Posting Students Online Should Get Teachers Fired Even With Parental Consent, Says An Educator
Xavier Lorenzo | ShutterstockParents have been warned about the dangers of sharing information about or posting photos of their kids online, but that conversation doesn’t usually extend to teachers because they’re simply expected to know better.
Apparently, some teachers have grasped this concept better than others. One student teacher said she regularly turns to social media for classroom inspiration, but has been pretty appalled by what she’s seen. She thinks there should be absolutely no exception to the rule of teachers not posting students, and those who do should be fired.
An educator said teachers should be fired for posting students online, even with parental permission.
“As someone currently student teaching, I’ve seen a LOT of TikToks of teachers ‘vlogging’ while they are actively teaching and showing their students’ faces and voices in the background,” she wrote in a Reddit post. “Gross. I don’t care if you teach pre-K, elementary, middle, [or] high school. You’re gross and should get your teaching license revoked until you can learn your basic teaching standards.”
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She said that the trend many parents, and even teachers, have started to use of blocking out kids’ faces isn’t enough to make it acceptable to share pictures or videos of them online. The only time it’s OK to take pictures or videos of students in the first place is when they’re being sent directly to the parents or requested by administrators.
She concluded, “A professional setting is not your time to make silly TikToks or vlog your life. There is a REASON why there are rules in education, because students are MINORS and using their likeness for views and clicks is crazy disgusting.”
Although this teacher felt like her opinion was a ‘hot take,’ tons of other educators agreed with her.
In fact, one said, “This should be a cold, freezing Antarctic take.” Another commenter argued that parental consent wasn’t really what mattered. “Children cannot give consent to being on camera or having their likeness included in something,” they noted.
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One teacher admitted that their administration actually encourages them to share their students on social media. “Our state and district actively seeks out Instagram teachers to celebrate,” they said. “Our teacher of the year packet asks about and nearly requires your teaching-focused social media to be robust.”
Others said that this obsession with social media from teachers was a bad idea, not only because it endangered students, but also because it took the educators’ focus off their job and made them more concerned about likes and followers, which in turn sets a bad example for the kids they’re teaching.
Teachers using social media isn’t always a bad thing, but it does require a strong sense of discernment.
The National Education Association noted that “teacher influencers” are becoming more and more popular on social media, especially TikTok. In many cases, they actually help the profession because they show people the impact that an educator can have and inspire those who may be considering teaching as a career.
However, a teacher attempting to document as much of their classroom as possible still doesn’t give them the right to share images of their students. The American Board, a teaching certification organization, said that there is no situation in which teachers should feel comfortable sharing a picture of one of their students or any other identifying information on social media.
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In situations where a school wants to post photos of students on its own official social media accounts, administrators typically require parents to sign a media release form. Just because a parent signs that doesn’t mean they’re OK with teachers sharing pictures on their personal accounts.
Posting pictures of children online can affect their mental health and can put them in danger since it allows the wrong kind of people to learn more about them. No teacher should be involved in that.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
