Teens Continue Their Campaign To Be The Absolute Worst By Abusing Their Teachers On Social Media

teachers abused on social mediaUsually, when we hear about teachers and social media, it’s typically because a teacher has done something stupid-or perceived to be stupid-online and faced the consequences for it.

For instance, we get teachers being fired for having the audacity and gall to wear bikinis, and then also to be in the vicinity of a camera while they wear them. Sometimes a teacher will post something that is obviously pretty questionable or downright racist over and over again before even being reprimanded. All in all, there seems to be kind of a hazy area where your right to post pictures of you being a stupid idiot online meets your right to free speech. I’m always a little bit baffled whenever these cases come to light, because there’s always someone saying, “well, the laws just haven’t kept up with the internet!”

Sparkling, newfangled series of tubes that the internet is, pretty much everyone is caught up with how it works by now, right? We can at least surmise that the parents and youth of the UK are,  A study conducted by  NASUWT, a teacher’s union, surveyed 7,500 educators and found out that one in five is targeted at some point by either a student or a parent being a tool online, according to The Guardian. That’s 20% of teachers being abused on social media, which seems really high to me.

Of course, this survey was done overseas, but I’d bet you anything that a survey conducted over here would look pretty similar. And how exactly are these kids training to be grade-A, gold-plated tools? Just your usual 11-16 year old behavior, really: racism, sexism, posting videos of teachers online without their consent…you know, kid stuff. Of course, this isn’t just limited to older kids, some students as young as 7 get in on the action. From the Guardian:

“Of the respondents, 26% said photos or videos of themselves had been posted online without their consent. “We constantly have to trawl through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter for posts and videos,” one teacher said.

Teachers reported having fake Facebook profiles set up with sexual comments, while one said a Facebook post in their name stated: ‘I will rape every Year 8 pupil who comes to the school.’ “

Charming, truly charming. But wait! There’s more. Approximately 27% of the online douchehattery was estimated to be coming from parents, while 9% was the work of a parent and student together. That is some high quality family bonding.

Two things here. First, my daughter is 7. I’m trying to imagine her being angry enough at a teacher to post something horrible online, which would essentially be impossible because she doesn’t have any social media profiles. I would sincerely hope that by the time she’s old enough for one, I’ve thoroughly driven home the concept of being a decent human being online. Barring that, I would sincerely hope that I’ve driven home the concept of how absolutely screwed she would be if she ignored such a lesson.

Second, as a parent, I haven’t loved every single teacher my daughter has ever or will ever have. Neither will you. Some teachers rub you the wrong way. Some you don’t click with. Some are flaky and never return emails, and some your kid will just like better than you, requiring you to hate them. None of these kinds of teachers deserve the kind of ire coming out of this survey.

(Image: Syda Productions/Shutterstock)

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