ALISTAIR MUNRO
A school headteacher has joined mass calls for a clampdown on social networking websites to prevent the "cyber-bullying" of teachers.
Kirsti Paterson, a long-serving member of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT), claims staff are increasingly being humiliated on the sites, and in particular blamed YouTube and Rate My Teacher.
Mrs Paterson, headteacher of Avoch Primary School in the Highlands, is to make her plea at the PAT conference in Harrogate, Yorkshire, next week and claims an increasing number of teachers are contacting her over cyber-bullying.
She said: "One instance involved a photograph being taken of a teacher without permission. It had the teacher's head cut off and the words You're dead' on it. The person involved was extremely upset."
The headteacher's calls follow revelations of videoed classroom attacks on teachers and a 15-year-old former pupil of Golspie High School tried killing herself after enduring sickening taunts on Bebo.
Mrs Paterson said: "Many of these sites are based in other countries so it will be quite difficult to police them. We need to bring awareness of the issue and we need to highlight that it is not acceptable behaviour."
Mrs Paterson is seeking the conference to support her motion for a stricter monitoring of such websites and for mobile phones to be policed more strictly in schools.
Jim O'Neill, PAT's professional officer for Scotland, said: "We have had several cases reported to us that are quite worrying, and some of them include the bullying of teachers by students."
A Bebo spokeswoman said: "We have launched a set of educational resources to promote the safe and responsible use of social networking. The resources are based on the most up-to-date guidance on online safety issues."
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