Schools urged to fight back against online harassment

The Australia Catholic University’s latest study of workplace safety for principals showed parents and caregivers were the alleged culprits in 87 per cent of complaints from school leaders about cyberbullying.

The university’s investigator and former school leader Paul Kidson was himself the victim of a vitriolic social media campaign when he was a school principal.

“They’re all consistently the same structure. It is: ‘I’m unhappy with the school. I’m going to say what I like with impunity’,” Kidson said.

“That’s why some principals just say, ‘I love my job, but if this is the way this community is going to respond, I don’t need this’.”

The academic said aggressive parents slandered or cyberbullied principals “with impunity” on social media, and that he knew of one case where a cease and desist letter was sent to a family over their online behaviour.

Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek, who retires next week after 55 years in education and 35 as principal at Berwick, said parents joined WhatsApp groups with the best of intentions.

“In fairness to parents, they get on these chatlines and aren’t aware of the dangers of using it as gossiping or carping sessions,” Grossek said.

“Once you put it out there and someone repeats it, it can be distorted and become very harmful and destructive.”

The aggression is not confined to parent-on-teacher confrontations and Australian Primary Principals Association president Angela Falkenberg said spats between parents often broke out on WhatsApp chat groups.

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“Someone will make a comment saying, ‘that’s hurtful, that’s a bit mean’, then it’s, ‘who are you calling mean?’,” she said.

Falkenberg said principals were having to spend time soothing the hurt feelings of parents after WhatsApp chat group pile-ons.

“Some people are genuinely so distressed that they come to the principal,” she said.

A teacher at a government school, who asked to remain anonymous, recounted families exploding in fury on their WhatsApp groups over a bring-your-own-device-to-school policy.

“We had to go into mega-crisis mode to try to calm families down,” she said.

“It was very toxic.”

Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly also called for official intervention.

“The minister for education needs to reset system-wide expectations for respectful and appropriate conduct for all stakeholders in Victoria’s public schools,” he said.

“There is no excuse for bullying a teacher, principal, or education support staff in our schools.”

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Australian Principals Federation president Tina King said parents should advocate for their children in a considered, respectful way and that Victorian schools could enact the school community safety orders – banning parents from a school – for threatening or defamatory statements.

An Education Department spokesperson said parents should raise issues with schools directly and that the Independent Office for School Dispute Resolution could help families and schools resolve their differences.

If unsatisfied, parents can also raise their complaint with the Victorian ombudsman.

“Any harassment of staff by parents is completely unacceptable,” they said.

Meta has been contacted for comment.

With Christopher Harris