Teachers fear growing 'cyberbullying' by pupils

Growing numbers of teachers are becoming the victims of cyberbullying by their pupils, a conference heard yesterday.

Youngsters are photographing their teachers in the classroom and then placing obscene images of them on websites - or posting derogatory comments about their teaching ability.

Now the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers is threatening to sue the owners of the websites for libel.

They also want the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, to investigate whether he can introduce legal curbs to insist that companies police the material they display more strictly and give teachers the right to reply.

In one case in Newcastle, a girl placed a photograph of her teacher's head on a naked body and placed it on a website.

In another, a girl put false details about her teacher's sexual relationship with her husband on a site and called her "an exhibitionist".

A motion unanimously backed by delegates at the conference criticised RateMyTeacher - a US-based website - and YouTube for causing "distress to teachers by inappropriate and often offensive comments and video clips".

Andy Brown, a teacher at Ballymena Academy and the Northern Ireland executive member of ATL, said he had found "two hurtful comments about my teaching ability and me as a person" posted on RateMyTeachers.

Mr Brown said: "Comments are one thing but what about teachers who've had images of their heads super-imposed on to gratuitous images or who have had pictures taken and posted of their cleavages or underwear as they bend over, or who have had comments questioning their fidelity to their partner?"

A survey by the union revealed one in six teachers had been a victim of cyber-bullying by their pupils.

Of these, 45 per cent had received emails designed to upset them, 12 per cent had received photographs which made them feel threatened, embarrassed or vulnerable and 10 per cent had read messages about themselves on an internet chat room.

"Could you imagine the outcry if we started a website which allowed teachers to say whatever we liked about pupils?" Mr Brown added.

Michael Hussey, the founder of RateMyTeacher, rejected the criticism. He said: "We read everything before we put it on our site. For them to link our site with cyber-bullying is ludicrous." He said 70 per cent of all comments were positive but added: "There are bad teachers. There are teachers who do not care."