Teachers want mobiles classified as weapons
29 June 2007
Mobile phones are “offensive weapons” and should be banned from schools according to teachers’ union.
NASUWT (The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) says students are misusing phones and bullying their teachers by posting the videos on the internet.
Secretly recorded videos of teachers are being uploading to websites such as Ratemyteacher and Bebo.
Dorset representative of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Philip Jacques said: “It’s not so much the technology that’s the problem it’s the bullying mentality of the bullies.
“Bullies will use whatever medium they can find to have a great effect because the bigger the effect the better they feel and what better place to do that than in a social networking site?”
Mr Jacques has seen cyberbullying first hand after students in a local Dorset school recorded footage of their teacher sleeping in class.
NASUWT has reported more than 100 cases of teachers being abused and bullied by online and phone misuses.
“We want schools to have clear guidance from the DfES (Department of Education and Skills) on what information and communications technology policies should look like and to include cyber bullying and use of the internet, because at the moment schools make up their own policies,” added Mr Jacques.
29 June 2007
Mobile phones are “offensive weapons” and should be banned from schools according to teachers’ union.
NASUWT (The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) says students are misusing phones and bullying their teachers by posting the videos on the internet.
Secretly recorded videos of teachers are being uploading to websites such as Ratemyteacher and Bebo.
Dorset representative of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Philip Jacques said: “It’s not so much the technology that’s the problem it’s the bullying mentality of the bullies.
“Bullies will use whatever medium they can find to have a great effect because the bigger the effect the better they feel and what better place to do that than in a social networking site?”
Mr Jacques has seen cyberbullying first hand after students in a local Dorset school recorded footage of their teacher sleeping in class.
NASUWT has reported more than 100 cases of teachers being abused and bullied by online and phone misuses.
“We want schools to have clear guidance from the DfES (Department of Education and Skills) on what information and communications technology policies should look like and to include cyber bullying and use of the internet, because at the moment schools make up their own policies,” added Mr Jacques.