PARENTS and pupils who abuse teachers online are facing prosecution as part of a tough new crackdown.
Education chiefs fear social media harassment is forcing staff out of the profession and turning off graduates from a career in the classroom.
In March, a survey found one in seven teachers had been subjected to attacks on social media from parents.
The poll of more than 1,000 members of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) also found a quarter had been attacked by pupils. Despite the concerns, 36 per cent of teachers said their school had no social media policy.
Officials from Scotland’s 32 local authorities are now set to discuss a national solution to the torrent of abuse and bullying, which often features anonymous accusations and secretly filmed smartphone footage taken during lessons.
The strategy will reportedly outline the so-called “trigger points” when teachers should involve the authorities, including Police Scotland. This would see the force becoming part of the response at an earlier stage, leading to online trolls facing visits from officers and even the possibility of prosecution.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised about the website, ratemyteachers.com, which openly carries scathing and foul-mouthed abuse of named staff, including potentially defamatory allegations of sexual misconduct with children.
SSTA general secretary Seamus Searson said: “Scotland cannot afford to lose good teachers but they are being increasingly seen as fair game for abuse on social media. This is a problem that is getting worse all the time. Youngsters are becoming more sophisticated with technology but they don’t understand the damage it is causing.
“Websites like ratemyteachers.com were supposed to praise good teachers but it’s swung the other way.”
The crisis was recently raised in the Scottish Parliament by Moray Council’s director of education Laurence Findlay, who told Holyrood’s education committee that teachers were quitting the profession due to the abuse they were receiving.
He described some of the online attacks as “very damaging and [they] can be exacerbated in small rural communities in which everybody knows everybody else. There are huge risks around that.”
One female Scottish headteacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had faced “character assassination” after a low-key playground disagreement with a parent escalated into malicious personal slurs on Facebook by the parent and eventually to threats of violence.
She said: “Last year, one of my colleagues brought to my attention a piece written on Facebook by a parent that named me.
“It then descended into little more than abuse and character assassination. It got 1,000 hits on the night it was posted and there were others – mostly anonymous – who jumped on the bandwagon, leading to claims about my career in other schools that were a complete fabrication. It was pure badness.”
She added that she would no longer recommend a career in teaching, saying there was “little respect for teachers now”.
Chief Inspector Scott Tees, of Police Scotland’s Safer Communities, said: “If something is a crime offline, it will still be a crime online. Comments made on websites or social media can still cause fear and alarm and have the potential to lead to criminal proceedings.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Employers have a duty to protect their staff from abuse and, where such behaviour tips over into bullying and harassment, we fully support police and prosecutors to take appropriate action.”
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