Teachers taunted by cyberbaiting pupils

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As teachers befriend students online, experts suggest the teacher-student bond must maintain an aura of discipline.

A few months on Facebook with her students on her “friends” list proved to be an eye-opener for Priya Kumar (name changed). A teacher at a reputed private school in the NCR for classes VII onwards, Priya realised that she was no longer their teacher.
“There were no wishes like ‘Good Morning Ma’am’ or study-related queries, but feedback on my profile picture and all sorts of comments including how chubby my little nephew looked,” says the teacher, who has blocked 90 per cent of the students on her list.
While Kumar spoke on conditions of anonymity, there are others who prefer to remain silent. A poll by StrategyOne — with the reactions of 19,636 people, including 12,704 adults, 4,553 children and 2,379 teachers — showed that 20 per cent of the teachers surveyed had personally experienced or knew another teacher who had experienced cyberbaiting, a form of bullying by students online.
There are cases of students taunting their teachers, then capturing their reactions on a mobile phone and uploading the footage on the Internet. The cyberbaiting stats were among the findings of the Norton Online Family Report, which examined the effects of growing up in the digital age on the youth.
In yet another case at a Delhi school, students uploaded a video where they mimicked the gestures of a pot-bellied teacher. “A teacher saw the video and reported it to the principal. Since the video was obnoxiously done, we had to take strict action and suspend the students for a few days. We also counselled them about the rights and wrongs of such things and convinced their parents as to why the punishment was necessary,” a teacher at the school disclosed.
But for all the cases of cyberbaiting there are equally some instances where teachers are treated with respect on the Internet. Students like Shikha Verma of New Green Field School, Alaknanda, for example, have not come across cases where teachers are being disrespected on Facebook. She too has a few teachers on her friends’ list.
“Generally, teachers keep a low profile. At the maximum, there will be a few likes or uploads. Students too prefer to be safe and apply a block that ensures that they enjoy their space with no danger,” says the class X student.
While tech experts advise teachers to maintain two accounts — one for students and the other for their friends and family — others maintain that the teacher-student bond must maintain an aura of discipline. “Teachers are role models and they must always be seen as such,” says Dr S. Sundarsanan, senior consultant, psychiatry, BLK Hospital, adding, “Cases like cyberbaiting also underline the lack of supervision by parents, who are the primary role models for kids. When children see their parents doing or saying just about anything on the social media, they too take the same liberties. With a lot of peer pressure to indulge in such acts and absolutely no checks and balances, the social media is without any limits today.”
The dictum lies in the debate whether a social interaction is needed post-school. With both teachers and students intruding on each other’s privacy, one wonders where the fun of being on Facebook really is!