Parents posting critiques of their kids’ teachers on Facebook and other social media

[Anonymous]

Teachers can't have it both ways ~ be special snowflakes who require endless gratitude, teacher appreciation VS be a professional. Sometimes professionals get reviews. Sometimes professionals get criticized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers can't have it both ways ~ be special snowflakes who require endless gratitude, teacher appreciation VS be a professional. Sometimes professionals get reviews. Sometimes professionals get criticized.

But teachers are uniquely suffering out of all of the professions.

And there is no such thing as an abusive or lazy teacher. All teachers are self sacrificing martyrs who eat sleep and dream about how to help their students.

And if there would be such a thing as a lazy or bad or mean or abusive teacher, quietly approaching the administration GUARANTEES your concerns will be heard and the teacher will change their behavior or be fired.

And unions never ever protect sexual predators from being fired.

Parents are never correct in their criticisms.


If you correct a teacher anonymously you're a coward. If on facebook you're a rumor mongerer.


Okay, we can stop talking I summarized this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What teacher really cares what a bunch of whack jobs post on Facebook? I mean, really? The only people dissing teachers on Facebook are complete losers and I hope those teachers go after them to sue for libel.

You can only win a lawsuit if what they are posting is not true. And if you bring a frivolous lawsuit, you will have to pay not only your legal fees, but the defendants legal fees.

If what they're posting is opinion then you absolutely can win. And they defendant will need to pay for the lawsuit. Nice try, though.

You've got that completely backwards. It's not libel if its presented as an opinion. It has to be presented as a factual statement which is false, where the author either knew it was false or was negligent, and that did damage to the subject of the text.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point why the heck not. We post everything else online, whether warranted or not, so why not teachers... It’s annoying and stupid and childish and entitled, but so is 99.9% of the internet.

But this is a critique of someone’s job performance online. Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town but I can’t imagine writing something negative about the way someone is performing their job on social media, except maybe a politician who is a public figure.

Actually, I think it is similar... the state mandates that you send your child to school. The school mandates that you have a particular teacher. The teacher is an agent of the government, whether they think of themselves that way or not. It is probably not a good idea while your child is in the classroom, but the system has been set up to provide parents (consumers) with no direct way to respond to poor behavior by teachers. Yes, we vote for School Board members, but even they don't engage in running the school system. So, options to "fight back against the government" are limited here.

Yes, absolutely, great point. I also publicly name and trash my mailman, the clerk at the MVA, the public librarian, the Ride-On bus driver, my boss's wife who is a GS-10 paper pusher at the FDA, the guy at the vehicle emissions testing center, firefighters, the recycling people, the tech at the county Covid test site, and that nurse at Walter Reed who looked at me wrong. They are all "agents of the government," after all, and deserve to have their names publicly dragged through the mud when they displease me, the taxpayer. That's what they signed up for and they're all paid a fortune for it! This has improved my life immeasurably. None of my neighbors speak to me and I have $1800 in speeding tickets because the stupid cop wouldn't listen when I told him he worked for me, but there really is no downside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers can't have it both ways ~ be special snowflakes who require endless gratitude, teacher appreciation VS be a professional. Sometimes professionals get reviews. Sometimes professionals get criticized.

But teachers are uniquely suffering out of all of the professions.

And there is no such thing as an abusive or lazy teacher. All teachers are self sacrificing martyrs who eat sleep and dream about how to help their students.

And if there would be such a thing as a lazy or bad or mean or abusive teacher, quietly approaching the administration GUARANTEES your concerns will be heard and the teacher will change their behavior or be fired.

And unions never ever protect sexual predators from being fired.

Parents are never correct in their criticisms.


If you correct a teacher anonymously you're a coward. If on facebook you're a rumor mongerer.


Okay, we can stop talking I summarized this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point why the heck not. We post everything else online, whether warranted or not, so why not teachers... It’s annoying and stupid and childish and entitled, but so is 99.9% of the internet.

But this is a critique of someone’s job performance online. Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town but I can’t imagine writing something negative about the way someone is performing their job on social media, except maybe a politician who is a public figure.

Actually, I think it is similar... the state mandates that you send your child to school. The school mandates that you have a particular teacher. The teacher is an agent of the government, whether they think of themselves that way or not. It is probably not a good idea while your child is in the classroom, but the system has been set up to provide parents (consumers) with no direct way to respond to poor behavior by teachers. Yes, we vote for School Board members, but even they don't engage in running the school system. So, options to "fight back against the government" are limited here.

