When it comes to social media, schools must carefully juggle individual rights to freedom of expression with various protection duties. That includes safeguarding staff from harassment, and upholding the school’s reputation.
Make constructive communication your first priority
It’s important to remember that posting on social media is often a last resort for parents who have issues they wish to highlight.
Therefore, whilst schools may have legal options to call upon, taking such action could stoke the flames further and lead to a collapse in relations between the school and parents.
Schools should take a proactive approach to their relationship management that involves reviewing complaints procedures and staff training needs, and maintaining open lines of communication to help build trust.
Should social media suddenly become a battleground, you can de-escalate the situation by reverting to analogue. Simply pick up the phone and have an old-fashioned conversation.
Parental complaints on social media
Taking the ‘softer’ approach doesn’t always work as intended, however, so schools should have a social media action plan they can refer to if necessary. In most cases, the best course of action will be to simply retain a copy of the offending social media post and monitor any further activity.
When deciding whether or not to take action in response to specific posts, consider how long it’s been since they were posted. Have there been any further interactions with the posts from parents and others? Have the posts caused anyone (including staff) genuine distress, and have the posts resulted in any media involvement?
Sending a general reminder to parents about the appropriate use of social media may also have the intended effect.
Contacting parents, providers or police
If a school has any concerns around statements made on social media, they can use the relevant platform’s reporting function to request that the content be removed, as per the acceptable terms of use policies that all platforms operate.
The school may also wish to write to the parent who made the post, asking them to edit or delete it, though this could risk encouraging the parent to publish further posts.
Another measure could be to issue restricted communication plans to any parents found using social media to target the school or its staff. This might involve restricting a parent’s ability to telephone or email the school or staff.
Any posts the school suspects may constitute a criminal offence should be reported to the Police.
Dai Durbridge is a Partner in the education team at the UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson.
Read on for some legal dos and don’ts…
Can you send a warning letter to an ex-parent writing wrongful information on social media?
Yes, you can send a warning letter to any ex-parents who may be posting inaccurate or inappropriate information on social media, stating that their behaviour is unacceptable and outlining the consequences of them continuing.
This will, however, generally only have impact where individuals have made the comments in a ‘private’ social media page or group chat, and didn’t expect the school or its staff to see them.
If a parent’s Facebook comments risk causing reputational damage to the school, does the school have the right to remove said comments?
If the school owns the social media page, it can freely remove any inappropriate comments and/or block individuals from accessing the page if they’re breaching community standards.
Can anything be done if a parent labels a member of staff as a ‘bully’ on social media?
Parents can lawfully make statements of fact, or express heartfelt opinions or beliefs, in person or online, about the school and its staff. Even if these could be considered as unkind, unpleasant or disagreeable.
However, comments made online by parents could, in some cases, be considered defamatory in relation to individual members of staff.
An action for defamation is a personal action, meaning that only the person who believes they have been defamed may bring proceedings. Legal advice should always be sought if a claim for defamation is being considered.
Victoria Hatton is a Senior Associate in the education team at Browne Jacobson. You can find more FAQs about parental complaints on the company’s website.
