The Morning Bulletin reports that a student has pleaded guilty to two traffic offences following an incident on June 17 when he went to a teacher’s house after school and did a burnout in his car on their driveway, leaving 1m gouges on the concrete. The student was charged with one count of willful damage and one count of willfully making unnecessary noise or smoke. This followed a dispute between the teacher and the student in class. To protect the parties involved, the The Morning Bulletin did not provide names, ages or other personal information about the teacher and student.

The incident

The Morning Bulletin reported the facts of the incident as follows:

• the student stated that he felt ‘singled out’ in the teacher’s class, which prompted his decision to go to the teacher’s house after school;
• the burnout caused damage to the concrete and involved making unnecessary noise as the student drove away; and
• the teacher then reported the matter to the Police and the student was charged with the traffic offences.

In his decision, the Magistrate described the student as ‘foolish’ and ‘childish’ before telling the student to act with more maturity in the future.

Senior Constable Shaun James stated that the student was aware that what he was doing was wrong, but that he was acting because of his perception of how he was mistreated by the teacher. It was reported that initially, the student attempted to resolve the issue with the teacher and they formed an agreement where the student would arrange and pay for the repairs to the driveway.

Teacher harassment: an epidemic?

This case highlights the dangers of teachers facing reprisals from aggrieved students outside of school hours. Although teachers should ensure that they keep personal details private from students, this is not always possible in the age of social media and the internet. In this case, the teacher was lucky that the damage did not involve personal harm. The student is also fortunate that no criminal charges were laid or that no serious harm was caused to a person who may have been at the premises or in the driveway at the time of the burnout.

The burnout is an example of a student expressing their anger towards a teacher through physical action. However it is often more common for students to harass teachers in other ways and using other forums such as social media.

Recently, the international Nobullying.com website reported that there is an ‘epidemic’ of students using social media to bully teachers online. The online bullying can occur using fake accounts to humiliate the teacher or writing derogatory comments and insults on their own pages, encouraging responses from other students. According to that article, students use the internet as a tool to bully teachers because:

• it seems like a place where the student can say what they want to say about their teacher, and they won’t have to face the same consequences that they would if they had said it to the teacher in person;
• they assume that it is anonymous, or that the teacher will not find out about it; or
• the teacher is meant to see it and be intentionally hurt by it.

However it is wrong for a student to believe that their actions online cannot be punished.

In 2014, we reported that a former student was ordered to pay a teacher $105,000 following defamatory statements published on social media (this article can be found here). Although students may believe that their social media posts are private and can’t attract accountability or liability, their statements can constitute defamation and will be taken seriously by the courts. In the 2014 case, Justice Elkaim stated that the ‘evil (of these statements on social media) lies in the grapevine effect that stems from the use of this type of communication’, as these comments or accusations are easily spread.

Students should be made aware that if they choose to make defamatory statements against their teachers in forums such as Facebook or Twitter, legal proceedings may be instigated and personal liability (or that of their parents!) can  result.

Issues for schools

Schools owe duties of care towards their staff and their students. Unfortunately, teachers can be targeted by various members of the school community, including parents, students and other staff, if they make a decision which provokes abusive behaviour. Unlike the burnout incident which occurred outside school premises, often teachers can be targeted during school hours or on school premises, presenting a workplace health and safety risk for the teacher and the school.

As our previous article Bullying: It is not only students schools need to be concerned about explains, to help ensure that a school is prepared for such conduct, the first step every school needs to take is to acknowledge the risk of abuse from members of the school community as a key workplace hazard in it’s WHS policies and procedures.

To minimise the potential harm to staff from abusive or violent parents or students, like its other bullying policies, a school will need to articulate what can be interpreted as acts of bullying from students. A school will need to communicate its policy to students to ensure that they understand the appropriate standards of behaviour required from them.

Such a policy may include:

• steps to explain to students and staff their obligations under the policy;
• training, to ensure staff understand what constitutes bullying, and the options available to them;
• a formal internal grievance process, where staff can report cases of abuse or acts of violence from students; and
• processes to ensure complaints are handled confidentially and fairly.

In any event, teachers should be encouraged to always print or keep evidence of online bullying or other forms of abusive behaviour from students so that appropriate steps can be taken once the conduct is reported.

Lessons for schools

Schools should generally ensure that teacher and student interactions are monitored carefully and that any issues are reported and managed. Although it is well-established that this is to protect students from potential harm, the above cases demonstrate that teachers also should be protected from disgruntled students who may choose to harm the teacher’s reputation or property. Schools should have clear standards of behaviour for both teachers and students with the consequences of breaches clearly outlined. In addition, schools should have mechanisms for resolving teacher-student disputes in a fair and accessible manner.

The establishment of an effective complaints handling program within schools is critical.  If students (or their parents) are frustrated by an inability to express their concerns in a legitimate way, if the process fails to adequately address their concerns, or if the outcome is not clearly communicated to students, this could increase the risk that students (and possible their parents) will use illegitimate means to target members of staff. A breakdown in communication will only increase the potential for harm to the different parties and can, in extreme circumstances such as the ones above, lead to criminal charges if teachers are targeted.