Issues created by students’ social media use over weekends are keeping staff busy on Mondays at Waimea Intermediate.
“One of the biggest challenges in schools is students unsupervised social media use and how that impacts on friendship groups,” says Waimea Intermediate principal Justine McDonald. “We spend a lot of Monday, and even to Wednesday, sorting through social media issues from the weekend.”
Justine says social media produces different dynamics from years gone by. While students may know their posts can be hurtful at times, the fact that they are not face to face means they don’t see reactions and the impact of their posts. This can mean they don’t go through the emotions attached to their behaviour, leaving staff to process the issues with groups on a Monday, particularly after rainy weekends.
While it may be only a small percentage of students affected, Justine says that some kids are swept up in it and it is contributing to self-harm.
Another change she is seeing is students’ increased awareness of suicide. Justine says we just need to be careful how we talk about it around young people, saying, ‘What we focus on flourishes.’ We need to get young people into music and arts and sport.
She says that in Nelson currently there can be a three month wait for a young person who has suicidal ideas to be seen by a mental health team.
Meeting mental health needs of students isn’t a one size fits all, according to Justine. The school has counsellors and social workers who work with students, and she sees a direct impact in these cases. They also have Snapshot workers, and 24/7 workers who are a friendly ear closer to the student’s age.
Nelson Tasman Life Education Trust educator Ingrid Kemp has been at the school teaching concepts like empathy, decency, self control and identity in online behaviour. One thing she hopes they take away is ‘There are not two versions of you. There’s not an internet you and a real you. There’s just one real you. If you are not kind on the internet, you are not kind.’
Ingrid agrees that social media is a concern for schools in the region, as does principal of Saint Paul’s Catholic School Maureen Phillips, who says it is certainly increasing student vulnerability.