There is no specific rule against teachers using social networks to contact students

Taurapa, disgraced former teacher.
Photo: NZME/George Heard

Despite calls to prohibit electronic communication between teachers and students outside of official channels, there is no specific rule prohibiting it.

Data analyzed by NZME shows that since 2010 there have been 53 cases of teachers using social media to effectively groom young people in their care into some type of inappropriate relationship.

This represents 60 percent of the 89 cases involving an inappropriate relationship with a student heard by the Teachers’ Disciplinary Tribunal over the past 14 years.

In 24 of those cases where texting, email, or social media was a tool used by a teacher to communicate with a student, some form of physical sexual relationship developed.

In one recent case, a teacher at Rangi Ruru Girls’ School in Christchurch, Connor Taurapa Matthews, who now simply goes by Taurapa, used Snapchat to systematically contact and groom one of his 16-year-old students. The messages turned sexual, then nude images, then a physical sexual relationship.

Taurapa then asked the student to delete her messages.

That student, Helena Dray, chose to waive her name suppression when Taurapa was taken to court last year, where her registration was immediately cancelled.

Last year, Dray called for a ban on social media contact between teachers and students.

“There was nothing done to prevent it, there were no conversations with students about these specific things, there was just sort of not connecting with teachers on social media. There were never any hard lines about it and it really came down to the teachers’ discretion in the end.” of the day,” Dray said at the time.

Dray told the media that there was simply no need for teachers and students to be able to send private messages to each other.

“I think the problem is with these apps where you can delete all previous messages, you can delete text messages, you can delete call history, the Snapchats go away. But having a platform where the IT department or the school can access those records, I think that’s really important.”

It was the exchange of thousands of “increasingly intimate and intense” text messages between a teacher and a student that became the focus of a forensic investigation in 2016 after a Gisborne teenager committed suicide.

“I so want to climb on your window right now, just jump up and tell you how happy I am that you’re here,” read a text message from teacher Sam Back to 13-year-old Reiha McLelland.

While no physical sexual relationship developed, Back was dismissed by the court before the investigation and fellow teacher Angle Mepham, also a teacher, was warned after McLelland was found to have spent the night at his home on multiple occasions.

A coroner later found that Reiha’s risk of suicide would have been reduced if she had not been entangled in a “secret friendship” with Back and Mepham.

However, rather than an outright ban on electronic communication between teachers and students, the Faculty Council has sought to establish a code of conduct around the type of behavior that harasses.

Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins

“Prescriptive ‘rules’ are often not of much practical use, especially in areas such as technology and artificial intelligence, which are evolving rapidly,” a council spokesperson told NZME.

“Instead of rules, the teaching profession has developed a Code of Professional Responsibility and a set of standards for professional practice that are based on shared principles and values.”

That code notes that “fostering online connections with a student outside of the instructional context” can be a violation, as can communicating with students about personal or sexual matters without valid context.

Other aspects of the code describe how teachers must demonstrate a high level of professional integrity, protect students from harm, and engage in ethical relationships that respect professional boundaries.

The code itself will be reviewed in 2025 following consultation with teachers last year on how it could address educators’ use of technology and the council told NZME it anticipated there could be more specific guidance in the code in the future.

Accountability mechanism

Professor Michael Macaulay, a former judge in the United Kingdom, a professor at Victoria University’s School of Government and a researcher specializing in ethics and integrity, told NZME he added a specific prohibition on teachers communicating with students through any other system other than that approved by the school. It would be easy and realistic.

“I can’t understand why anyone would object. If teachers want to contact students through some form of electronic communication, just do it through an official channel.

“And if there isn’t, then you just don’t do it.”

Macaulay said predators would always break the rules, but a specific social media ban would be an additional “accountability mechanism.”

“If all avenues and opportunities are cut off, that will be a good thing, but it won’t stop predatory behavior.”

“However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look for opportunities to limit that type of behavior.

“I don’t think it’s difficult to implement, and I don’t even think it’s that controversial… Implementing it won’t cost the council anything.”

