State School Teachers Union steps up campaign for respect, warning online abusers could face legal action

Parents “bad mouthing” teachers or people threatening to assault female staff are among examples of shocking online abuse revealed by the State School Teachers Union, which warned online abusers could face legal action. The union published the examples in its latest Western Teacher magazine to highlight its campaign calling for more respect for teachers in public schools. “A parent emailed, threatening that he will ‘come and sort me out’,” one respondent said. Another said that after a news story broke, various members of the public stated they were going to come on to campus to assault staff. “It was aimed at female staff members,” they said. “Parents bad mouthing staff via their parent WhatsApp group, who then share this with teaching staff,” another said. Other cases include angry parents emailing about the type of food allowed for “crunch and sip time”, threats of physical violence or emails full of profanities and derogatory language. “Parents (are) taking to (the) local area Facebook page to say degrading, hurtful and untrue things about staff members,” another respondent commented. One teacher said a student had hacked into their YouTube account and changed their profile name to a derogatory term, while another reported that a TikTok account comparing them to Adolf Hitler had been created. Other concerns about students’ disrespectful behaviour included “creating and sharing fake screenshots” or “posting TikToks about me and recording me in class and posting on TikTok and Instagram”. Even parents of pre-service teachers on school practicums were reportedly sending abusive messages to staff. About 25 per cent of more than 1600 respondents to the union’s State of Our Schools survey said they experienced incidents of online harassment at least once a term. The campaign came after the survey revealed a lack of respect was a key reason teachers were considering quitting the profession. Members have been urged to report online harassment or abuse to union organisers. “The SSTUWA is calling on the Department of Education to take legal action where required and to remind administrators of social media pages and groups of their legal responsibilities for what people post,” the Western Teacher article said. Union president Matt Jarman said he was not aware of the union taking legal action against online abuse previously. “Certainly, we’re calling it out,” he said. “If we had a member case in front of us, we would engage our legal services to review that case.” The union kickstarted its campaign calling on parents to show respect for staff in public schools at the start of Term 3. It urged members to pin up posters in hallways and classrooms reminding parents that “students learn from adults”. “Please be polite and respectful when raising issues with teachers and school leaders,” the poster reads.