Recommendations

In a situation like this, we believe that Grenville could implement a set of strategies to rectify, or resolve the situation that Miss Hawkins has found herself in. There are 3 important steps that the school could take to not only calm the situation, and make sure it doesn’t escalate into a further inappropriate state; but to also minimise the chance of it happening again.

Primarily, the school could hold a staff meeting with the entire cohort of teachers and present an information session on the importance of the correct use of personal social media. It is here that the school’s leadership team could drive home the importance of having teachers keep their social and personal media platforms as a private aspect of their social life. The school may in fact choose to put a policy in place where students and teachers are forbidden to interact on social media platforms.

Secondly, the school needs to have a private and personal meeting with Miss Hawkins to discuss the situation. It is clear from this that her behaviour was inappropriate and action must be taken. She needs to acquaint herself with the Code of Conduct of the teaching profession, remove herself from the party group and set her privacy settings strategically. Miss Hawkins also needs to be made aware that despite changing to more private settings, she needs to be careful with what she is posting on social media as there is no assurance that this information will stay confidential, she cannot ensure that the students will not find a way to access her profile. As such even personal profiles should be treated with a certain amount of apprehension when posting personal comments and images. As a teacher, she should not be posting anything that she thinks could compromise her job if made public.

By holding the meeting, and outlining the issues, as well as what actions need to be taken, Grenville High School is able to ensure that Miss Hawkins fully understands the situation. The school is able to inform her of their stance on the subject of, not only social media interaction with students, but the manner in which she did it.

Finally, and arguably one of the most important procedures in ensuring the situation is dealt with appropriately, the school should hold an information session or incursion on the theme of ‘safe partying’.

Due to the situation of party invitations, such as the rave Miss Hawkins RSVP’d to on Facebook, already circulating amongst students, it could be very beneficial and appropriate to educate students on how to take care in such social situations.

Whilst the responsibility rests with the teachers, students also need to be informed that it is not appropriate to seek to interact with teachers on social media.