Teachers and staff at Rösegårdsskolan began to notice that something was going on between the students that affected their well-being negatively. The students showed teachers what was written on social media, but when the text written on Snapchat disappears, the school encouraged them to take screenshots. This is to be able to show what was written and to make it easier to sort out the quarrels.
But it was not appreciated by the people in the chats.
"They were called 'snitches' and they weren't nice to each other. In addition, it takes class time to sort out arguments and the children do not feel well, says principal Maria Ruth.
New rules for social media were developed
After several attempts to put the situation in order, but without success, the school was forced to gather resources and called a mandatory parents' meeting.
– We have a great collaboration at Bäckby, with the leisure club, the family centre and many more. At the parents' meeting, we received an extremely positive response and basically all parents came.
Among other things, the parents saw examples of conversations that the students had on social media and in several cases parents were shocked by the coarse language used. During the meeting, strategies were developed to stop cyberbullying and a follow-up meeting will be held after the summer holidays.
Listen to Principal Maria Ruth talk about what was written in the chats and about what rules were decided during the meeting.