A 15-year-old girl from Devon has said she was humiliated by teachers in front of over 100 other students when her photo was used in a PowerPoint demonstration.
The school was trying to warn its pupils about the dangers and lack of privacy of social media, and illustrated this with a picture of the girl in a bikini that they found on Facebook.
The girl’s mum has made an official complaint about the school, and is shocked at the schools treatment of her daughter.
“They used other photos of kids from the neck up but for some reason they thought it was OK to use a picture of my daughter in her bikini,” the furious mum told reporters.
“Why did they have to use an image like that to make their point? Then they pointed her out in the assembly. She was really upset.”
According to her mum the school’s social media shock tactics has destroyed her daughter’s self confidence.
“She's really upset and hurt and this has knocked her confidence. She's not the type of girl who likes attention like this,” she explained.
“She's a tom-boy, she doesn't wear make-up and she doesn't even have her ears pierced. It's not often you even get her in a bikini.”
A spokesperson from the school confirmed that they were conducting a “formal investigation” into the incident.
They apologised for use of the photo, explaining that the member of staff “wanted to illustrate how freely available such images are, through the internet.”
“We are really sorry for the way in which this important message was delivered,” they added. “This was an error of judgement: the member of staff had not intended to cause any embarrassment.”
