Teachers making derogatory coimments about pupils on Facebook

[BobGarage]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on this, its a long story so bare with me...

At the end of the last school term my partner added one of the other parents at the school as a friend on Facebook. This was to keep in contact with her and her child as both ours and her child were moving up to secondary school after the summer holidays. The other parent also happens to be a teaching assistant at the school.

Once added as friends we noticed her status talking about how she was disapointed she'd missed the kids last week of a school as she was ill. In response to this was a comment made by my childs teacher, publicly slagging off my child. A few hours after becoming friends on Facebook the comment had been deleted and a few hours later the teacher in question had deleted her facebook account.

We had taken a screen shot of the comment and delivered it along with a letter of complaint to both the head teacher and the chair of governors.

That was in the first week of the summer holidays and so it was only responded to today. The response from the school to make the teacher write an apology saying she didn't mean to make the comment and stating how much she had loved teaching our child.

We are, understandable, upset over the publically visable comments made by the teacher in question and to be quite honest don't believe the teacher means one word of her appology for a single minute.

Following the arrival of the appology we have spoken to the chair of governors this morning over the telephone, stating we were unhappy with the way this incident was seemingly being brushed under the carpet with a brief, meaningless appology. His response was a simple "she's appologised and so the matter is closed".

Does anyone have any advice as to what we can do next? Obviously we do not consider the matter closed with a brief, meaningless appology. We have the screen shot of the original comment, plus now, an admission by the teacher that she did write the comments about our child.

A number of friends have suggested we make local and national newspapers aware of the situation. However, really, we'd rather not have our childs name splashed accross every paper in the land.

We are stuck now as to where to take the issue, any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks

What she did was totally unprofessional but the school seem to have dealt with it in a way that they think is suitable therefore, IMO, you have to leave it.

Teachers are entitled to have opinions about things/ people too and if that is her opinion of you child then so be it. As I say, she should have known better but I can bet she does now.

There is not much more you can do, you have to move forward.

I have to say, though, that the comments the teacher made were very unprofessional. By the sounds of it she/he has a bloody lot of growing up to do. Teachers are entitled to their opnions but maybe they should be kept to RL not for the whole of cyber space.

how bad was the comment, and did she actually refer to your child by name?

Sounds like the teacher was just sounding off to friends as we all do. She should have been sufficiently intelligent to realise that she couldn't control who might see what she'd written but at least she reacted swiftly and removed the comments.

Can't see what is achieved by pursuing the issue. It sounds as if you want the teacher to be punished further but do you want her to lose her career over it? If the boot was on the other foot and your child had posted something offensive about a teacher on the internet would you willingly accept your child being expelled?

Going to a newspaper (assuming they would accept the story) could backfire - not only would your child's name be all over the papers but you have no control over the story and after talking to the teacher/local people etc they could turn it into a story about how awful your child is.

Just let it go.

I do have experience of this albeit in a different light, my ds was bullied by a teacher she admitted to it and we then uncovered the fact shed been 'at it' for years....we met with the Lea the board of governors we wrote many many letters- our ds was signed off school for almost 2 years and had a hospital tutor teach him at home.

Not to belittle your trauma all we succeeded in doing was getting her early retirement -I dont really know what we wanted or what we possibly could have achieved but it was a hell of a lot of trauma.

I suggest in your best interests to take the apology hold your head up high and know that in the eyes of her colleagues and others she really does look very unproffesional.

We did the face- face thing and to be very honest it had no benefit to us -it just made me (a normally rational person) want to thump her!!!

I think the suggestion about going to the papers is pathetic tbh.

Why would you pursue this? You are trying to blow it out of all proportion. Understandably you were hurt, but the people in question did their best to apologise and repair the damage. Be gracious and accept they made a mistake for which they have apologised.

sometimes we all sound off, fb is unfrtuantely a dangerous place for anyone coz it feels private.
think of the harm yyou would be doing the teachig profession by depriving kids of what is possibly a future amazing teacher, by making her leave the profession instead of merely learning not to sound off like that.

actually, y our post and entire stance has me complletey furious. teachers are human beings too. but since the teacher did act in an initiall irresponsible way, i cant defend her at all. except to say that she subsequently acted properly by deleting her message, and fb account, and apologising. the best possible outcome has been acheived. anything further will simply be satisfying your own sadistic impulses

I think moving on is the only sensible option. Obviously though I don't know what has actually been said.

Bullying of children by teachers is extremely rare.

If your child did something to make this teachers last week at school miserable - did they apologise to the teacher?

It has been brought to your attention that there was obviously some problem - however inappropriately you have found out - the school and teacher both acted and apologised - my advice would be to focus on your childs future education and assure that they understand the importance of education and what behaviour is appropriate within school.

