have had interaction with him professionally.

Why on earth are you talking about the headteacher to people on social media? That really is not fair. Imagine if you were talked about like that. Well, it appears you have been in retaliation, serves you right.

If you have genuine complaints (not petty stuff), about a head teacher, complain to the board of governors but don't gossip about them on social media. That is awful!

I doubt that is covered by GDPR. But he only has the information he holds about OP for the express purpose of dealing with her child’s education. He’s used that info for another purpose without good cause.

The OP has never said they put “in my professional opinion” in their FB post. That was a suggestion from another poster on this thread, that IF the OP had said that, the HT might have been justified in contacting the employer

Unless he did have sex with goats, of course

To go against the grain here. Without knowing the full story and what was said - this could end up being 50/50. GDPR issues and potentially libel for you op. Not naming the school/head doesn’t make it ok. If people can identify the school/head then it still stands. Depending on what you said about him, you could also fall foul of the malicious communications act which is a criminal matter. Posting on a private page does not solve these issues. Anything on the internet is never private.

No-one can say none of these issues don’t apply without knowing the full story.

Well, quite.

You’ve lost sleep.

Imagine how much sleep he has lost reading 110 negative comments about him and the school he probably puts 60 hours a week into running. If it’s anything like our local Facebook groups it’s the same few negative parents that moan. 90% of the parents are happy but don’t feel the need to comment on Facebook.

I imagine one of those parents or even a member of staff screen shot them and sent them to him. Said look at these comments from Mrs X, she works for so and so with the NHS. You think she’d know better.

I think there are almost two separate issues. One how he found your employer, did he access your sons record? It’s normally very easy to find where people work though, are you on LinkedIn? If you google your name does it come up? Could someone have told him? I feel he may be able to have how he found that.
I think the bigger issue is that he did it at all! If you are being honest about your comments I think his reaction is completely out of line. It has nothing to do with your employee. It’s harassment and so inappropriate. I’d be following the complaint procedure. It might be worth checking with other commenters on the post - did he do this to others?

So you breached the school’s confidentiality regarding their processes dealing with SEN children? And wrote potentially defamatory comments about the head at the same time, triggering a long thread slagging him off? Can see why he’s pissed off but there must be something specific about your job for him to complain.

Schools don't keep records of parents' employers and surely it is obvious since you were whinging about the school on social media about how unhappy all the parents are that you're a parent of a child at the school?

Saying in someone's opinion on social media that a school is useless is not libel.

Otherwise many many parents would end up in the courts.

This is correct.

How did you get that from that statement?

They have used her personal data for a purpose that (1) it was not collected for and (2) they didn’t inform her they would be using it for.

That is a breach.

Try reading my post again. It may help.

They’re questions based on OP’s comments/drip feed.

I agree.
Plus of course where you child goes to school (and the fact you have a child) is personal data!

It's also not a malicious communication to say on social media that someone or an institution is useless

110 comments about him not doing his job properly. He hasn’t acted professionally it sounds like he panicked. I wonder how much longer he will be headteacher. But the parent who originally posted is more in the wrong than you. I wouldn’t want my child attending a school that I was unhappy with and the head had it against me. I don’t think you can prove where he got the information about your job. Him doing what he did has made his behaviour look worse. But I wouldn’t have joined in the fb bashing either.

In OPs imagination they did. She is not even entirely sure if the school holds details of her employment, never mind being sure where the head found the details of it.

Ok you are in Scotland.

You are in a community where all kids attend the same secondary school

You have professional healthcare connections with the school so you must actually work with children in multi agency meetings

You thought it was acceptable to write something quite accusatory about the HT in a private Facebook group.

This is not a breach of GDPR. He's had a screenshot given by another parent, possibly encouraging him to go to the police to get this defamation stopped.
The police can do nothing as it's a private group so he's written to your employer.
Of course he knows who you are. You're in a small community and your voice carries the weight of your profession. You've probably broken your code of conduct.
He's right. In education you could lose your job.
You need to be more professional.

Nope please re read the thread.

A "friend" posted about there frustration with the school and the lack of visibility of SLT. I commented that I found the HT be useless & that the school was a shambles. I never referred to my work, stated it was a professional opinion, that it was the opinion of my employer or that my son was SEN.

It doesn't sound like a gdpr breach to me. He's not got your data from school records. As someone else said school don't keep employment records of parents. Whoever sent him it will have told him or it's in the public domain. Sounds like you think you can slag him off publicly, but aren't happy if there's a come back. Maybe be more careful about what you post and move on.

I think there are three potential breaches here:

1. the headteacher has revealed that you are a parent, and which school you are linked to (low risk/impact because most decent employers will already know you are a parent)
2. the headteacher has presumably accessed/used your data inappropriately in order to contact your employer (their legal basis for having that data will be around making contact in case of an emergency)
3. your child has potentially suffered a data breach because the HT has revealed what school they attend (perhaps more tenuous, especially if your child cannot be identified by the info in the letter, but still a consideration)

I’d proceed with your complaint and state that you believe that the letter breaches both the privacy of you and your child and involves a misuse of your data under GDPR. This should be directed to the Director of Education at your local council. If they reject that part of the complaint get in touch with the ICO.

As a parent who deals with GDPR at work I’ve found my school can be poor around some of the nuances of GDPR and they clearly don’t get much support from the local authority. Nothing high risk, so I wouldn’t complain. I’d definitely be complaining in your case!