Online Ranting

Principals say they are suffering from parents’ online hate campaigns.
Jordan Baker, SMH, May 18, 2022.

“Almost nine out of 10 principals say student or parent misuse of social media is having an impact on their wellbeing and workload, with parents who disagree with their decisions using online forums to run hate campaigns.”

The online response to this article is instructive. Comments include:

• “Once Principals used to stand up to parents, not anymore, so the staff are thrown to the wolves.”
• “Why not appoint as principals people who can cope with the job.”
• “Parents need to realise they also have to take responsibility as parents and not try and make schools carry the burden of blame for their parenting choices.”
• “Lots of teachers on here pointing the fingers solely at parents. There needs to be some perspective here; principals/teachers are not always entirely blameless.”
• “And where did these people get the impression that it was completely acceptable to abuse and smear school teachers?”

Allow me to thank our parent body for not being part of this regrettable trend.

That is not to say that all our parents agree with everything we do, but generally we are able to talk and come to a conclusion without either side having to resort to online “hate campaigns”.

Hopefully, when/if we make mistakes we can take responsibility.

As a school, we are required to follow the laws of our commonwealth and state as they refer to education. As an independent school, we take individual responsibility for our policies, processes and actions.

As a school, we seek to make our standards, policies and rules transparent to our students, staff and parents. This transparency is backed up by the information in our Staff Handbook, Enrolment Process, Enrolment Contract and Parent Code of Conduct.

As an employer, the school has a right and responsibility to ensure it operates a safe workplace. That includes not allowing staff to be subjected to bullying, abuse or threats – face-to-face, in writing or online.

Any person in our community should be aware that the school does not tolerate abuse of its staff. It is not the model of behaviour we espouse or model for our students, it is detrimental to the wellbeing of those involved and has no place at St Columba.

End of story.

Want to share your thoughts on this story, or do you have something you’d like to add? Email me at principal@scas.nsw.edu.au