Yes, absolutely, great point. I also publicly name and trash my mailman, the clerk at the MVA, the public librarian, the Ride-On bus driver, my boss's wife who is a GS-10 paper pusher at the FDA, the guy at the vehicle emissions testing center, firefighters, the recycling people, the tech at the county Covid test site, and that nurse at Walter Reed who looked at me wrong. They are all "agents of the government," after all, and deserve to have their names publicly dragged through the mud when they displease me, the taxpayer. That's what they signed up for and they're all paid a fortune for it! This has improved my life immeasurably. None of my neighbors speak to me and I have $1800 in speeding tickets because the stupid cop wouldn't listen when I told him he worked for me, but there really is no downside.

“But teachers are conspiring against us!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point why the heck not. We post everything else online, whether warranted or not, so why not teachers... It’s annoying and stupid and childish and entitled, but so is 99.9% of the internet.

But this is a critique of someone’s job performance online. Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town but I can’t imagine writing something negative about the way someone is performing their job on social media, except maybe a politician who is a public figure.

Actually, I think it is similar... the state mandates that you send your child to school. The school mandates that you have a particular teacher. The teacher is an agent of the government, whether they think of themselves that way or not. It is probably not a good idea while your child is in the classroom, but the system has been set up to provide parents (consumers) with no direct way to respond to poor behavior by teachers. Yes, we vote for School Board members, but even they don't engage in running the school system. So, options to "fight back against the government" are limited here.

Yes, absolutely, great point. I also publicly name and trash my mailman, the clerk at the MVA, the public librarian, the Ride-On bus driver, my boss's wife who is a GS-10 paper pusher at the FDA, the guy at the vehicle emissions testing center, firefighters, the recycling people, the tech at the county Covid test site, and that nurse at Walter Reed who looked at me wrong. They are all "agents of the government," after all, and deserve to have their names publicly dragged through the mud when they displease me, the taxpayer. That's what they signed up for and they're all paid a fortune for it! This has improved my life immeasurably. None of my neighbors speak to me and I have $1800 in speeding tickets because the stupid cop wouldn't listen when I told him he worked for me, but there really is no downside.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are teachers so scared of. Do a good job and parents may complain but won't be able to point to anything.

If I'm watching my kids teacher abuse kids or clearly have not prepared on Zoom. Why can't i comment.

Please make that comment where it's appropriate, with the teacher or principal. Not to your 1,000 BFFs on Facebook.

CallCPS if there’s abuse. Mark Zuckerberg is not doing to read your post and put an end to the teacher abusing the kids.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t publicly trash anyone, regardless of their profession or plight in life. Do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So teachers are fine with anonymous bashing on ratemyteacher.com but not on facebook. Okay!

I don’t think anyone should ‘bash’ people online, but if there are legitimate criticisms and the parent doesn’t feel comfortable talking to admin (or nothing was done when they did) then yes rate my teacher is better than Facebook because anyone can read ratemyteacher reviews. I have no way to read Larla’s mom’s Facebook posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tax dollars pay for public employees. If underperforming teachers are sucking up public funds, citizens need to be aware to hold the administrators accountable.

I have no problem with teachers getting reviews online on a site they will actually see (ratemyteachers, etc.)

Susie’s mom posting on Facebook does nothing to hold anyone accountable. It’s just a rant her friends can see. Much like us posting on this forum accomplished nothing except yelling into the void.

As a parent, ive seen horrible teachers not get fired despite tons of complaints. At least on facebook you can warn and discuss with other parents.

Warn them about what? Do parents actually unenroll kids at school because of a bad teacher review? And lots of schools don’t allow you to request a certain teacher so this really doesn’t seem to accomplish much except give parents anxiety if their kid is assigned to that teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point why the heck not. We post everything else online, whether warranted or not, so why not teachers... It’s annoying and stupid and childish and entitled, but so is 99.9% of the internet.

But this is a critique of someone’s job performance online. Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town but I can’t imagine writing something negative about the way someone is performing their job on social media, except maybe a politician who is a public figure.

