Facebook could cost you your job, teachers told

TEACHERS are being warned that they risk being struck off for “inappropriate” use of the internet – even if it does not relate to their pupils.

New guidance from the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) on social media is set to be issued next month which stresses to teachers the importance of separating their private life from their careers.

It urges them not to accept “friend” requests on Facebook from students and points out that the profession can be vulnerable to “unintended misuses” of e-mail, texting and social media as they encourage “casual dialogue” and often “very innocent actions can easily be misconstrued or manipulated”.

The new guidance comes after the GTCS warned that Facebook and Twitter were “blurring the professional boundary” between teacher and pupil.

It warns teachers to take particular care to protect their mobile phones, smartphones and computers from misuse while in school and follows cases in which teachers were either struck off or investigated over improper use of the internet.

Anthony Finn, chief executive of the GTCS, said the revised guidance was not intended to “constrain or nanny teachers”, but rather to “advise them of the potential pitfalls of using social media and to suggest ways in which teachers can protect themselves from risk”.

He said it came about due to pressure from teachers themselves, many of whom have concerns about the way social media is impinging on their careers.

The guidance states: “Teachers are individuals with private lives. However, off-duty conduct matters and may have bearing on their professional life. Therefore, sound judgment and due care should be exercised, as conduct which may not directly relate to pupils may be relevant to a teacher’s fitness to teach.”

Rod Grant, headmaster at Clifton Hall School, near Edinburgh, said both teachers and pupils alike should exercise extreme caution about what they published online.

He said: “My advice has always been not to publish anything that you wouldn’t let your granny see, as this is a really practical way of ensuring your public persona cannot be compromised by misinterpretation or by one’s own thoughtlessness.”

He added: “The key is to publish only that which you are happy for the world to view. That may seem simplistic, but I think totally sound.”

The GTCS guidance advises teachers to firmly decline Facebook “friend” requests from pupils and to use discretion when dealing with requests from parents. It also tells teachers to consider whether something online would reflect poorly on them or their school.

In August, Richard Cantwell from Airdrie was struck off the GTCS register for trying to lure a teenage pupil to his house with a series of inappropriate messages on the internet.