Teachers living in fear over false child abuse allegations

Teachers and educators are starting to speak out about a shadowy form of abuse – their immense exposure to false allegations of child abuse.

A survey recently carried out by the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT) shows that a whopping 89% of educators now avoid being alone with one student, while 67% avoid physical contact with them. More worryingly, 34% of educators are now refraining from participating in voluntary work with minors, while 24% of them no longer feel comfortable participating in extracurricular activities.

Last summer, a MUSEUM catechist was kept in custody and charged in court after a 10-year-old boy accused him of slightly brushing his genitalia when lifting him out of the sea. The court did not ban the media from publishing the catechist’s name, leading to uproar among educators.

“Police investigations and court decisions are often inconsistent,” MUT president Kevin Bonello said, comparing this case with another recent one in which the court had initially banned the publication of the identity of a Gozitan priest who had also been charged with child abuse.

“These decisions create a strong level of uncertainty among educators,” Bonello told a conference organised by the MUT to discuss legal and ethical issues faced by educators who work with minors.

“When children report teacher abuse to their parents and the parents then report their children’s words to the police, the police often charge the teachers in court without even bothering to speak to them beforehand,” the MUT’s lawyer, Michael Tanti-Dougall said, warning that a child’s word should not be taken as gospel.

“Children are just as capable of lying as adults,” Tanti-Dougall told a hall of nodding heads. “The police should investigate alleged cases of child abuse before charging teachers in court.”

He also warned the educators not to be naïve – apparently simple acts of kindness could come back to haunt them.

“I know of a case where adolescent girls began speaking to a teacher about sensitive issues. The teacher spoke to the school counsellor, who assured him that the girls were simply confiding in him. They eventually took their conversations online, the children’s parents discovered them, and the teacher ended up getting charged in court.

“You must never let your guard down, because you could be reported falsely and the police will believe the child over you,” Tanti-Dougall told the educators.

The educators were warned several times of the new dangers that they face as a result of the Internet and social media.

“Some teachers are not yet conscious of the possible consequences of their actions,” said Ian Mifsud, director general of the directorate for quality standards in education. “My advice to teachers is to act as though their loved ones were watching them.”

“Teachers must act professionally even outside school, including on social media,” said Mateja Farrugia, chairperson of the council of teachers. “What is unacceptable behaviour inside the classroom is also unacceptable outside it.”

However, the line between what is acceptable and what isn’t is often blurred. 47% of educators who responded to the MUT survey said that nappy-changing and helping children use the toilet can expose them to allegations of child abuse. 45% fear one-to-one sessions with children, such as guidance and counselling, for the same reasons.

“Our students like to come and hug us,” an educator commented in the survey. “I start to push them away and they don’t understand why. I tell them ‘I am your teacher and not your mother’ but I can see their cross faces when I push them away.”

“Teachers need to have clear and fixed standards of what constitutes unethical behaviour,” said Tonio Pace, CEO of the newly-launched Lisa Marie Foundation. “The current code of ethics for teachers is too full of legal language and hard to understand,” he said. “It needs to be condensed into a few major cardinal statements that will then be promoted to educators.” 

‘Two year court case over a simple comment’

To make matters worse, teachers do not only face such abuse from the children they teach but also from their children’s parents and other teachers.

“Parents can bully teachers,” Michael Tanti-Dougall said. “I know of cases where parents sent their children’s teachers threatening messages such as ‘I know where you live’ and ended up knocking on the teachers’ home doors just because they didn’t believe that their children were getting enough individual attention.

“There have only been a few such court cases, but the parents were found guilty in all of them,” he said. 

Tanti-Dougall also warned the educators that they can face false allegations from their own colleagues.

“Once, a group of teachers took their students out on a summer camp and one of the teachers passed a comment that another teacher could have abused a student. Word got around and that teacher got charged in court, despite the concerned student’s parents’ denial of the allegations. The court cases dragged on for two years before the teacher could clear his name.”