'It hits you in the heart': Teacher speaks out after being cyberbullied by students in his school
Ciaran Conference In The Wexford At Asti Speaking Kavanagh
A Dublin teacher has spoken of the trauma he experienced having been cyberbullied by students in his school, saying the experience was something that “hits you in the heart”.
Ciaran Kavanagh, a teacher in north Dublin, spoke of how a student used Mr Kavanagh’s image from his LinkedIn profile to create an anonymous TikTok account “to make what they would call a humorous video”.
Addressing the ASTI’s annual convention in Wexford, Mr Kavanagh said the postings eventually spread around the school, leading him to a situation where he contemplated leaving his job.
“You lose all sense of logic. You think you’re able to put up with it. But schools are by their nature happy places. When you hear kids laughing at a video circulating, you automatically think they’re laughing at you,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“You feel like every time you turn a corner, when somebody looks your way, you feel that they’ve seen this video, this concoction, that was made just for someone’s amusement, you feel that it’s directed at you. You think it’s directed at you. It got to the point where I considered leaving the school.”
“Thankfully the management and their support talked me down from that ladder.”
Mr Kavanagh said the experience was “something that I never want to go through again and I wouldn’t wish on anyone, because it hits you in the heart”.
“Because it doesn’t make sense. You know that you’re stronger than that, you think you can put up with the comments, the sly digs, the under-the-breath things. But when it happens in such a public sphere in such an open way, it’s heartbreaking,” he said.
"And that’s what I really felt like for a very long time.”
He said management in his school had been very supportive of him when he went to them with the problem. They had approached the gardaí, who said they would be “lucky if they found out who did it”.
In the end, the culprit was identified after the gardaí attended the school and used, in Mr Kavanagh’s words, “intimidation and fear tactics to get someone to talk”.
He said he had chosen not to find out who the student was, though he knows they were someone he did not teach personally, as he “didn’t want to impact” his future relationship with the students.
“We need to stand up to this issue,” he said, urging support among union delegates for a motion calling for stronger laws to prevent online abuse and harassment via social media.
That motion was carried unanimously by the 500 delegates present, with ASTI president Geraldine O’Brien telling Mr Kavanagh: “That can’t have been easy; we salute you.”
Almost a fifth of Irish secondary-level teachers have experienced cyberbullying, with the majority of that behaviour coming from their own students, according to a recent RedC survey.
Also proposing the motion, Sarah Cullen described the “sheer helplessness” and “anxiety” that comes with being “bombarded with hate speech and derogatory comments”.
The Dublin teacher described how a series of anonymous TikToks in a school within her branch area had “commented on the race, the weight, the sexuality of students and staff”.
The perpetrator was never identified.
“The student knew they could act without repercussions, and they continued posting videos taunting management and staff about their anonymity,” Ms Cullen said.
“In Ireland, it is not illegal to bully in this manner online. It is crucial that we as a society address the alarming rise of bullying, harassment and toxic behaviour online.
“How many more lives have to be destroyed before legislation is put in place?” she asked.