A teacher from a secondary school in Portmore, St Catherine, has found herself in the midst of an embarrassing maelstrom after explicit images of her were posted on social media last week.
According to Jamaica Observer sources, students of the school found the photographs on a popular social media website mid-week, and by Friday, the situation escalated, resulting in the teacher being chased and jeered by the students.
The teacher allegedly received a phone call from someone with a male voice who threatened to post the pictures if she failed to be intimate with him, but the source said that by the time the blackmail could become a reality, the pictures had already been posted for all to see.
“She refused, and by the Wednesday everybody started to tell her they saw it on (the website). It was all over (the school), but nobody confronted her,” the individual said.
The troubled teacher reportedly closed off her duties early on Friday in the face of the worsening situation, as the photographs had by that time been circulated even more widely by students and others. But when the form teacher showed up for classes on Monday, it is said that she was locked out of class by the students, after which they proceeded to “run her down”.
It is understood that the dean of discipline intervened and that the teacher has since reported the matter to the police. Amidst the ruckus and ensuing finger-pointing, parents have become involved with calls for disciplinary action to be taken against the teacher.
It is said that the young teacher, in her defence, said she had recently sold the device and inadvertently left content stored in the phone.
Director of corporate communication in the education ministry, Bryon Buckley told the Sunday Observer that one parent had contacted the unit, arguing that her child had been suspended over a similar matter and suggested that the teacher should be suspended as well.
“Those are two different matters (but) if (the situation involving the teacher) is true then that’s a matter that the school needs to investigate based on the merit or demerit of professional conduct. A report came to the ministry and a note has been sent to the regional office,” he said.
Buckley further pointed to the ministry’s policy about professional conduct as contained in the education code, which would cover matters such as this one, but said usually school boards would address these type of situations. “So all I can say is that the ministry heard about it just this week and the report has been passed on,” he said.
This incident, as well as others in recent times, has brought into sharp focus the need for the education ministry to establish a social media policy for students as well as staff.
In 2014, explicit images of Dervin Wellington, the then acting principal of Christiana High School in Manchester, in bed with a younger man performing explicit sexual acts went viral on social media.
Wellington said that he was the victim of cybercrime and that the images had been tampered with.
When will women learn that when sharing nude photo make sure your face isn’t in it. She must have known how posted the picture
What people fail to realize is that the teacher is an adult. After working hours in the privacy of her home she is allowed to do any adult thing as she pleases. However i expected her to learn from these sexual acts being video taped or photographed being circulated for other persons.
They need to discipline those kids that locked her out the classroom and chased her and that mother have a nerve bout her child was suspended so the teacher must be punished , that mother should have been the last to open her mouth
Nothing is never deleted from your phone so might as well u just run a truck ova it and done .. More than delete an sell or give weh
That’s is so true @Anonymous10:07 she is an adult. Parent need to remind their children the different between and adult and a child. That’s is the problem these days comparing a child and an adult decisions. The teacher has her rights, she did not committed a crime nor did she do this on the school property or time. Yes she may feel a shame however that is all it is
the whola unnu fckf off wid unnu dunceness, why did they lock the teacher out of the classroom.
Everybody have body some look hot some dont, so dont know why we all act so bloody juvenile.