Some of Scotland’s most senior teachers are being targeted in online attacks by parents.
The Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) confirmed it is working to support an undisclosed number of school leaders who have been subjected to abuse on Facebook and Twitter.
Incidents involving teachers of all grades suffering internet harassment appear to be on the rise in Scotland, to the extent that AHDS resorted to contacting all local authorities to advise them of potential defamation cases.
The organisation’s general secretary, Greg Dempster, said: ”We took this step because local authorities seemed to have very clear policies about what teachers shouldn’t do online but very little about what would be done to tackle the targeting of headteachers or other school staff through social media.
”It would be fair to say that most local authorities are now more switched on to the problem.”
He added: ”We are concerned about the increase in the use of technology to make inappropriate and sustained attacks against education professionals. Social media has moved forward very quickly in recent years and a very small minority of parents seem to believe that it is not subject to defamation laws.
”Where any of our members are subjected to such an attack we work closely with the relevant local authority to press for a quick resolution to the problem.”
He said parents have every right to raise concerns if they feel there is an issue at school, but must go through the proper channels.
Dundee EIS spokesman Arthur Forrest said the branch is not dealing with any specific incidents but members share concerns regarding the ”rising number” of abuse cases from parents and carers.
”The EIS will support any member who is the target of abuse and would expect Dundee City Council’s education department to act vigorously to deter misuse of social networking sites by parents, carers and pupils,” he said.
”There are several acceptable mechanisms to allow parents to raise concerns but abusing staff publicly through social networking sites is completely unacceptable.”
Austin Lafferty, president of the Law Society of Scotland, warned pupils and parents should be aware of laws surrounding sending ”offensive, obscene or intimidating” messages.
”Technology moves at a fast pace and explores new avenues, but human nature stays the same,” he said. ”The law, sometimes criticised for lagging behind society, is bang up-to-date in this area.
”I think it would be very worthwhile producing a pack for school children and their parents that explains the law and the risks they take in using what they might assume are harmless social media sites.”
COSLA says it is up to individual local authorities to decide how to deal with online incidents.
A spokesman said: ”The safety and peace of mind of staff and pupils are local authorities’ highest priorities, and councils treat matters such as this with great seriousness.”
Brian Donnelly, director of Scottish anti-bullying service RespectMe, said: ”Schools and parents need to work together to role-model respectful and solution-focused ways of resolving concerns or disagreements it then makes it easier to hold children and young people accountable for their actions online.”
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