Social media defamation and complaints
Negative comments, criticism and defamation on social media can be a nightmare for schools to handle. We can be alongside you, providing specialist advice to guide you through the situation.
People complaining about teachers and schools on social media is a tricky one for schools to navigate. It can cause great upset to individual teachers and given the public nature of the criticism, the spin-offs with pupils and other parents and colleagues can compound the problems.
Our services
We can help you with:
- Putting in place a robust complaints procedure
- advising whether the comments are defamatory
- deciding whether and how to respond.
How should schools handle online abuse against staff?
A press release from the Department for Education in 2014 stated that reports show that 1 in 5 teachers face online abuse from pupils or parents. Schools should provide training to teachers as part of providing a safe working environment. Here are some guidelines:
- do not respond online
- turn off the social media comments function to prevent further comments
- report incidents to a line manager or senior member of staff
- keep a screenshot as evidence
- if it’s from a parent, ask them to remove the comment and use the complaints procedure; also invite them to come in for a meeting, if appropriate
- try asking the social media network to take it down, if that fits with their policy
- some posts are serious enough to be referred to the police
- provide training for teachers and office staff on handling aggressive people
The Department for Education provides useful guidelines: dealing with bullying advice.
We’re here to help
You’ll find our team of education lawyers friendly and easy to talk to and we understand the ins-and-outs of education law.
Our education law team is based in:
Cambridgeshire: Cambridge
Essex: Brentwood, Chelmsford, and Saffron Walden
Hertfordshire: Bishop's Stortford and Royston
But we can help you wherever you are in England and Wales.
