Reassurance for Parents In Oldham After Pupil's Inappropriate Post
A school in Oldham has issued a statement reassuring parents, after concerns were raised over a pupil’s Facebook post, which featured him holding a gun.
The boy - who cannot be named for legal reasons - first posted the picture in August, but reposted it - overlaid with the French flag of support on Facebook, following the Paris terrorist attacks last week.
Police visited the school, and confirmed that no criminal offence had taken place.
The post has now been deleted, and the boy’s family have apologised, saying they’re “hugely upset” that any offence was caused.
You can see the full statement from the school below:
Dear parent,
As you are probably aware there has been an issue this week about an inappropriate Facebook profile picture that was posted by one of our pupils.
Although we now understand this first went online back in August, school staff only first became aware of it on Monday, November 16 and we immediately contacted the child’s parents, the police and the council.
Police visited the school. They have fully investigated the matter and confirmed that no criminal offence has taken place.
It became clear that the child had reposted this profile picture last weekend, this time overlaying it with a French flag as a mark of support to the people who died in the terrorist attacks in Paris. In doing so he copied what thousands of other social media users were doing.
The child and family were fully co-operative and are hugely upset that offence has been caused.
They stressed their disgust at the Paris attacks, quickly deleted the Facebook account and wish to express their regret at what happened.
I hope you are assured that the safety of all pupils and staff is our highest priority at this school and I want to take this opportunity to reassure all parents and carers that your children are completely safe here.
The incident is a reminder of the need to use social media appropriately and safely at all times and we will, of course, continue to teach children about how to do this.
If any parent has any concerns about this – or any similar matters - I am happy to speak to them directly if they contact the school.
Yours sincerely
Dr. K. O’Hagan
Headteacher