Actually, I think it is similar... the state mandates that you send your child to school. The school mandates that you have a particular teacher. The teacher is an agent of the government, whether they think of themselves that way or not. It is probably not a good idea while your child is in the classroom, but the system has been set up to provide parents (consumers) with no direct way to respond to poor behavior by teachers. Yes, we vote for School Board members, but even they don't engage in running the school system. So, options to "fight back against the government" are limited here.

Yes, absolutely, great point. I also publicly name and trash my mailman, the clerk at the MVA, the public librarian, the Ride-On bus driver, my boss's wife who is a GS-10 paper pusher at the FDA, the guy at the vehicle emissions testing center, firefighters, the recycling people, the tech at the county Covid test site, and that nurse at Walter Reed who looked at me wrong. They are all "agents of the government," after all, and deserve to have their names publicly dragged through the mud when they displease me, the taxpayer. That's what they signed up for and they're all paid a fortune for it! This has improved my life immeasurably. None of my neighbors speak to me and I have $1800 in speeding tickets because the stupid cop wouldn't listen when I told him he worked for me, but there really is no downside.

Do you, teacher, not see the difference in the level of interaction and control that you have over a family's life than a Ride-On bus driver or the clerk at the MVA? Your specific job is to train and indoctrinate children on behalf of the government (representing the community). If there is no choice available to parents, they need some way to express their opinion about the person who has so much influence over their child's formation. Social media is not the most effective way of handling it, but the system has evolved for the protection of teachers and left parents no way to both express their opinion and hope for any resulting change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point why the heck not. We post everything else online, whether warranted or not, so why not teachers... It’s annoying and stupid and childish and entitled, but so is 99.9% of the internet.

But this is a critique of someone’s job performance online. Maybe it is because I grew up in a small town but I can’t imagine writing something negative about the way someone is performing their job on social media, except maybe a politician who is a public figure.

Actually, I think it is similar... the state mandates that you send your child to school. The school mandates that you have a particular teacher. The teacher is an agent of the government, whether they think of themselves that way or not. It is probably not a good idea while your child is in the classroom, but the system has been set up to provide parents (consumers) with no direct way to respond to poor behavior by teachers. Yes, we vote for School Board members, but even they don't engage in running the school system. So, options to "fight back against the government" are limited here.

Yes, absolutely, great point. I also publicly name and trash my mailman, the clerk at the MVA, the public librarian, the Ride-On bus driver, my boss's wife who is a GS-10 paper pusher at the FDA, the guy at the vehicle emissions testing center, firefighters, the recycling people, the tech at the county Covid test site, and that nurse at Walter Reed who looked at me wrong. They are all "agents of the government," after all, and deserve to have their names publicly dragged through the mud when they displease me, the taxpayer. That's what they signed up for and they're all paid a fortune for it! This has improved my life immeasurably. None of my neighbors speak to me and I have $1800 in speeding tickets because the stupid cop wouldn't listen when I told him he worked for me, but there really is no downside.

Do you, teacher, not see the difference in the level of interaction and control that you have over a family's life than a Ride-On bus driver or the clerk at the MVA? Your specific job is to train and indoctrinate children on behalf of the government (representing the community). If there is no choice available to parents, they need some way to express their opinion about the person who has so much influence over their child's formation. Social media is not the most effective way of handling it, but the system has evolved for the protection of teachers and left parents no way to both express their opinion and hope for any resulting change.

Okay, your last sentence is the most stupid one on this thread. Why can't you go to the Principal? There is no one holding you back expect apparently your own ineptitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tax dollars pay for public employees. If underperforming teachers are sucking up public funds, citizens need to be aware to hold the administrators accountable.

I have no problem with teachers getting reviews online on a site they will actually see (ratemyteachers, etc.)

Susie’s mom posting on Facebook does nothing to hold anyone accountable. It’s just a rant her friends can see. Much like us posting on this forum accomplished nothing except yelling into the void.

As a parent, ive seen horrible teachers not get fired despite tons of complaints. At least on facebook you can warn and discuss with other parents.

Warn them about what? Do parents actually unenroll kids at school because of a bad teacher review? And lots of schools don’t allow you to request a certain teacher so this really doesn’t seem to accomplish muc h except give parents anxiety if their kid is assigned to that teacher.

Principals do nothing unless it hits the news and they are afraid of public humiliation.

Knowing a teacher is bad helps parents take their kids complaints seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who thinks principals or administration actually helps parents with abusive teachers is happily deluded.