Commented case 04 of 6 · illustrative
A social-media rumour about a teacher
An illustrative, composite case: no fact, person or school in this account is real. A social-media post falsely accuses a teacher of improper conduct with students, and the comment thread names children. The case shows how the school leadership protected the teacher and the exposed students at the same time, without silencing families’ right to complain through the school’s channels.
Step by step
What happened
Sunday, 8:40 p.m.
A post on a social network, made from an account bearing the name of a mother at the school, accuses a secondary teacher of “strange favouritism” with some students and hints, without quite saying it, at something more serious. Within two hours it has a hundred and twenty comments. Several mention students’ names and nicknames. Someone posts a photo of a class group.
Sunday, 10:15 p.m.
The teacher messages the principal: “Sir, this is a lie and I am devastated. Do I reply?” The principal answers with a single instruction: “Do not reply to anything tonight. See me at seven in my office. Take screenshots with the date and time, and delete nothing.”
Monday, 7:00 a.m. — Three decisions in twenty minutes
- Preserve. Dated screenshots of the post and the comments are saved. Nobody from the school replies, comments or shares on the network.
- Protect the students who were named. This is the greater urgency: there are minors publicly identified in a thread about alleged sexual conduct. Their families are informed and the platform is asked to remove the content that identifies them.
- Open the formal channel. The principal calls the mother and says: “If you have a concern about what happens in your daughter’s classroom, I will attend to it today, in writing and with the Comisión de Ética (the school ethics committee). What I cannot attend to is a comment thread with children named in full.”
Monday, 11:00 a.m.
The mother comes in. Her real complaint turns out to be about grades and about a remark that reached her third-hand. The Comisión de Ética receives the complaint formally and processes it confidentially. The teacher stays in the classroom: there is no charge, there is no indication, and removing her over a rumour would have condemned her without process.
Tuesday
The post is taken down by its author. The school neither demands a public apology nor publicises it. The leadership informs the district office in writing of what happened and what was done.
The principal explains to the teacher, in private, what her personal legal options are, and that the decision is hers, not the school’s. She decides not to pursue the matter. The school does not decide for her.
Two weeks later, the Reglamento de Convivencia (the school coexistence rules) is updated with a section on social-media posts involving members of the school community.
The legal reading
What the law protects here
What the law protects here
Publicly imputing to someone a specific fact that affects their honour, good name, image or dignity is defamation Art. 208Ley 74-25; Ley 44-26 lowered its penalty to one or two years. An offensive expression that imputes no specific fact is insult, and it includes what is said by electronic means or in cyberspace Art. 210Ley 74-25. Defaming, or threatening to defame, in order to obtain a benefit is extortionate defamation Art. 209Ley 74-25; legal persons are liable too, under the conditions of Arts. 8 to 11, whose entry into force is deferred by three months from 5 August 2026 Art. 212Ley 74-25 Art. 31Ley 44-26. On the school plane, posting on social media about a member of the school community without their consent is a serious breach Art. 20Ordenanza 05-2023.
Two honest clarifications this case obliges us to make. The first: Ley 44-26 limited the offence of contempt to the judicial sphere Art. 310Ley 74-25, so that there is no longer an offence of contempt for insulting a public-school teacher; offences against an educator are today channelled through insult, defamation or threats Art. 154Ley 74-25. The second: against public servants — and staff of public schools are public servants Art. 77Ley 74-25 — only expressions that affect their intimate or private life, or that are manifestly insulting or defamatory, are pursued Art. 211Ley 74-25. Reasoned criticism is not a criminal offence; the public imputation of a specific and false fact may well be. A mature school holds both things at once.
Which decisions were protective, and why
- Not replying on the network. No reputation is defended in a comments section; replying amplifies and exposes.
- Protecting the named students first. Disclosing the image or the data of an adolescent in a way that stigmatises them is aggravated Art. 186Ley 74-25, and they did not choose to be in that thread.
- Opening the formal channel the same day. A complaint to the school and the district office Art. 27 Párrafo IIIOrdenanza 05-2023, the mandatory receipt of the complaint Art. 43Ordenanza 05-2023, the Comisión de Ética Art. 40MINERD Code of Ethics and the appeal Art. 54MINERD Code of Ethics already exist.
- Not removing the teacher over a rumour, while processing the complaint seriously. Both things together are due process.
The tempting shortcuts and what they risked
A statement with names would have exposed students and the teacher, and speaking to the press is prohibited in cases of this kind Art. 14MINERD Code of Ethics. Requiring the teacher to file a complaint — or forbidding her to — would have been deciding something personal on her behalf.
A transferable practice
Set the twelve-hour rule: faced with any post about the school, nobody on the staff replies on the network; the content is preserved, the leadership is informed, and the decision is taken the next day with a cool head.
Every article in this case
The team’s commentary
What this case teaches
Español — The Spanish version is the reference text — the legal verification described in the audit report was carried out on it.
Audit report — the independent legal review of this material, with the errors we found and corrected (page in Spanish).
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