One day the All Blacks came to school. We were all so caught up in the excitement that we forgot about this child not being allowed to have her photograph taken and we took a picture with the class and our guests. As we were about to upload it to our blog I realised what we had done, it was too late to retake the photo. We were able to photoshop one of our school mascots (a cartoon character) over the top of the student. It was very effective, as if we had deliberately put the mascot there. However on another occasion the same student received an award in assembly and her name was published in our newsletter which is also available online. This time it was her mum that picked up our mistake. She came into school the next morning absolutely furious and she seemed genuinely afraid of the potential consequences for her family. We apologised and removed the newsletter from our website immediately. Unfortunately there was little we could do about the nearly 300 newsletters that had gone home with students the day before.
According to the Code of Ethics for Registered Teachers in relation to parents/guardians, and the family/whānau of learners, teachers will strive to respect their privacy and respect their rights to information about their children. And also promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of learners, and protect the confidentiality of information about learners obtained in the course of professional service, consistent with legal requirements. We had let this particular family down and were in breach of the Code of Ethics.
Fortunately there were no repercussions for the family following this incident. However it did make us review our procedures around those kids that have parenting orders and publishing bans in place and as far as I'm aware we have not had another incident like this one. Parents need to know that their children will be safe while in our care.
Education Council. (n.d). The Education Council Code of Ethics for Certificated Teachers. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-et...
Wow! I loved reading your reflection of this. This is something I am always very mindful of within my classroom as well.
ReplyDeleteWe have a form that students and parents sign upon enrollment asking if they give their permission for photographs to be used at the discretion of the teacher (that right there is another ethical debate).
The first thing I do each school year is check this list and then contact the parents to find out their reasoning - for some it is not enough information about where the images are going and for others it is as serious as the example you shared.
I think it is great to acknowledge that it is human for us to forget these things and get caught up in wanting to share photographs of all the amazing things our learners get to experience.
Thanks for this reflection. It brings to light an important topic all teachers should be aware of.