St Patrick's Catholic Primary School and Nursery Cashmore Avenue ...
St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School and Nursery Cashmore Avenue Leamington Spa CV31 3EU Head Teacher: Mrs Nichola Damms Acting Headteacher: Miss Claire Walsh Policy Checklist to be inserted with all current Policies and Key Documents TO BE COMPLETED BY REVIEWER
TYPE:
POLICY
TITLE:
FACEBOOK & SOCIAL NETWORKING
By whom compiled / reviewed?
K.Dominy
Does it relate to any change in legislation? Which (if any) model has been used as a framework?
WCC
Does it reflect ethos / vision of the school?
Yes
Have any new recommendations / alterations been incorporated? How long before next review/approval? If significant changes, who needs to be notified?
2 years Teachers Pupils Learning Support staff Clerical Staff Ancillary Staff Governors Parents Other (specify):
as required
TO BE COMPLETED AFTER REVIEW FOR ATTACHMENT TO FINAL COPY
Date governors notified Next Review date Next Governor notification date
September 2014 July 2016 September 2016
Agreed for use by Full Governing Body and by Committees with delegated power subsequent to 14th Dec 2011. Warwicks
hire Education Services
Facebook and other Social Networking Sites/ Electronic Postings by Parents
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LittleGossip and other forms of electronic communication continue to develop apace. These media enable people to communicate and share experiences in a way that was difficult to imagine only a few years ago. Parents have a right to express their views but unfortunately, all too often, a social networking site is their first choice for communicating or expressing negative or offensive views about a school and its staff. Whilst a school will have control procedures and sanctions to deal with inappropriate use of Facebook by pupils or staff, to a very large extent, no such control exists in respect of a parent’s use. This article deals primarily with this latter issue. A later article will focus on pupil and staff use. 1.
What can a school do in response to an offensive posting by a parent?
1.1
If a negative or offensive comment is made about the school or staff, the school's response will depend upon varying factors, e.g. the nature of the posted comment and the type of site etc. In most cases, the school should ask the parent to remove an offending item from a social networking site; the parent should also be told that a social networking site is not the place to post comments if they have an issue about school but that the correct way is to take it up with the school directly (see 2.2 below). The school can also approach the website operator and ask them to remove it but unfortunately in the case of Facebook and some of the other social networking organisations, the UK has no legal jurisdiction as these are based in the USA. Occasionally, the person posting the item is simply attention-seeking and ignoring the posting can in fact be the best course of action. Further pursuing the issue could actually worsen the situation because the material may then be circulated to a much wider audience. Similarly the school can choose to ignore and delete emails unread, or take steps to ‘block them if the sender’s intent is to deliberately disturb a member of staff or try and involve the school in something that has nothing at all to do with it. Unfortunately there is no one piece of legislation in the UK specifically designed to deal with inappropriate postings on Facebook and other social networking sites but if the content has a racial element or violence is threatened, the matter should be reported to the police. In this respect, it is also worth noting that under the Protection from Harassment Act 1977, repeated incidents of behaviour amounting to harassment or causing a person to fear that violence will be used against them amounts to a criminal offence.
1.2
Is the content defamatory (libelous) enabling a legal course of action? A school as a whole cannot be defamed; thus the comment, “this school and all its staff are useless at educating children” does not create a course of action. The law in respect of defamation applies to an individual, a spoken comment is classed as slander and a written comment classed as libel. The current law in respect of libel, which is already complex in itself when applied to traditional, i.e. hard copy
publication, becomes even more complicated with electronic and web-based postings which can involve not just the author and the website organiser but other contributors. Even in a case of ‘traditional’ libel, to pursue an action would entail an extremely lengthy and highly expensive process with no certainty of success nor even, if damages were awarded, any certainty that the offender would have the means to pay. At best at the minute, and in the absence of new legislation to deal with this growing problem, the school should ask the offender and the website operator to remove the item and as previously stated, if the content is threatening, involve the police (1.1 above). 2.
Avoiding future problems As technology becomes more and more sophisticated, it would be impossible to prevent material/comments being published electronically. Practical approaches to try and address the problems could include:
2.1
A “whole school” approach Although this article is limited to parent comments, the school’s anti-bullying policy is a good place for educating parents as well as pupils and staff about what is an acceptable use of the Internet or social networking sites, similarly, the school’s behaviour policy, with its message of expectations of acceptable standards of behaviour from all.
2.2
The school’s complaints policy This can make it clear that the correct forum to discuss a school-related concern is via the school itself in the first instance and then the other mechanisms outlined in the complaints policy, not via Facebook or the Internet. It is also a good idea to have the complaints policy on the school’s website.
