No specific rule against teachers using social media to contact students

Despite calls for a ban on electronic communication between teachers and students outside official channels, there is no specific rule against it.

Data analysed by NZME shows since 2010 there have been 53 cases of teachers using social media to effectively groom young people in their care into some form of inappropriate relationship.

That makes up 60 percent of the 89 cases involving an inappropriate relationship with a student heard by the Teacher's Disciplinary Tribunal in the past 14 years.

In 24 of those cases where either texting, emailing or social media was a tool used by a teacher to communicate with a student, some form of physical sexual relationship developed.

In a recent case a teacher at Rangi Ruru Girls' School in Christchurch, Connor Taurapa Matthews, who now simply goes by Taurapa, used Snapchat to contact and systematically groom one of his 16-year-old students. The messages turned sexual, then into naked pictures then into a physical sexual relationship.

Taurapa then asked the student to delete her messages.

That student, Helena Dray, opted to waive her name suppression when Taurapa was hauled before the tribunal last year where his registration was immediately cancelled.

Last year, Dray called for a ban on social media contact between teachers and students.

"Nothing was done to prevent it, there were no talks to students about these specific things, there was just kind of a don't connect with teachers on social media. There were never any hard lines about it and it was really up to the discretion of teachers at the end of the day," Dray said at the time.

Dray told media there was simply no need for teachers and students to be able to privately message one another.

"I think the issue is with these apps where you can erase all of the previous messages, you can delete texts, you can erase call history, Snapchats disappear. But having a platform where the IT or the school department is able to have access to those records, I think that's really important."

It was the exchange of thousands of "increasingly intimate and intense" text messages between a teacher and a student that became the focus of a Coroner's inquest in 2016 after a Gisborne teenager killed herself.

"I so badly want to climb in your window right now, just jump through and tell you how glad I am that you are here," one text from teacher Sam Back to a 13-year-old Reiha McLelland read.

While no physical sexual relationship developed, Back was struck off by the tribunal before the inquest and his partner Angle Mepham, also a teacher, was cautioned after it was found McLelland had stayed overnight at their home on multiple occasions.

A Coroner later found Reiha's risk of suicide would have been reduced had she not been entangled in a "secret friendship" with Back and Mepham.

However, instead of an outright ban on electronic communication between teachers and students, the Teacher's Council has instead sought to place a code of conduct around the kind of behaviour that predicates grooming.

"Prescriptive 'rules' don't tend to be of much practicable use, especially in areas like technology and artificial intelligence which are both rapidly evolving," a spokesperson for the council told NZME.

"Instead of rules, the teaching profession has developed a Code of Professional Responsibility and a set of standards for professional practice which are based on principles and shared values."

That code notes that "fostering online connections with a learner outside the teaching context" may be in breach as would communicating with students about personal or sexual matters without valid context.

Other aspects of the code outline how teachers should demonstrate a high standard of professional integrity, protect learners from harm and engage in ethical relationships that respect professional boundaries.

The code itself is up for review in 2025 following consultation with teachers last year about how it might address educators' use of technology and the council told NZME it anticipated there might be more specific guidance made in the code going forward.

Accountability Mechanism

Professor Michael Macaulay, formerly a judge in the United Kingdom, a lecturer at Victoria University's School of Government and researcher with a focus on ethics and integrity, told NZME adding a specific ban on teachers communicating with students on anything other than a school-approved system would be both easy and realistic.

"I can't understand what on earth anyone would even object to. If teachers want to get in touch with students via some form of electronic communication, just do it through an official channel.

"And if there isn't, then you just don't do it."

Macaulay said predators would always break the rules, but a specific social media ban would be an added "accountability mechanism".

"If you cut off any avenues and opportunities that's going to be a good thing. But it won't stop predatory behaviour.

"However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't look at opportunities to limit that kind of behaviour.

"I don't think it would be difficult to implement, and I don't even think it would be that controversial ... It would be no skin off the council's teeth to implement."

Macaulay said if a teacher needed to get hold of a student outside school, which he conceded they do need to in an electronic age, then they should do it through a school email that can't be wiped clean or kept secret from parental or school oversight.

Earlier this year, James Cook High School teacher Seelandran Ramiah requested three of his female students download the encrypted app Signal, which erases messages after a set time period.

Ramiah used this app to systematically groom one of those vulnerable students and sent her photos of his genitals and videos of himself masturbating.

The former assistant principal had his teaching registration cancelled and was then sentenced separately in the District Court to five months in prison for his conduct.

Ramiah also represents one of the few cases where a teacher has faced criminal charges alongside professional consequences.

Professional Boundaries

In 2011, then-director of the Teaching Council, Peter Lind, told the media that inappropriate relationships were an inevitability and would be impossible to stamp out entirely.

Since then, the council has changed its tune somewhat, with chief executive Lesley Hoskin telling NZME "one inappropriate relationship is one too many".

"We believe the vast majority of teachers understand the expectations of using social media and technology in a safe and respectable way, hence why there is currently no ban set out in the Code and Standards of using digital platforms to communicate with students.

"Just as students must learn and grow to navigate the world safely and respectfully, we expect teachers to do the same, including adapting to the fast-evolving world of technology."

Hoskin said when teachers did cross those professional boundaries, the context was crucial and the use of social media by teachers to support students' learning had shifted.

"The context of the early adoption of social media by teachers to support student learning has changed significantly as schools have moved to formally implementing approved learning technologies for student use that include built-in safeguards and are governed by clear policies for both teachers and students."

Hosking emphasised there were 110,000 registered teachers in New Zealand and to June 2023 there had been a total of 462 mandatory reports submitted to the council, representing just 0.4 percent of all teachers. Of those, registration cancellations amounted to just 0.02 percent.

In the past 10 years there have been 81 cases of inappropriate relationships before the tribunal, with 53 teachers having their registrations cancelled as a result.

John Fenuaghty, an Auckland University lecturer and specialist in youth wellbeing and psychology, agreed with the Teaching Council's approach to social media in its current code of conduct.

"A caution with a ban is recognising that social media is a slippery concept and it's not entirely clear what we mean when we talk about it because there are new forms popping up and disappearing all the time," he said.

"To enact a ban would require a very clear understanding of the terms and what we mean."

Fenaughty said the Teaching Council was at the moment focusing on the ethical obligations of its members and targeted the substance of the relationships teachers had with their students rather than the involvement of technology.

He said that regardless of any ban or ethical and professional obligation teachers had it was critical to ensure students knew how to recognise inappropriate contact as well as how to report it through the appropriate channels.

"It really comes back to students being able to recognise abusive grooming behaviours and what the warning signs are in that communication.

"In saying that, I would note that 99 percent of teacher communication is appropriate and we need to be careful around implementing a ban that potentially is detrimental to the student-teacher relationship, which then impacts on academic participation from students.

"I think the question is does social media use actually enhance or enable a grooming situation?"

The tribunal noted in one case from 2017, where a teacher added a young girl on Instagram, that while social media was a useful tool, it expected a school would have clear guidelines around its use.

The tribunal emphasised the detrimental effect that a teacher's treatment of a student as a friend can have on a student, noting the resulting harm is, "sometimes more [in an inappropriate relationship] than a sexual relationship".

An Education Review Office spokesperson said it required schools to have a Child Protection Policy outlining the standards and principles by which all its staff must abide.

"It must be a comprehensive and effective policy with robust practices and guidelines and outline the standards and principles by which all staff will abide, including the action to be taken by staff where any form of abuse or ill-treatment is known or suspected.

"The policy must establish the action required when allegations are made against staff and explore the implications for staff training."

The ERO then verifies that schools meet these obligations.

-This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.