Behave yourselves: Schools’ warning to WhatsApp parents
PRIVATE schools are asking parents to sign contracts promising not to spread malicious gossip on WhatsApp groups and other social media.
The Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) said clauses are being added to parent-school agreements about ‘reputational damage’, telling parents that if they post comments hurtful to the school or other families they will be ‘asked to remove their children’.
Research by the Daily Mail has found a number of state schools are also having to issue similar warnings to parents.
Group conversations through messaging service WhatsApp have become commonplace across the country as a way for parents with children at the same school to share news and tips via their mobile phones. Parents are able to send out messages about anything from ownclothes days and homework deadlines to borrowing spare football boots.
But in some cases the exchanges have become sinister, with parents insulting each other, gossiping about teachers, spreading falsehoods and sharing private information about children. Christopher King, of IAPS, which represents 670 private prep and junior schools, said: ‘Increasingly, our member schools are adding clauses to their parent-school contract that states if parents post comments [on social media] that are reputationally damaging to the school or members of its community they will be asked to remove their children.’
‘The overwhelming majority of parents behave well and support their school. However, having such a clause not only protects the school but allows a conversation about social media and inappropriate comments to be held right at the beginning of the relationship between a school and the parents.’
At state-run Ark Byron Primary Academy in Acton, west London, the parents’ association has had to create a two-page document listing the ‘dos and don’ts’ of WhatsApp and the correct ‘etiquette’.
It warns that there ‘will be moderators reviewing the posts’ and that ‘rude or inappropriate’ messages will not be tolerated. It also says: ‘The moderators will be messaging anyone who uses the forum inappropriately and offenders may be removed from the group.’