The WES Legal Service, September 2011 01926 412361 [email protected]
TYPE:
POLICY
TITLE:
FACEBOOK & SOCIAL NETWORKING
By whom compiled / reviewed?
K.Dominy
Does it relate to any change in legislation? Which (if any) model has been used as a framework?
WCC
Does it reflect ethos / vision of the school?
Yes
Have any new recommendations / alterations been incorporated? How long before next review/approval? If significant changes, who needs to be notified?
2 years Teachers Pupils Learning Support staff Clerical Staff Ancillary Staff Governors Parents Other (specify):
as required
TO BE COMPLETED AFTER REVIEW FOR ATTACHMENT TO FINAL COPY
Date governors notified Next Review date Next Governor notification date
September 2014 July 2016 September 2016
Agreed for use by Full Governing Body and by Committees with delegated power subsequent to 14th Dec 2011. Warwicks
hire Education Services
Facebook and other Social Networking Sites/ Electronic Postings by Parents
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LittleGossip and other forms of electronic communication continue to develop apace. These media enable people to communicate and share experiences in a way that was difficult to imagine only a few years ago. Parents have a right to express their views but unfortunately, all too often, a social networking site is their first choice for communicating or expressing negative or offensive views about a school and its staff. Whilst a school will have control procedures and sanctions to deal with inappropriate use of Facebook by pupils or staff, to a very large extent, no such control exists in respect of a parent’s use. This article deals primarily with this latter issue. A later article will focus on pupil and staff use. 1.
What can a school do in response to an offensive posting by a parent?
1.1
If a negative or offensive comment is made about the school or staff, the school's response will depend upon varying factors, e.g. the nature of the posted comment and the type of site etc. In most cases, the school should ask the parent to remove an offending item from a social networking site; the parent should also be told that a social networking site is not the place to post comments if they have an issue about school but that the correct way is to take it up with the school directly (see 2.2 below). The school can also approach the website operator and ask them to remove it but unfortunately in the case of Facebook and some of the other social networking organisations, the UK has no legal jurisdiction as these are based in the USA. Occasionally, the person posting the item is simply attention-seeking and ignoring the posting can in fact be the best course of action. Further pursuing the issue could actually worsen the situation because the material may then be circulated to a much wider audience. Similarly the school can choose to ignore and delete emails unread, or take steps to ‘block them if the sender’s intent is to deliberately disturb a member of staff or try and involve the school in something that has nothing at all to do with it. Unfortunately there is no one piece of legislation in the UK specifically designed to deal with inappropriate postings on Facebook and other social networking sites but if the content has a racial element or violence is threatened, the matter should be reported to the police. In this respect, it is also worth noting that under the Protection from Harassment Act 1977, repeated incidents of behaviour amounting to harassment or causing a person to fear that violence will be used against them amounts to a criminal offence.
1.2
Is the content defamatory (libelous) enabling a legal course of action? A school as a whole cannot be defamed; thus the comment, “this school and all its staff are useless at educating children” does not create a course of action. The law in respect of defamation applies to an individual, a spoken comment is classed as slander and a written comment classed as libel. The current law in respect of libel, which is already complex in itself when applied to traditional, i.e. hard copy
publication, becomes even more complicated with electronic and web-based postings which can involve not just the author and the website organiser but other contributors. Even in a case of ‘traditional’ libel, to pursue an action would entail an extremely lengthy and highly expensive process with no certainty of success nor even, if damages were awarded, any certainty that the offender would have the means to pay. At best at the minute, and in the absence of new legislation to deal with this growing problem, the school should ask the offender and the website operator to remove the item and as previously stated, if the content is threatening, involve the police (1.1 above). 2.
Avoiding future problems As technology becomes more and more sophisticated, it would be impossible to prevent material/comments being published electronically. Practical approaches to try and address the problems could include:
2.1
A “whole school” approach Although this article is limited to parent comments, the school’s anti-bullying policy is a good place for educating parents as well as pupils and staff about what is an acceptable use of the Internet or social networking sites, similarly, the school’s behaviour policy, with its message of expectations of acceptable standards of behaviour from all.
2.2
The school’s complaints policy This can make it clear that the correct forum to discuss a school-related concern is via the school itself in the first instance and then the other mechanisms outlined in the complaints policy, not via Facebook or the Internet. It is also a good idea to have the complaints policy on the school’s website.
The WES Legal Service, September 2011 01926 412361 [email protected]
