Teachers tell of trolling woes
ONE in five teachers say pupils and parents have made rude comments about them online.
Cases of pupils secretly taking photos up teachers’ skirts are also said to be increasing.
ONE in five teachers say pupils and parents have made rude comments about them online.
Cases of pupils secretly taking photos up teachers’ skirts and posting them on social media are also said to be increasing.
“Upskirting”, as it is known, is due to be made a criminal offence following legislation by the UK Government. It will become punishable by up to two years in prison.
The warnings that teachers are facing dispagaring remarks and offensive photos on social media were made by members of a teaching union at its annual conference in Wales.
Delegates at the NASUWT conference said they deplored the way comments about teachers could be made on social media platforms, often without any repercus- sions.
In a recent survey of members, nearly one in five (19%) teachers reported having had adverse comments posted about them on social media sites by pupils and parents.
These included comments about their competence as a teacher, comments about their appearance, and threatening behaviour.
While the vast majority of teachers (70%) did report the abuse to their employer, the police or the social network, effective response to this abuse remained unacceptably low, the conference heard.
For those reporting to their employer, half (50%) of teachers said no action was taken against the pupil or parent, and 23% said that, while the pupil was disciplined or the parent was approached, they felt unsupported as it did not match the seriousness of the incident.
It was stated that 69% of those reporting to police said no action was taken, and three-quarters (75%) said the same of the social network.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Online abuse is no longer the preserve of pupils but increasingly parents, who don’t even bother to contact the schools with complaints, but post them directly online, subjecting teachers to ‘trials by trolls’.
“The impact on teachers is misery, humiliation, illhealth, loss of confidence and blighted careers.
“The NASUWT has campaigned tirelessly for many years to highlight the need to protect teachers from the abuse on social media.
“The education establishment across Wales must take this issue seriously and require schools not only to have a zerotolerance policy, but to use all the sanctions available to them to address the abuse of staff.”
Meredic Hallett, from the Conwy Association, who proposed the motion calling for members to deplore disparaging comments being made about teachers on social networks without repercussions, said: “Teachers are in the public eye. People are often keen to share their expectations and opinions of us, without any consideration of who we really are or our feelings.
“Inevitably it is the ill-considered, negative comments that have the loudest voice.
“Peer-to-peer communication is fine, and if we face honest criticism we can hopefully respond to that.
“But targeted abuse and hate mail is another thing altogether.
“We should robustly challenge and hold to account those who hurt people.”
Sion Amlyn, a national executive member of the union, said it was seeing an increase in the number of reports of pupils upskirting.
Justice minister Lucy Frazer confirmed earlier this month that the Westminster Government would back a private member’s bill introduced by Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse outlawing the practice.
In the most serious cases, those convicted of secretly photographing underneath someone’s clothing will be placed on the sex offenders register.