Maybe lessons should be learned by your child as well as the teacher in this situation

I think from a professional point of view and taking into account the sensitive role a teacher has and their obligation to discretion and confidentiality - yeah right .... the very least the school should have done was issue her with a written warning.

As a journalist I can't really see that there's much of a story in it. Unless your local paper is having a REALLY slow week.
I think you should move on.
I'd also be interested to know what the comment was and whether it was in any way justified (the teacher thinking it, not the posting it on Facebook which is, obviously, inexcusable).

ICANDOTHAT I think that anything like that stays on a teachers record as all discepancies and complaints have to be recorded.

Mice yes thankfully bullying of children by teachers is very rare.

we need to know what the teacher said

no. Even if a teacher receives a written warning it only stays on their record for a certain amount of time.

Really?? Oh well at least the old cow teacher that did that to my ds was forced to retire.

mice your post implies that this is in some way the child's fault

which is bizarre and not very pleasant

and bullying of children by teachers is not as rare as all that. Teachers colluding in /deliberately ignoring bullying is also a problem.

I think this teacher should have been issued with a written warning and should have apologised face to face. It always seems wrong when an individual does something spiteful which abuses their position and tyhen promptly hides behind a system when they get caught.

Yes - there's no mention in the OP that the child had done anything wrong, mice - so on what basis are you saying that the OP's child made the teacher's last week of school miserable? In essence you are saying that the child must have done something to deserve the slagging off by the teacher - and there is no evidence for this whatsoever in the OP or in the thread anywhere as far as I can see.

It is just as likely that the teacher was gratuitously unpleasant about the child for no good reason whatsoever - and even if the child had misbehaved during the last week of school, slagging the child off on a public forum was hardly an adult or professional way to deal with it!

If my child had misbehaved during their last days at a school before moving up, I would expect that either the school would deal with it and issue some sort of punishment, or that they would inform me so that I could take proper action myself - either would be appropriate. If I found that my child's teacher was bitching about my child on Facebook, I would be angry and upset and would want proper closure of the matter - which for me would be a face-to-face meeting with the teacher concerned, so that she could apologise in person.

As your child has now moved on from the school in question I would ask yourself what damage do you fear the comment has done to their future.

I would perhaps put on record with the school and any other relevant body that if the temporary cyberspace derogatory comment about your child is found to have been noted by anyone at the school to which your child has moved up to and if you believe that this is having an affect on your child's school experience, you reserve the right to take further action at some future point.

I would also be asking to see a copy of any report passed on, by the school that your child has just left, to their new school to see if it is wriiten in the same prejudiced manner as the facebook comment. If it is, it will possibly be re-written for your benefit however before being handed over so you may not gain much from this exercise.

Stayingsunny - why would a teacher make up something like that? For all we know the child could have played up that week, or been a complete pain throughout the time the teacher knew them.

Most parents think their children are well behaved and are offended if anyone says anything to the contrary. Yet the teaching profession is constantly trying to find ways of dealing with the high levels of bad behaviour that they encounter in schools.

Can I just say mym mum who is a head had to conswider disciplinary action which could have resulted in the person loosing their job from it talking about a child on FAcebook is a serious breach of confidetiality.
As a TA I know that talkingf about a child out of school is a no no
HE

Spiralqueen - perhaps because the child and the teacher did not get on - through no fault of either person. We all know people who we instinctively dislike or have a personality clash with - no-one's fault but it happens.

And as I said, if the child had acted up/made the teacher's life a misery/been a constant pain, this was not the correct way to deal with the matter - nor was it the adult or mature way. Also, as I said, there is no evidence anywhere on the thread that the child had done anything to 'deserve' being slagged off on facebook (not that I think it is appropriate for an adult to respond to a child's behaviour in that way anyway).

FWIW, I don't think all teachers are angels, and I don't think all children are demons either - but all teachers are adults, and should behave like adults when discussing their pupils. And also, fwiw, I don't think that teachers should be discussing their pupils by name (or in an identifiable way) on a public or semipublic forum like facebook.

Teachers aren't bound by confidentiality in the same way that medical professionals are, but I do think that they have a moral obligation not to discuss their pupils in public in this way. Apart from anything else, it could have serious professional repercussions for them - I can imagine situations in which an off-the-cuff comment on Facebook/Bebo/MySpace et al could lead to formal warning or worse.

I maintain that this teacher should have to face the parents of the child she 'slagged off' and apologise. Her comments were made in public (in a semipublic forum, where she had little control over who saw the post, and from which it could easily have been copied and disseminated widely) and so an apology in person is the least the parents should be able to expect.

Whingebob & Stayingsunny totally agree with your points re hiding behind the system. If they were employed by private sector or any decent employer, they would be out on their arses.

Ultimately, they are adults and should not behave like silly adolescents. Such a shame individuals in such positions of trust and responsibility allow their personal feelings about small people make them behave in such an appalling and inappropriate manner. They shouldn't be in the job.