Help daughter suspended for facebook post!

[vinnygal]

Hi everyone, I would really appreciate any advise you can give me. My daughter is in Upper 6th about to sit her A levels. I have visited the school on countless occasions over the last year, as have other parents, over the quality of teaching from the Sociology department. The class set a resit exam in January and the got their results a few weeks ago with everyone getting an E grade! In my daughters frustration she took a photo of the school mission statement, the first line being along the lines that they aim to provide a first class education, and posted it on her facebook profile with the caption ' First class my a**' The school found out about this post and have threatened her with the police for libel and have suspended her for 5 days. In the letter I have received it states 'your daughter posted a very derogatory and defamatory picture and comment on facebook about the school. This behaviour is unacceptable and it is for this reason she is being suspended'

I will be phoning the head tomorrow and was wondering what help or advise you could give me. I know she has been foolish but I do think the school have been a bit harsh in their punishment. She was made remove the post and replace it with an apology where she admitted to being childish and immature. I can not see how this post amounts to libel or is as the school pointed out, a criminal offence!

Thanks in advance :)

If the school senior management are such a collection of headless chickens that a comment by a 6th former can send them into such a frenzy, then that school is not one I would want any of my DC to attend. I would be tempted to hand the head his phone and say"Go on, ring the police, see what sort of reaction you get". The Head is the one who needs to apologise for having his head up his a*se. However, the OP has to take into account that her DD has another term and a half to go, so...

I absolutely wouldn't go to the press. No way.

The thing with the press is that you can never guarantee how an article willbe printed, and how your daughter may come out of it. Just because you tell it to them one way doesn't mean they will tell it that way, and if your daughter has any previous form for bad behavior etc that will come out too. Just don't go there.

"The truth hurts" as the saying goes. Yes, your DD hit the nail on the head with her comments but unfortunately Facebook is an open forum so it is like putting it in the national press. A sharp learning curve?
Well, damage limitation is needed now. Get some proper tuition for your DD (and the rest of the class?) That might be quite hard in the circumstances, as time is short and specialist tutors hard to find perhaps. Make the school face up to their responsibility. Force the issue by hinting at going to the local press if they don't fulfil their obligations. Schools don't like adverse publicity, who does?
Get your daughter the grades she deserves.That has to be top priority. Satisfaction/Revenge can come later on when your DD has left the school.

"the amount of sub teachers that have been used."

if the teacher is long term sick the school would try and get long term contract cover, if the cover won't stay I would look to the behaviour of the class.

Lots of talk of facebook postings being in the public domain, akin to putting up a poster or graffitti on a wall.
But if the OP's daughter had her privacy settings so that only friends could read her wall - does that really still count as putting the comment in the public domain? Couldn't you argue that it's more akin to private conversation?

I can see from the school's point of view that they would be unhappy, since it's likely most of her friends would be other pupils, possibly even parents of other pupils - and for instance if she had 300 Facebook 'friends' (not unusual for a teenager) then I suppose that is quite a wide audience and it's harder to argue that it's private.

Or am I just being naive to consider wall postings as non-public - even if they are visible to 'friends only', since it would be possible for any 'friend' to copy and paste them to a public place?

FB is not private, no matter how you set it up.
It is a public site. Lots of people behind the scenes see every post we make.

And anyway many many young people friend FBers they barely know. If they have more than twenty 'friends' there's no way they know them all personally and closely.

OP:
www.childrenslegalcentre.com/userfiles/file/School%20exclusions%20leaflet.pdf

I think you need to read that document!
I suspect your school is in breach of many guidelines and procedures.
In particular ofsted recommend 1 -3 days as sufficient for most breaches.

They have deprived of your daughter of 1 week's education in a vitally important year. The head has acted in an emotional and inappropriate way.

What was the upshot, vinnygal? We're all agog.

I don't think she should have been suspended...but maybe if she and therest of her sociology class spent more time studying they might find they get better grades.

When I was in 6th form the entire A level English class failed, because they weren't good enough. It happens.

Well ok she was foolish, but there is something much bigger at stake here. She is entitled to a decent education and on the face of it that right has been denied. In a sense she is a rudimentary whistleblower. Article 10 (I think) of the European convention on human rights is probably engaged here - the right to free speech. Have a look at the judge's comments in crisp v apple computers (described his iPhone as his *ing Jesus phone etc) for views on the sorts of comments that merit protection. Ok, she has expressed herself crudely, but she is a child for goodness sake, and she is shopping her school for providing a crap education. If the European convention on human rights is engaged, then this means the school can defend itself long as response was proportionate. In my view it was not.

Does anyone know what happened at the school? I hate not knowing and am incur ably nosey.

