Responding to the “Cyberbullying” of Teachers on Facebook
By Shaun O’Brien
Stories relating to the pitfalls of the internet site “Facebook”, particularly for teachers, have recently exploded in the media. In particular, as has been repeatedly reported over the last several months, students are using Facebook to post defamatory comments and otherwise engage in “cyberbullying” of teachers. While teachers and their representatives can take a variety of actions in response to Facebook cyberbullying, it is hoped that the provincial government’s introduction of amendments to the Education Act will provide one effective avenue to address this burgeoning problem.
Facebook allows internet users to establish their own personal “profile”, that is, a personal web page on which the user can post personal information, commentary, messages, and photos. In addition to a host of other functions, users can exchange messages with other users (like e-mail), grant other users access to their profiles and post messages on another user’s profile (once access has been granted). A student, therefore, can post defamatory comments or lewd photo manipulations of teachers and publish these for the access of all of his or her friends and acquaintances.
In Toronto, the granting of Facebook access rights to friends and acquaintances has wide-ranging implications. Toronto has one of the largest number of Facebook users of any city in the world. Anecdotally, almost every high school student in Toronto has a Facebook account. This means that the information a student posts on Facebook can have an audience of an entire high school and more. In addition, while the news media stories have for the most part focussed on students or groups of students who have been identified for inappropriate Facebook use, one of the real dangers of Facebook is that defamatory material can be posted anonymously. That is, the information a user provides to establish a Facebook profile can be entirely fictional such that there is no public accountability for the student.
There are a variety of courses of action that teachers and their representatives can take in response to cyberbullying on Facebook, from insisting on the imposition of discipline at the school board level to various types of legal action grounded in defamation. However, one benefit of the recent surge of attention to Facebook is that it has coincided with the provincial government’s introduction of Bill 212, An Act to Amend the Education Act in respect of behaviour, discipline and safety.
Bill 212 received Royal Assent on June 4, 2007 and is scheduled to come into force on February 1, 2008. While the Bill does not specifically address cyberbullying, it does introduce “bullying” as an activity which may lead to a student’s suspension (s. 306(1)). It also provides that conduct which takes place outside of school but which impacts on the school climate may lead to suspension or expulsion (s. 306(1)). Finally, suspended students must be provided with programs containing academic and non-academic elements (s. 306(5)).
Partly due to recent incidents, legislators and teachers’ representatives have examined Bill 212 in the context of Facebook issues. Teachers’ representatives have had the opportunity to lobby the government regarding cyberbullying and the Minister of Education has recently described Bill 212 as specifically intended to address cyberbullying. In addition, Bill 212's requirement of programs for suspended students may provide an opportunity for educational programs and policies aimed at cyberbullying. For example, it is hoped that students could be required to complete modules on defamation and harassment during a suspension for cyberbullying.
Once implemented, then, Bill 212 may be a means to discipline students for cyberbullying and to educate students with respect to this problem. It is hoped that the implementation of this legislation, together with other actions by teachers and their representatives, will help curb the harmful uses of Facebook.