Question for teachers please - this is not in any way acceptable, is it?

[blameitontheboo]

I've namechanged.

Briefly - a relative has an acquaintance who is assistant SENCO.
In text exchanges with my relative this member of staff makes numerous negative comments about certain of the young people, and names them, as well as calling them names in the texts. Relative read a couple of the texts to me.

I won't elaborate further but in my opinion this is not ok and If I were the parent of one of these young people I'd be beyond furious.

I think it should be brought to the school's attention but relative is not so sure/would rather just leave it and not have further contact with the staff member. It's not my decision to make but I'm pretty sure this person has breached confidentiality/data protection rules at the very least.

That's very wrong but as you say it's not your call, you should tell your cousin to stop showing other people if she's not going to report though, that's just making her complicit.

Agree.

Thanks @YesThatsATurdOnTheRug I'm the only one who's been shown them and I fully trust that they wont be shared beyond me.

Not okay, did your relative shut down the conversation, repeating the texts to you was also wrong.

Yes, this is wrong - saying something like "I'm really looking forward to the weekend, had to sort three meltdowns and a child biting a TA today - can't wait for gin o'clock!" or whatever would be very borderline for having specific details but possibly understandable - naming/identifying or insulting/mocking is absolutely not OK from an adult with a professional responsibility for those children.

Your relative should adress it to the acquaintance. How wrong it is and it could get the relative fired.

If relative don't get it I would report it.

Yes it's inappropriate, but what are these "rules" exactly, and do they actually apply to a teaching assistant?It's more a moral code than anything else - there are no rules that I know of that any school employee is expected to sign up to (more's the pity).

The school will have a social media policy with clauses about personally identifying comments and a GDPR/confidentiality policy as a minimum, that would be the place to start.

At our local primary, there are strict confidentiality rules which are laid on thick at the parent helper briefings, so they would certainly apply to any employee.

Data protection for a start.