I'm afraid I am totally on the side of the school. Your daughter has been insubordinate and conducted herself in a manner that is likely to bring the school's reputation into disrepute. The school has to teach her that she has to behave within acceptable boundaries. She doesn't seem to know what the boundaries are and parents are as responsible as schools for teaching young people how to behave.

The poor teaching is a separate issue and one that should have been addressed by you on her behalf using the proper channels and complaints procedure.

The analogy with employees and employers is ridiculous as far as I am concerned. Eventually pupils become employees and behaving in a respectful way and observing appropriate boundaries are foundations that should be set down and built upon within families and schools so that young people are equipped to enter the workplace.

marriedinwhite - the girl INTENDED to bring her school into disrepute, and the school deserved it. Respect has to be earned. If no one was ever insubordinate we would all kowtow to every petty dictator. OP's daughter is courageous and forthright. More power to her

Tough if the school gets a bad reputation sounds like it deserves it.

If the school has always had a sociology provision, was it always poor or has there been a downward spiral this year. What has the school's response been for the fall in standards. In my experience it's actually quite hard to get effective sociology/psychology teachers which is odd bearing in mind the popularity of the subject. I would tread quite carefully - is a valued teacher on long term sick with something like breast cancer for example - is that teacher aware of your daughter's post and feeling guilty as a result.

Were standards poor when your dd chose it as option? I am more concerned about what parents were doing formally to address the poor teaching and am surprised you were not passing on explanations to your daughter and that meetings did not take place between parents and the school in response to the poor result. I would have wanted to know why the cohort did badly, what the background was and what the action plan was to retrieve the situation.

Personally I think you need to deal with this rather diplomatically.

Hmm. Either she acted courageously to bring attention to poor standards in sociology. Or she posted on her own private page and was let form by a friend. I'm not sure it can be both...

Any update, OP, following meeting with school?

didofido

"the girl INTENDED to bring her school into disrepute, and the school deserved it."

we don't know if the school deserved it.

hopefully the OP will come back

I think they are just trying to bully her which is pretty low - all she has said is the education she gas received is not first class, she hasn't said anything else. Fair comment IMHO.

Why not asks them if they think her education has been 'first class?'

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you all. I have enjoyed reading everyones points of view :) Had the dreaded meeting with the Head last week and the school was not prepared to lift the suspension. When I pointed out that I was aware of a pupil attacking another and breaking their leg and this only merited a 2 day suspension I was informed that they were not going to discuss any other cases!! So you can see where this meeting was going. I did not want to make things any worse for my DD as she has 10 weeks to do so it is best that she just grin and bear it. The Head was very firmly of the opinion that the punishment did fit the crime, that the school was providing a first class education and then let slip that DD's result of an E was not that bad as the majority of the class had got a U!!! She kept saying that pupils could not be allowed to slander the school, when I pointed out it was actually libel and that it was a civil and not a criminal offense she was outraged and told me she had spoken with the schools solicitor and knew perfectly well what she was talking about, and that on this occasion they were not going to press charges as she didnt have the time!! It was at this point that I laughed into myself - you can all see what im dealing with here - I have been to the school so often last year and this year about the teaching of this subject, the teacher continually off with a bad back and no continuity of teaching. In a nut shell the meeting was a waste of time, I was talked over and felt like I was the naughty school child! I did manage to get my point of view across eventually but was conscious that I did not want to make things worse so I did not say as much as I would have liked!! What I really want to say can wait until August when the results come out. I have managed to get a tutor for the rest of the school year to give her additional lessons after school 2 evenings a week. We will just have to keep our fingers crossed!

So the Head is a liar as well as a tyrant! She obviously DOESN'T know what she's talking about, and if she has really been to a solicitor (which seems unlikely) s/he doesn't know either. Wait til August and then let rip. OP

...but in the mean time, write everything you were told by the head. You will need it clear and fresh when you get to it in august.

Send her a letter with minutes of the meeting, putting her points across along with where she was rude to you. And everything you said to her and where she interrupted you or where you didn't agree with her assessment.

Make it all very simple and non- accusatory; I said, you said, then I said to which you said... Etc

Send it so there is a record of the meeting from your point of view. And stick in a little sentence about how if you don't hear anything further you'll take it that these represent an accurate overview of the meeting. hopefully they won't bother replying.

Then when you do lay into them they won't be able to deny things as they will have had your letter - maybe send it recorded delivery to get proof they got it.

Sorry it's late and I'm tired so this isn't very coherent but hopefully you get the gist of it.

Op,may be worth giving these people www.ace-ed.org.uk/ a call,they really are great and on two occassions have given me great advice when I have needed it.

You need to write the letter as zipzap outlined. Ensure that you point out that the school refused to give you a copy of the suspension policy.

I would cc it to the governor and give them 72 hours to reply to your letter before going to Ofsted

Refusing to hand over the suspension policy is illegal for a reason. Ofsted will not be amused.