7 year old issues with school

[donutqueen]

My DH was recently pulled by the class teacher to say that my DD had accessed graphic images of a horror movie on the internet during school time and showed them to other kids and terrified them and the school had had to write to the parents of the other children to let them know what had happened. My DD was distraught, as she has never been in trouble at school and was looking for a cartoon that lots of kids watch and a misspelling of the name of the cartoon brought up the graphic horror images. I was furious with the school and asked for a meeting to discuss the obvious safeguarding risk to the children. At the meeting I was expecting an apology for what had happened, but was instead told the head had spoken to my DD and she had told her that she showed the other children the images of the horror movie because she knows it from watching it at home. I made the head aware that I knew that this wasn't true in the slightest, as we have very strict parental controls in place on our computers at home and I know exactly what my child is watching. When we left the meeting, I asked my child if she had told the head that she had watched the horror movie at home and she got very upset and told me that she had told the head exactly what she told us, that she was just looking for the cartoon which she always watches. It is clear to me thst the head and the class teacher are lying to cover their backs and I am furious. How would you proceed if you were in this situation?

Can you change schools? I’d lose trust in staff that behaved like that.

This is a safeguarding issue, the school should have an e-safety policy, ask to look at it, it may be on their website, look to see if they're in breach of this. If this is a LA school you could talk to them about what happened. If you think the head teacher is lying, take it further.

What is the name of the film, and the cartoon?

I don't know much about this area but my instinct would be to escalate quickly to get beyond the head. But if it was me I would see an educational solicitor before writing anything.

Google E-Safety for schools

I hate to break it to you but yes, schools have filters but they are never a catch all because the internet changes second by second. The issue the school will have is that the images were shown to other students. The internet at school, as in your home, has some safeguards but they do not protect totally from every piece of age inappropriate data.

Most schools ask and reinforce with their digital citizenship lessons that if by chance students see something inappropriate they show the classroom teacher and then the teacher would contact parents to let them know ( which sounds like this happened).

This can be cleared up relatively swiftly, with internet records, if your child searched for the term then showed others students she is in breach of using the cyber safety/ digital citizenship agreement ( am assuming most students even in primary have an agreement they are part of? The film issue is very much a sideways distraction imo.

I would be very careful of making assumptions about teachers lying, students do and say strange things when in a jam. I’d focus on internet search tutorials, what to do if she sees something inappropriate ( ie not show others) and mark it up as a learning experience that software cannot and does not replace appropriate search terms and internet usage. Making a wedge between you and the school will achieve nothing but bad feeling, it is very serious when a school has to write to other parents due to something another child showed them at school.

Tough one for you and not pleasant for any parent and I do feel for you, but you are not doing your DD any favours with looking to proceed.

Thank you for your advice. I have to say that my instinct is to definitely escalate this issue. I know for sure that my DD wouldn't have told the head that she watches horror movies at home. When I send my child off to school in the morning, I expect them to be going to a safe environment with tight internet controls. I think this school is trying to cover its back and trying to use my DD to help it do that.

What's the answer to my question, OP? Also, at what point during the school day did this happen? On what device? Why was your child looking for a cartoon during school hours?

Multivac the kids cartoon was Annabek and Isobel and the horror movie was Anabel. This haplened on a Friday afternoon, where the kids have free time to do what they want. The kids are given ipads which have educational apls on them, but it aplears that these ipads also have internet access. It appears that the teacher was not supervising properly, so a small group of the kids decided to search for cartoons and got the spelling of the cartoon wrong. I asked why the kids were able to access the internet and the teacher said it is just on the ipad because they use it during certain lessons.

Multivac sorry replied without hitting reply.

Well clearly the inability to spell Annabelle runs in the family ! Taking our of the equation the godawful 'cartoon' that I've just been obliged to watch (I wouldn't want that in my house!), I would consider separating your issues. 1. Unsupervised screen time in school hours - never ok. 2. School internet should have strict restrictions on it (check the policy). 3. But talk of teachers lying to cover their back? It doesn't cover their back at all. Much more likely that your child stumbled across the images , then panicked when she got into trouble, and made stuff up. Seven year olds do that - it's just a protective instinct. Are you in the UK by the way?

Yes, my spelling also left a lot to be desired there! That cartoon is pretty awful, but pretty innocuous once in a while lol. I think the reason the head and the teacher are putting the spotlight on my DD is to move attention away from the fact that they weren't supposed to be on the Internet and they were badly supervised. During the meeting they kept highlighting the poor behavior of my DD (whose explanation for the images on the screen was exactly the same as the one given by the other kids) and it seemed clear to me that the issue should be with the poor behavior of the teacher presenting a safeguarding risk to the children.

Yes, poor safeguarding; yes bad esafety protocol.. but if the kids 'weren't supposed to be on the internet', then your daughter was misbehaving - and I don't think it would be wise to ignore that.

Sounds like arse covering to me, I wouldn't be impressed.

What’s the bugger context?

Does your Dd have older siblings or cousins that she hangs out with? Is your dd in trouble a lot? Is she a conscientious student? Does she often disrupt the class? Most 7 year olds wouldn’t google a cartoon in school because they know not to. Is this out of character for your Dd? It is almost halloween she may have heard chatter about it?

I have strict parental controls on our home network- I have just googled “Annabel” and it just comes up with images of ladies faces who are obviously called Annabel. I googled “Annabel cartoon” and there are a couple of not very scary cartoon pics. Nothing too awful. I googled “Annabel film” and the images are of the horror film. Pretty scary.

So depending on what your Dd searched I wouldn’t be so quick to believe her...sorry.

Do not go in guns blazing, but work with the school.

Atalune, that's the issue I have with the school. My DD has not once been in trouble with the school. The school has a traffic light behaviour system and she has never once been off the green. I agree that she shouldn't have been on the internet, but there was a group of them on the internet because it was just too much of a temptation when they were left unsupervised. We have talked to her about this and why it was wrong. She is adamant that she only searched for the carton and she is absolutely adamant that she did not tell the head that she watches horror movies at home, like the head said she did. I would be willing to put money on the fact the head and the teacher have cooked this story up between then in order to try and deflect away from what are the real issues here.

Isn't it possible the head said and do you watch that at home (meaning the film) and she said yes (meaning the cartoon)?

Tyranttodler, yes I think that is exactly what happened, but the head has twisted it around. I specifically asked her if my DD told her that she had watched parts of this horror film at home and she sed yes my child had told her that. As I said, we have strict internet protocols in place at home. I didn't need to check my browser history but I did anyway and there is absolutely no reference at all to this film listed.