One in ten teachers accused of abuse online

Teachers are facing death threats and being accused of abuse and serious crimes by pupils and parents on social networking sites, a poll suggests.

Online abuse of teachers is widespread, with more than two-fifths (42 per cent) of those questioned saying they had been a victim of it, a survey by the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) found.

Of those, more than three-fifths (61.2 per cent) said a pupil had posted an insulting comment about them on a social networking or website, while more than a third (38.1 per cent) said a student had made comments about their professional competence or performance.

Almost one in ten (9.1 per cent) said they had faced allegations of behaving inappropriately towards a pupil.

One teacher told the survey a student had posted that they were going to “slit my throat”, while a second said a pupil had written “my English teacher should actually die” and a third said a student had posted that a teacher “is a rapist”.

Another teacher faced claims that they were unable to do their job and should be sacked. The teacher told the survey there had been “lies about me: saying inappropriate things to pupils, insulting pupils, having sexually absurd behaviours. Generally defaming and insulting me, spreading rumours about me throughout the school”.

In some of these cases, action was taken against those responsible.

The poll, which questioned more than 1,500 teachers this month, found most of the pupils responsible (60 per cent) were aged between 11 and 16, although some teachers reported comments by primary schoolchildren.

Union general-secretary Chris Keates said: “Some of the findings are truly shocking.”