Month: January 2019

Some adults and professionals consider sexting ‘… sending or posting of sexually suggestive images via mobile phones’. Young people tend to think of it as sharing explicitly written or intimate messages with friends. Parents also tend to think of messages rather than images.

More recently, following deficiencies in existing legislation, together with need for greater clarity for law enforcement agencies, education authorities and criminal justice systems, greater emphasis has been placed on a definition which covers the creation and sharing of sexual photos and videos of under-18s. Predominantly this activity is illegal in many countries. It also leads to the greatest complexity for schools and other agencies in response.

CEESA Article ‘SEXTING’

I continue to work on cases involving poor teacher recruitment practices in International Schools.

A recurring theme is inadequate pre-recruitment checks. Potential recruits can lie or falsify records about where and for whom they have worked if comprehensive due-diligence checks are not undertaken.

Those teachers ‘found out’ mid-contract can too easily be released back into the global ‘teaching pool’ if allowed to resign without sanction or details of their misconduct being passed to member schools, umbrella associations, and teacher registration boards where appropriate. This effectively condones their behaviour and enables continuing safeguarding risks where they might secure subsequent employment.

School discipline procedures and potential criminal breaches should be considered at these times.