A teacher from Ann Arbour, a city in Michigan, US, has been placed on administrative leave after a parent brought negative online reviews to the attention of school administrators. The story was reported by Michigan Live. The teacher, Ms Dianne Down of Huron High School, has since filed legal proceedings after school administrators requested that she undertake a psychological evaluation. Of particular note in this case is the means by which these allegations were brought to the attention of the school.

RateMyTeachers is an online resource which allows users to anonymously post comments about teachers. It asks participants to rate teachers from 1 to 5 on scales of 'Easiness, Helpfulness, Clarity, Knowledge, Textbook Use, and Exam Difficulty'. The website started in the United States, but also has a site dedicated to rating Australian teachers and schools. The Australian site is available here.

In the case of Ms Down, the allegations made on the RateMyTeachers website included that she:

• verbally abused students;
• was a bad teacher; and
• was condescending.

Although in this case there were many factors in the decision to stand down the teacher, the catalyst for this - the online comments - regrettably became part of the issue. Without commenting on the details of this particular case, it can often be a frustrating situation when school administrators are the last to learn about issues with their students or staff. In light of this case, we consider five tips for schools to help them manage their social media policies.

Managing social media

Schools are no doubt aware of the issues posed by social media.  We have previously written about the issue of cyber-bullying and workplace health and safety risks associated with inappropriate online activity. And cases already exist in Australia where parents have been successfully sued for defaming school staff members (in this case a principal of a South Australian school).

Unlike Facebook, where group administrators can be identified, the anonymity of RateMyTeachers injects a new level of malice in the difficulties faced by schools in managing their social media risks.

In this case the ability to anonymously post reviews about teachers brings with it a host of other issues ranging from possibly defamatory comments, to human resources, child protection and mandatory reporting issues.

In light of these concerns, schools could consider the following approaches to managing social media risks:

1. Educate

Schools should not forget that education can be the most powerful tool that they have. This of course applies to students - where social media education can be a part of the school syllabus - but it can also apply to teachers and parents.

2. Setting expectations - codes of conduct

Schools can, through codes of conduct, set their expectations for staff, students and teachers. Whilst members of a school community are often bound to follow a school's code of conduct either as a condition of enrolment, or a condition of employment for teachers, in reality unless the key aspects of codes of conduct are continually reaffirmed through communications with key stakeholders (students and parents) they are often ignored and difficult to enforce. This difficulty is exacerbated by the ability of individuals to log anonymous comments on online sites such as RateMyTeacher.

The utility of a code of conduct is that it sets clear and reasonable expectations of staff, students and parents that can be referred to in the event of any incidents. It gives a school an objective standard by which they can hold school community members to account. Although the values of a school's code of conduct, such as respect, honesty and tolerance, don't often change, the context of these values do - and it can be helpful to state explicitly how this applies in the context of social media. Where it is clear in a code of conduct that a student is prohibited from publishing comments about a teacher on social media sites or resources like RateMyTeacher, there can hardly be any excuse for non-compliance.

3. Why do people vent? The usefulness of a complaints handling policy.

If one looks behind the reasons why school community members post on social media, it can often be seen that their motivations are not driven by malice, but rather by a grievance or political agenda. People turn to social media to vent because it gives an easy, public way of seeking vindication for their feelings, or for attempting to have others see their issue in the same way that they do.  The problem is that these unfiltered venting sessions can have serious repercussions.

A complaints handling policy which sets out how a complaint will be dealt with can assist schools to manage the risk of a social media 'vent' by offering members of their community an internal process for expressing their concerns. Whether a complaint is founded or not, it is important for all parties to see and know that an issue has gone through a process, and that appropriate decision makers have given the issue consideration.

In most Australian States and Territories, having a complaints handling system is a requirement of registration. Schools should look to these requirements as an opportunity to address ways in which to usefully engage with the school community.

4. Managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) resources

Despite the pitfalls of social media and other technologies, interactive platforms which allow students to collaborate with each other can enhance learning. Inflexible blanket bans on the use of certain resources can be unhelpful, especially when students are denied an efficient and easy means of working together. A sure-fire means of testing your internet filtering software can be to block a social media site and to ask a student to get around it.

With the increasing prevalence of Bring Your Own Device policies, it can also be increasingly complex and cumbersome for schools to attempt to control each and every different brand and variant of smart device.

Common sense should prevail when schools set limits around ICT resources and social media. Although schools can control what students do during school hours, it can be counterproductive, and ultimately futile to attempt to ban students from collaborating on social media after hours. By the same token however, the distraction that smart devices can present during class hours should also be properly managed.

5. Managing your staff - employment contracts

Although the paramount duty of teachers is to educate, teachers are also employees. As such their use of social media can and should be managed by their employer.

Social media is increasingly blurring the line between work and home life for employees. Fair Work Commission cases have recognised that the duties of employees do not stop at the end of each work day. Teachers, like other employees, can rightly be subject to conditions of employment that prohibit them from doing things such as making disparaging remarks about their schools or students on social media.  Teachers should also understand that any stance they take on the internet may affect their status at work.

Ultimately, a case such as the one of Ms Downs is regrettable not only because it was an incident created by social media, but also because it could have been prevented. Often these cases are one where policies have failed - either because they are unrealistic, impractical or poorly implemented. Incidents like these gives schools some pause for thought in asking whether their own social media policies are adequate and up-to-date.

Of some concern is the finding of our March poll in which 58% of respondents answered NO to the question: Has your school published and effectively implemented a social media policy?

Stay tuned for CompliSpace’s schools social media e-book, being released shortly!