SN posting photos of her "special" students on FB and instagram

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Facebook friends with a couple teachers who post pictures of their students all the time.
It's usually special events at school, such as when they had a reptile man come in, but sometimes just regular classroom pictures with captions like "I love these kids" or "what a fun day we had today!"
They are both public school elementary teachers. It's been going on for years. So probably not a law against it

Just because they do it doesn't make it ethical and it doesn't mean they are in compliance with school regulations. If there are no identifiable faces and it's just the backs of their heads as they watch reptile man introduce his critters then NBD. I'm not a fan of people plastering their own children all over public FB and IG accounts, but I'd rather see that then taking photos of other people's kids and displaying them without permission. It's creepy. You can say you love your job and post a selfie in front of your chalkboard. No need to violate the privacy of your students.

I'm just saying that they are veteran teachers who have hundreds of Facebook friends, including other teachers, and they have been doing it for years. No back of heads, clear as day pictures of kids faces. I am not a teacher and my children are not in public school, just adding to the conversation. Schools are public places, I wonder is that is part of the issue here.

[Anonymous]

OP here again and I just wanted to clarify. One year DC had a teacher who took a zillion photos and posted them at a private Shutterfly account. I thought that was fine. She was a mainstream teacher and didn't reveal private info about students. Only the classroom parents could see and we could order photos of our kids. She told us in advance she likes to do this and if we don't agree with it n/or we don't want any photos of your kids posted she wanted to know so she could respect everyone's wishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am Facebook friends with a couple teachers who post pictures of their students all the time.
It's usually special events at school, such as when they had a reptile man come in, but sometimes just regular classroom pictures with captions like "I love these kids" or "what a fun day we had today!"
They are both public school elementary teachers. It's been going on for years. So probably not a law against it

Just because they do it doesn't make it ethical and it doesn't mean they are in compliance with school regulations. If there are no identifiable faces and it's just the backs of their heads as they watch reptile man introduce his critters then NBD. I'm not a fan of people plastering their own children all over public FB and IG accounts, but I'd rather see that then taking photos of other people's kids and displaying them without permission. It's creepy. You can say you love your job and post a selfie in front of your chalkboard. No need to violate the privacy of your students.

I'm just saying that they are veteran teachers who have hundreds of Facebook friends, including other teachers, and they have been doing it for years. No back of heads, clear as day pictures of kids faces. I am not a teacher and my children are not in public school, just adding to the conversation. Schools are public places, I wonder is that is part of the issue here.

The whole public places part may make it totally legal. No clue. I think when you reveal anything protected under FERPA it's an issue. Let's say you post a photo where a kid got back an exam and you can see he got a "C" or whatever. That IMO is protected info and FERPA trumps al IMO, but I'm not a lawyer.

[Anonymous]

I think there is absolutely a difference between a teacher posting non identifying, general activities like 'field trip!' Visible to their network of approved friends, v. This teacher, who posted about specific disabilities her personal struggles dealing, and pics of the kids publicly. They had to be public if a non friend could see. It really seems this person is not smart enough to have a teaching responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The new SN teacher strikes me as very green so I googled her to find out her past experience. (The school never shares this). I found her public FB and IG and she posts photos of students including mine and some self-congratulatory humble brag crap about how tough it is working with SN kids but just seeing their smiles blah blah. She's young and I doubt she meant to come across as full of herself and condescending about "special kids." We keep a low profile online and I'm highly annoyed she did this without permission. Names of kids are not there, but they are clearly identified as special needs and attending blah blah elementary. We don't want to offend her since DC gets lots of pull out and pull-in. I feel strange saying I found your FB and IG and please take down my kid's photo. On the other hand IMO she has no right and we want the photos taken down. There's an added piece I can't go into about why we don't post our photos online. WWYD?

OP,

Our schools explicitly forbids posting kids pictures on social media. If this were my kid's school she'd be fired. I would tell her straight out to stop posting. I would also report it to the school.

+1. Our school too. Even the parents know the rules so they don't post pics of other people's kids on their social media page.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

[Anonymous]

Posting general pictures of kids on a field trip or whatever (while not acceptable) is a completely different category than identifying kids as special needs in your (smug) post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

I'm detecting a troll-like pattern of posts. It is confidential information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

No on facebook.

[Anonymous]

OP, you need to talk to the principal about this. There needs to be a blanket policy and general reminder that teachers and staff are not allowed to take pictures of students at any point on school property, except for a specific purpose (ex: yearbook or PTA website) and with your written permission requested each and every time.

It's not a question of being nice and warning the teacher. This needs to go up the chain, not for vengance, but because it should become a school policy.

Our elementary school principal in MCPS has a tough no-pictures policy for the PTA, unless for very specific distribution which needs to be approved by all parents concerned as well as by the administration, for which I am grateful. I certainly hope she has talked to the teachers about the taking of pictures at school. I don't think personal cameras/phones should be whipped out in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

I'm detecting a troll-like pattern of posts. It is confidential information.

It really isn't. The whole school knows who is and who isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

I'm detecting a troll-like pattern of posts. It is confidential information.

It really isn't. The whole school knows who is and who isn't.

And now the whole world knows too! Awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

I'm detecting a troll-like pattern of posts. It is confidential information.

It really isn't. The whole school knows who is and who isn't.

And now the whole world knows too! Awesome.

Were the children explicitly named in the photo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools take pictures all the time not a big deal

This is taken a step further. The children are identified as special needs. That is confidential information.

Who is sn and who isn't sn is hardly a state secret

I don't know if you are a special needs parent or not, but there are reasons why special needs parents do not want their children's pictures posted (especially unknowlngly) on social media. There have been troubling incidents of SN kids pictures copied to other websites and Facebooks groups and then made fun of for their appearance. There have been incidents of SN kids' photos copied to make money "This is my disabled child and we desperately need money for XYZ operations for her." So we really want to protect our children, and their photos. I don't want people giving money thinking they are helping someone get my daughter some surgery. And I don't want teenagers and creeps making fun of my daughter.

[Anonymous]

Of course she is wrong - correct but don't vilify. Working w special needs kids is not easy and dumping a kid of crap on her may not be what she deserves.