Your principal receives this email from a parent:
Dear Mr. Wise,
I am the mother of John Smith a sixth grade student in Miss White’s class. I am a friend of Miss White’s aunt and this weekend, I saw pictures of her drunk at a party posted on Facebook. I am outraged that this is the kind of person that we have teaching our children at Central Elementary. I would like John removed from her classroom immediately and I would like to know what course of disciplinary action you plan to take with this teacher. I would like to set up a meeting as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Mrs. Smith
If I were the principal, I would respectfully respond to her concerns and provide support from the school's Acceptable Use Policy. For my response I will be assuming a few things with the information provided. First of all, I will be responding using Forest Hill Public Schools' Technology Plan which has some supporting information that can be used to address this concern. Secondly, there is some important information missing in the letter Mrs. Smith wrote as she doesn't state the when she saw the photos nor did she state if they were posted on Miss White's Facebook page.
Dear Mrs. Smith,
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I want to assure you this matter is a major concern for the Forest Hill Public Schools District. We plan on investigating this matter further. Can you provide us with the direct Facebook profile and web address in which you saw these photos? This information is valuable in our investigative research.
In the District we use information and technology in safe, legal, and responsible ways and ask our faculty and staff do as well in their personal time. The Forest Hill Public School District does ask all faculty, staff and students to agree to it's Acceptable Use Policy (link to to FHPS's policy) and to be "Digital Citizens" as stated in our Technology Plan (link to FHPS's plan). However, due to the public nature of Facebook, we cannot prevent content posted by our faculty, staff or students during personal time using personal devices.
Again, thank you for bringing this to my attention. We want Forest Hill Public Schools to be a safe, professional learning environment for our students. Please contact Miss Jackson, my administrative assistant, to schedule a time for us to meet.
Sincerely,
Mr. Wise.
I think you make a great point when you say that you need more information on the issue at hand. The information that Mrs. Smith provided made it difficult to decipher if the teacher posted the pictures, or if someone else posted the pictures of her. The only thing that I would fix in your response is to be more specific with your response to Mrs. Smith. You hyperlinked the AUP policy, but you do not explicitly state where she can find the policy on this topic. This would be beneficial to her so she can see what the policy is and how it is handled. I think that explaining this would make your response stronger and would make a better response to Mrs. Smith's email!
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