The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has commenced investigations into several recent reports from the Ministry of Education, of teachers being verbally abused and disrespected during their online classes.

Instances of abuse have been reported by Secondary School teachers to the Cyber and Social Media Unit (CSMU), of the TTPS since the commencement of online teaching this week.

The TTPS is advising that such conduct should cease immediately and it will be working with both internal and external stakeholders in investigating and prosecuting such behaviour.

Online classes should be safe spaces for both teachers and students alike.

Teachers are therefore urged to take all available measures to protect themselves and their students during their online sessions.

This includes, recording their online teaching sessions to identify disruptive and abusive behaviour and muting or removing abusive persons from the online teaching platform.

Additionally, teachers should accurately register students for each class.

The TTPS stands ready to assist the Ministry of Education in ensuring that the ongoing ‘cyber-school term’ is safe and secure for all teachers, students and parents.