App a warning to teachers: leave those kids alone

ABUSIVE, racist, prejudiced, sexually deviant and unfair teachers best beware: an app launching tomorrow will allow pupils and their parents to anonymously report errant behaviour for investigation.

“The Guardian Schools Anonymous Reporting App”, created by Durbanbased child protection service The Guardian, aims to keep errant teachers in check — and have them punished if they step out of line.

Creator Marc Hardwick said the app’s worth was shown this week, when allegations of racism surfaced at Pretoria High School for Girls and when the KwaZulu-Natal education department revealed that nine teachers in the province had either been suspended or dismissed since midAugust for sexually abusing schoolgirls.

Hardwick said the app facilitated the reporting of drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault and “unacceptable behaviour by a teacher”.

The app is free to download for pupils and parents, while schools will be charged about R350 a month to be registered.

Hardwick said he hoped that between 1 500 and 2 000 schools would be signed up by year-end. The app is available on the Google Play Store from tomorrow but there are plans to roll it out on other platforms.

To ensure complaints are properly investigated, reported incidents would be sent to The Guardian’s server before being sent to at least three people at the school. Every step of the investigation would be logged online.

“If we see that the complaint hasn’t been allocated, or the person hasn’t moved forward with the investigation, it will red-flag back to us.”

Tim Gordon, CEO of RED FLAG: Marc Hardwick with the Guardian app the Governing Body Foundation, said that although the premise of the app was laudable, he had some concerns.

“Anonymous reporting is in itself open to huge abuse. Genuine misbehaviour and unacceptable actions aside, the reports will almost inevitably also include accusations that are inaccurate or untrue, frivolous, posted in jest and some that are downright malicious.

“One cannot but wonder how the wheat will be sorted from the chaff. Anonymous reports are notoriously difficult to investigate; the origins are murky, the accusers or witnesses unknown and the veracity unclear,” said Gordon.

Falsely-accused teachers could have their reputations tarnished.

Hardwick said that to protect against abuse of the app, The Guardian’s servers were enabled to message the reporter and warn against malicious use of the system. If the abuse continued the reporter could be blocked.

“There is a risk it will be abused, but that is outweighed by us being able to take action and prevent even one incident for happening.”