17 June 2009
What happened?
A group of secondary school students set up a fake profile about a female head of year on Bebo - they made threatening comments and used offensive language about her on the profile. The teacher commented that she has never felt so threatened and uneasy in all her years of teaching. On the advice of the NASUWT, the teacher reported the incident to her head teacher who was very supportive and took action.
What should I do if this happens to me?
- Make a note of the social networking website address and print off or take a screen shot of the page(s) as evidence.
- Report the incident to a senior manager (eg head teacher) and the e-safety co-ordinator at your school - they should conduct a prompt investigation. It is recommended that you make the report in writing and copy in your trade union representative.
- If the investigation finds that a student (or a group of students) is involved in the incident, they should be disciplined in line with the school's disciplinary procedures in areas such as anti-bullying and acceptable use of ICT equipment.
- School guidelines should be followed in terms of informing the student's parents.
- If the investigation determines who set up the social networking page in the first place, the student(s) in question should be asked to remove or amend the content in question.
- If the student(s) refuses to remove or amend the content, the senior manager (or you) should contact the social networking provider (eg Bebo, Facebook or MySpace) to ask them to investigate whether the site's terms of service have been violated and to take the appropriate action. The social networking provider might be able to delete the content if it is deemed to violate a person's rights or threaten their safety, for example.
To report the content directly to the provider, click on the ‘Report Abuse', ‘Report this Person' or ‘Contact' links on the social networking site in question.
The social networking provider should also be able to advise you how to retain evidence and contain the incident and whether you should contact the police.
You can find contact details for the UK's leading social networking providers here.
- If the student's posting or behaviour is considered to be threatening and/or intimidating, your senior manager should - with your consent - report the matter to the police.
- Your senior management team should offer you adequate emotional and practical support during the process. If they don't, contact your teaching union for assistance. You can find contact details for the UK teaching unions here.