Macaulay said that if a teacher needed to communicate with a student outside of school, which he admitted is necessary in the electronic age, then they should do so through a school email that cannot be deleted or kept secret from parents. or school. surveillance.

Earlier this year, James Cook High School teacher Seelandran Ramiah asked three of his students to download the encrypted app Signal, which deletes messages after a set period of time.

Ramiah used this app to systematically groom one of those vulnerable students and sent him photos of his genitals and videos of himself masturbating.

The former vice principal had his teaching registration canceled and was later sentenced separately in the District Court to five months in prison for his conduct.

Ramiah also represents one of the few cases in which a teacher has faced criminal charges in addition to professional consequences.

“One inappropriate relationship is one too many,” says the Faculty Council.
Photo: 123rf

Professional limits

In 2011, then-head of the Faculty Council, Peter Lind, told the media that inappropriate relationships were inevitable and would be impossible to completely eradicate.

The council has since changed its tune somewhat, with chief executive Lesley Hoskin telling NZME that “one inappropriate relationship is one too many”.

“We believe that the vast majority of teachers understand the expectations of using social media and technology in a safe and respectable manner, which is why there is currently no prohibition in the Code and Standards on the use of digital platforms to communicate with students .

“Just as students must learn and grow to navigate the world safely and respectfully, we expect teachers to do the same, including adapting to the rapidly evolving world of technology.”

Hoskin said that when teachers crossed those professional boundaries, context was crucial and teachers’ use of social media to support student learning had changed.

“The context of teachers’ early adoption of social media to support student learning has changed significantly as schools have moved to formally implement approved learning technologies for student use that include built-in safeguards and are governed by clear policies for both teachers and students.”

Hosking emphasized that there were 110,000 registered teachers in New Zealand and as of June 2023 a total of 462 mandatory reports had been submitted to the council, representing just 0.4 per cent of all teachers. Of these, cancellations of registrations represented only 0.02 percent.

In the last 10 years, 81 cases of inappropriate relationships have been brought before the court, resulting in the cancellation of the registrations of 53 teachers.

John Fenuaghty, a professor at the University of Auckland and a specialist in youth psychology and wellbeing, agreed with the Faculty Council’s approach to social media in its current code of conduct.

“One caution with a ban is to recognize that social media is a slippery concept and it’s not entirely clear what we mean when we talk about it because new forms appear and disappear all the time,” he said.

“Enacting a ban would require a very clear understanding of the terms and what we mean.”

Fenaughty said the Faculty Council was focusing right now on the ethical obligations of its members and focused on the substance of the relationships teachers had with their students rather than the involvement of technology.

He said that regardless of any ethical and professional prohibitions or obligations that teachers had, it was essential to ensure that students knew how to recognize inappropriate contact and how to report it through the appropriate channels.

“It’s really about students being able to recognize abusive grooming behaviors and what the warning signs are in that communication.

“In saying this, I would like to point out that 99 percent of communication between teachers is appropriate and we must be careful when implementing a ban that is potentially detrimental to the relationship between students and teachers, which then impacts the academic participation of students .

“I think the question is, does social media use really enhance or enable a fitness situation?”

The court noted in a 2017 case, in which a teacher added a girl to Instagram, that while social media was a useful tool, it expected a school to have clear guidelines on its use.

The court emphasized the detrimental effect that a teacher’s treatment of a student as a friend can have on a student, noting that the resulting harm is “sometimes more (in an inappropriate relationship) than a sexual relationship.”

A spokesperson for the Education Review Office said it required schools to have a Child Protection Policy outlining the standards and principles that all their staff must adhere to.

“It should be a comprehensive and effective policy with strong practices and guidelines and describe the standards and principles that all staff will adhere to, including the actions that staff should take when any form of abuse or mistreatment is known or suspected.

“The policy should set out the actions required when allegations are made against staff and explore the implications for staff training.”

The ERO then verifies that schools comply with these obligations.

-This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.