Friday Bulletin

Dear Parents & Carers,

For many students and staff, it has been a normal and very positive week in school. They have continued to learn, enjoy time with teachers and their friends and to participate in a wide variety of extracurricular activities. However, for some members of our school community, and for teachers and many students nationally, it has been an upsetting period. You may have read national news reports yesterday regarding deliberate attempts by students to humiliate and abuse teachers and their classmates across the country using the social media app TikTok.

Please click here to read.

The vast majority of schools in Durham have been affected by this unacceptable behaviour and we have also had to deal with deeply unpleasant personal attacks too. If you are still unsure after reading the attached article, the Association of School and College Leaders have outlined the issue very clearly. Nationally, teachers and students have been subjected to:

• Racist, misogynistic and homophobic abuse
• Malicious allegations relating to paedophilia and rape 
• Malicious allegations relating to their private lives
• Malicious allegations against their family members
• The doctoring of images and videos that were shared with children to help them study during lockdown and to offer support with their mental health when studying at home.
• Attempts to find images of the children and family members of teachers and to also make malicious allegations or abusive comments about those family members. 
• The above actions have also been used to target children in schools.

In addition to the fact that students, on a national scale, have actively targeted people who have offered them nothing but support, advice and kindness during a very difficult period, they have also done this without thought, demonstrating a deeply worrying attitude towards the individuals being targeted. The article that I have shared focuses upon the disturbing nature of the abuse itself. However, of equal concern is the fact that large numbers of students are viewing and sharing this material and ‘liking it.’ In essence, they are ‘liking’ that their classmates and teachers, trusted and respected professionals with years of excellent public service, are being referred to as paedophiles and rapists. Those viewing these images and ‘liking’ them should question very carefully why they are doing so. In simple terms, they have ‘enjoyed’ the abuse directed at teachers and other children nationally and in their own schools. Individual teachers that help them, prepare them for exams and step in when they are facing difficulties. Students that they sit next to in class. We regularly discuss and prioritise the wellbeing of students in school and rightly so. Members of our school community should also understand that the wellbeing of the adults working in schools is very important too. Missing from the news articles is that large numbers of students are also being targeted in exactly the same way and at the same time. Some of those targeted nationally are very vulnerable; the most unpleasant form of bullying imaginable, as those individuals are less experienced and able to defend themselves. All those being singled out will be deeply upset; all those creating this content and viewing it need to understand that their actions have consequences. Behaving in this way is cowardly.

As a parent or carer reading the above, I would ask:

1. What is your child viewing on their phone? Discuss this with them.
2. Do they have apps that encourage them to behave in this way? Are you happy with that?
3. Are they willing to show you their apps and accounts and what they are posting, creating or liking?
4. Are they willing to show you what content they are looking at online now? Ask them to share the content that they are viewing. Is it age appropriate?
5. Are they using apps that are meant for older users? Is that acceptable? Are you happy about that?
6. Are they posting, reading or sharing derogatory references to other people within our community? Are they using offensive language or targeting other students?
7. Would you be happy if the comments or material that they are viewing and sharing with friends were about you or a member of your family?
8. As a parent, do you replicate this type of behaviour in your own use of social media? As adults we need to sometimes question and review our own actions too.

We always want to trust our children and hope that they have a clear sense of right and wrong and that they understand that bullying others – whether in person or online – is completely unacceptable. We have a responsibility to be good role models, as parents, carers and teachers. However, our national culture now appears to be partially based upon this private, hidden world of unkind and cruel behaviour. I would be very surprised if any of students responsible nationally would have the courage to make any of these comments directly to the people that they are targeting. Positively, it also important to be aware that the reason that many schools became aware of this was because other students reported it as they believed it to be repugnant and unacceptable. That reflects very well on those individuals and links to the school ethos of not being a bystander when something is wrong.

Like all schools, we will continue to identify students that are responsible for behaving in this way. There will be very serious sanctions for those that have chosen to do so – no one has been made to do this and it takes time to collect images, write comments and to then send, publish and share. This is a form of premeditated behaviour that requires planning and effort and we will not tolerate the bullying of anyone within our school community. You should know too that many of the actions outlined above are criminal and we will report any students responsible for similar behaviour directly to the police if appropriate or necessary. 

It is also our job to act on such a negative societal issue, to safeguard students and to encourage their healthy personal development. We will do that via assemblies and in the classroom in the weeks ahead. The most effective tools that we have at school to challenge this are reason and clear expectations; as parents you buy the phones, pay for the accounts, control access to Wi-Fi and set the standard of acceptable behaviour in the home. That gives you a significant level of influence and responsibility to challenge this and by doing so you are actually acting in the best interests of your child. Supporting those who are educating your children is hugely important and will help us to challenge and stop this from continuing. Students and staff within our community have the right to learn, work and collaborate together without being targeted in this way.

The common link between the offensive material that we have uncovered this week is that all of the content created and shared has been done so in the evening, much of it between 10.00 p.m. and 2.00 a.m. Therefore, the other questions that I would ask are, why are children on their phones at this time of night? Why are they using their phones in their bedrooms at 2.00 a.m. in the morning?

Our policy regarding mobile phones hasn’t changed. They should not be heard or seen anywhere on the school site. However, we will make one adjustment. It is clear that viewing offensive material that is inappropriate creates a safeguarding issue for students and could cause them harm in the long term, normalising a form of behaviour that is very damaging. If someone chooses to use their phone on site against those clearly understood rules, it will be confiscated. We will also ask to see the content of their phones, with an additional adult present, as it is clear that a number of students are using, creating and accessing inappropriate material and, like you, we have a duty of care to protect them from those things that may cause them harm and to educate them about more appropriate forms of behaviour.

I hope that you understand my reason for sharing this information with you and for requesting your support too. The students behaving like this may not have considered the potential consequences of their actions, but as adults we do understand that behaving in this way can have an impact in later life. As is very apparent in this update, our current world is very different to the one that I and many of you reading this grew up in. Our stupid comments, unpleasantness and mistakes were often private or not recorded for posterity. Those behaving in this way in 2021 may well have to explain their actions when applying for a job, a 6^th form place, a university course or when taking on greater responsibility as an adult. It will potentially feature in references and will be shared by others. It will undoubtedly have a negative impact on them too and we need to stop students from doing things that will cause them harm.

Solving societal problems requires a concerted national effort and is very difficult, but we all have a responsibility to stop this from occurring at Durham Johnston and within our community. Please ask the above questions of your child and please make it very clear to them that anyone behaving in this way at our school is stating very clearly that they no longer want to be part of our community, with its commitment to fairness, respect for all and kindness. People will always choose to act in a way that they feel is personally appropriate, but, hopefully, after reading this, after discussion at home and again in school next week, no one will be able to say that they were unaware of the consequences of targeting others in this way and how doing so reflects very badly on them as individuals.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Mr O’Sullivan