ARE EDUCATORS VICTIMS OF CYBER ABUSE?

My recent blog entries would have enlightened readers about my investigations about invasive technologies and its damages on victims of targeted individuals. My previous entry about e Safety Commissioner would have informed the readers about my awareness about cyberbullying, hacking, and gender and other types of abuse. The second professional development session about e Safety issues, especially the section that highlighted cyber teacher abuse caused mixed emotions in me. Recollections of sudden disruptions in class during a successful lesson making me look like a pathetic individual with absolutely no class control enraged me when the realization dawned on me that the stage was set for creating videos of students fighting, pushing, jostling, knocking tables and chairs off and hurling insults at each other or towards the teacher who is trying to establish order in the classroom.

I had not realized the extent to which teachers had become the targets of cyber abuse. There had been instances when I had been suspicious of a Facebook contact because of the immaturity in the messages and had wondered if it was a student who was impersonating to be a well-known person in the community. Even though I am not an educator now, the thought that students could be impersonating teachers’ accounts and sending inappropriate messages or images to other students via the fake accounts sent shivers down my spine. The fact that school meme pages could be the students’ medium to seek vengeance and post negative abusive comments that could ruin the teachers’ reputation, well-being, confidence, mental health, relationships with friends, family and colleagues and render them insecure or unsafe.

School memes are not always hilarious. I found a meme that portrayed the teacher as an unfair one and would have not disagreed with the perspective had I not come across the teacher’s rebuttals.

This made me wonder about the education authorities’ reaction to memes and if they dismiss staff based on the abusive comments made by students on these platforms or rate them as inefficient. Would they consider it wise to conduct a thorough investigation before jumping to conclusions?