Teacher Humiliates Teen Girl By Showing Bikini Photo at Assembly
A teacher at an English secondary school downloaded a teenage student's bikini photo from Facebook and displayed it at an assembly to teach students about the dangers of social networking. Dangers like, apparently, one of your teachers finding your photos and using them to embarrass you in front of 100 classmates.
The mother of the 15-year-old victim has filed complaints with Eggbuckland Community College's head teacher, the board of governors, and England's Office for Standards in Education, the Daily Mail reports.
"She's really upset and hurt and this has knocked her confidence, She's not the type of girl who likes attention like this," the girl's mom said, "She's a tom-boy, she doesn't wear make-up and she doesn't even have her ears pierced. It's not often you even get her in a bikini."
The school is "formally investigating" the public shaming—which used some other students' photos, but none in bikinis—and has apologized on behalf of the teacher while still defending the message of the assembly.
"She wanted to illustrate how freely available such images are, through the internet. We are really sorry for the way in which this important message was delivered. This was an error of judgement: the member of staff had not intended to cause any embarrassment," a spokesperson said.
The Plymouth City Council, which has jurisdiction over the school, refused comment on the specific incident, but was happy to tell the Daily Mail all about how important online safety is, because "Sadly, there are people of all ages who know that they can use photographic images to bully, exploit or coerce others, and do so."
People of all ages—including teachers, it seems.
Eggbuckland Community College is a "Centre of Excellence for e-Learning," according to a sign outside the school. There's definitely some excellent e-Learning taking place here.
