Friday 13 November 2009

"All I learnt at school, was how to bend not break the rules..."

A headteacher has suspended three pupils after they set up a Facebook group attacking her dress sense.
Not on school equipment. Not in school time, as far as I can tell.

So where this power-crazed fool gets off on thinking she has any right to take this action I can't say...
Elizabeth Hitch was so incensed by comments on the social networking site that she threatened dozens of others at Beaumont School, St Albans, with disciplinary action.

She then fired off letters to parents of students who had participated in the discussions, claiming that the remarks were 'offensive' and some were 'illegal.'

The education authority said that the Facebook site amounted to 'cyberbullying.'
Oh, boo-hoo! Grow a thicker skin, love.
However, Mrs Hitch's actions provoked uproar among students at Beaumont, which caters for 1,200 pupils aged 11 to 16.

One parent claimed his daughter had posted a 'fairly innocuous' comment on the site - but he now feared she could be suspended.

'Mrs Hitch couldn't just have taken a joke and handed this discreetly,' he said.

'This has blown up in her face in a rather unpleasant way. Everyone is talking about it and the children are furious.

'They're annoyed at the fact that their freedom is being invaded out of school. I think it has got totally out of hand - she has handled this appallingly.'
Well, quite. Probably only the 200 members of the group were even aware of it; now, as a result of her overreaction, it's in the national media.

Still, showing the kind of modern 'leadership' she somehow expects the pupils to respect, she's made sure she doesn't need to stick around to take any of the heat:
Mrs Hitch is currently on leave but both the school and her staff said the situation was far more serious.

Deputy head Martin Atkinson said: 'This was an act of malicious communication online directed at the headteacher, which was dealt with in accordance with the school's behaviour policy and in consultation with local police.'
Oh, good grief..!
Chairman of Governors, John Ingamells, said: 'This sort of behaviour and language is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated in school.'
Feel free not to tolerate it in school all you like. In fact, if you want to bar the kids from accessing Facebook during school hours on school equipment, that's your right, and most people would back you on that.

But you do not own these children's lives. It is not for you, or anyone other than their parents, to say what they can or cannot do outside school hours, so long as what they do is not illegal.
The school added that the headteacher had written to the families of pupils involved in this incident to express her serious concern at the sites pupils are accessing and contributing to on the internet.
Let's hope those parents who received such a letter promptly wrote back to tell this hectoring, power-crazed woman exactly where she could shove her 'serious concern'...
Angry students and pupils have used the page to lodge their protests at Mrs Hitch's actions.

One anonymous user wrote: 'A headteacher that displays such a lack of ability to laugh at themselves and who feels she has to stifle this type of freedom of expression with unpleasant letters should maybe expect more fun to be made of her than most.

'Nothing of what has been said in this group is illegal. It is neither malicious nor defamatory, but simple childish humour.'
Well said.

There's a lot of debate over whether modern children know more about their rights than their responsibilities, but it certainly seems as if they are well aware that the right to free speech is under constant threat from the likes of this woman and the notice this current government is likely to take of their 'concerns'.

Let's hope their parents are similarly well read.

Certainly, there's no point in relying on the readership of the 'Daily Fail', as comments are massively in favour of the headmistress, with calls to prevent pupils from using Facebook altogether, castigating the parents, demanding that children have more respect for authority, etc. Probably, some of them are the same people who rail against government surveillance and the rise of the offence industry.

But then, it's always different when your ox is gored, isn't it?

6 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

If they didn't do it at school and there's no malicious content (though kids can be cruel) then there's no story, save only for the Daily Fail "the country is going to the dogs" brigade.
Don't think I'd be too chuffed at my sartorial inelegance being posted all over facebook though, but I'm smart enough to know what causing a fuss would do too.

MTG said...

My God woman, are we going to see the old wartime Zyklon B generator reconnected to the school showers?

Perhaps these pranks may merit the penultimate punishment of banning pupils from hugging and cuddling each other.

Anonymous said...

Oh boo hoo, poor teacher. At my high school we had a teacher called Mr. Hankey - aka Snotrag to the pupils.

Mrs Hitch rhymes with...? Well we can imagine what her nickname is.

Not done herself any favours,has she?

Anonymous said...

their freedom is being invaded out of school

WTF! When did "invaded" become a synonym for "driven"?

SpiteK said...

It's all too common I'm afraid. I work at a school where it's routine for kids to be marched to the network technician's office (she can access Facebook somehow from in school) to edit or remove stuff from their Facebook because some other kid has whined about something. Given how vociferous and intractable our kids usually are when they know they're in the right it always surprises me just how easily they give in and do it.

It's wrong, we all know it's wrong, but the Headmistress (stuck up tit that she is) seems to think that she, personally, controls everything that happens in the Intertubes. Anyone pointing out her error is usually publicly put in their place.

JuliaM said...

"Don't think I'd be too chuffed at my sartorial inelegance being posted all over facebook though, but I'm smart enough to know what causing a fuss would do too."

Indeed. As a wise man once ssaid, 'You've got to know your limitations..' ;)

"Perhaps these pranks may merit the penultimate punishment of banning pupils from hugging and cuddling each other."

Heh! We csn but hope..

"Not done herself any favours,has she?"

Nope!

"Given how vociferous and intractable our kids usually are when they know they're in the right it always surprises me just how easily they give in and do it."

Conformists form the major part of the population. Especially at that age, despite the 'teen rebellion' thing.

And the government is working on eradicating the rest, gradually, and by stealth...