A friend works in a primary school. She is often asked by the headmaster to
produce reports about children. In addition she sees children with unusual
behaviours in the class. She and her colleague class teacher are concerned
about one child in particular. We'll call him "Fred", though that is not
his name.
The history IS relevant, so please bear with me.
Fred is five years old, and exhibits an unusual reticence with adults. This
is not "natural shyness", but is unusual behaviour for his age group, and
indeed for a younger age group, even for a complete infant. Fred also "has
nightmares when daddy comes to stay" (the family is separated, and daddy is
many miles distant). Fred is not s stupid child. His intelligence is
"average", but his ability to work, to recall facts, even facts given
carefully, one on one, a moment ago is minimal. In short his behaviour is
as though he is shutting out the world.
One might suggest that such behaviour may be caused by something deeply
"wrong" in the home environment. This could be anything on a scale starting
at "Simply no time for Fred at all" through physical abuse to sexual abuse.
Naturally my friend is not competent to discover this, nor is the class
teacher, nor is it their role to do anything other than report their
thoughts to the headmaster.
It is the headmaster's job to notify the social services of any
considerations which may be important for them to know about Fred. Rightly
this is not delegated to individual teachers. It is a "top level in the
school decision". However, teachers have often expressed frustration that
either the headmaster does not act, or does not appear to act in the great
majority of such cases (there is an alarming incidence of "unusual" children
at this school).
My friend has suggested that she ought to notify the headmaster in writing
in all cases including Fred's case. And this is where the concern for her
personal safety starts.
Given that such information is sensitive information under the DPA 1998, and
given that as soon as she commits it to writing and passes the memo to the
headmaster, the memo becomes subject to the act (she will not retain it in
any filing scheme of her own), she is concerned that an SAR requesting data
held on Fred and/or on Fred's parents would reveal her own role in reporting
suspicions.
While her address wil be kept private by the school, it is not beyond the
wit of some simple research (http://www.192.com springs to mind) to find out
the address and for an upset parent to arrive to harass or harm her in our
home. Most parents do not take kindly to social services investigations!
In my own employed role this is not a challenge I face. My questions to the
group include:
Have you had to face this?
How is the teacher's identity protected while complying with the act?
In addition you may find other aspects for mutual help here.
_____________________________________________________________
Tim Trent
Chief Privacy Officer EMEA
> Gartner
EMEA Marketing, Tamesis, The Glanty, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom,
TW20 9AW
Switchboard +44 (0)1784 431 611, Direct Line +44 (0)1784 267 335, Mobile +44
(0)7710 126 618
Visit our home on the web: http://www.gartner.com
The opinions expressed in this message are my own, and may or may not
reflect those of my employer. They are expressed as a part of the
discussion on the JISCMail mailing list on data protection and for no other
purpose. They have no legal standing and are offered as part of informed
and informal discussion. They may NOT be attributed to Gartner in any way.
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