Group Class Incident Reporting and Learner Safety Procedures
At TakeLessons, we strive to connect students and teachers in a community where everyone can feel safe pursuing their goals. To ensure that you, and your students, have the best experience when taking part in live online classes we ask that our teachers help maintain a safe learning environment.
This article should serve as a guide in identifying, resolving, and reporting a privacy or safety issue, should it arise. We also recommend reviewing our Terms of Use to ensure you have the most up to date knowledge of our policies for students and service providers.
Poor judgment on safety and privacy can result in teacher restriction and/or removal.
What is a privacy or safety issue?
We ask our teachers to take responsibility in maintaining control of the class and hosting a safe online learning environment for students.
Here are common reasons to block students in class:
The student makes rude/derogatory comments to you or other students
The student acts inappropriately on camera
The student spams the classroom chat
In most cases, students will stop acting disruptively/inappropriately if the instructor provides a general warning to the class. If the student continues or the issue becomes a safety concern, review the steps below to handle the student.
Safety
Handling disruptive students
Have you experienced students who fill the chat with comments unrelated to class? This can distract you and other students. If this occurs, remind the class to only use the chat for questions or comments related to the class.
Student behavior
As a teacher, you may encounter situations in which a student's behavior warrants additional attention. If they appear to be a bully (or be bullied), who behaves inappropriately, or their behavior suggests trouble at home, we ask our partners to take responsibility in addressing the student's behavior.
As part of classroom management, and to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all learners, please report any serious behavior incidents requiring intervention to TakeLessons via the Contact Form Our team can assist and document the incident to support you, as necessary. Our team can assist and document the incident to support you as necessary.
That may involve helping to contact the student or their guardian, or just in helping you decide how to proceed.
Inappropriate or harmful behavior
If you experience a student making derogatory comments towards you or another student, block them immediately. Seriously. They will still be able to observe class, but they will not be able to participate.
Sensitive topics and zero tolerance for inappropriate classroom materials/substances
TakeLessons has a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech, displays of threatening behavior with weapons, or use of alcohol/restricted drugs/tobacco product by teachers or students during a TakeLessons class; alcohol, tobacco, drugs of any kind, firearms, and pornographic materials should never be used, displayed, or promoted in a classroom and will subject users to immediate removal from the platform.
Even discussions of such topics or approved use of knives (like in a cooking class) or chemicals (like in a science class) or mature reading materials or discussion topics should fully be disclosed in the class description. We also encourage you to take the time to anticipate potential issues that may arise proactively. This could range from emotionally difficult topics you might discuss as a part of the lesson, to follow-up questions your students may have.
To ensure student safety, discussions related to personal mental health issues - like depression, suicide, or abuse - are not allowed on our platform. If a student initiates a conversation about a sensitive topic, please gently explain that TakeLessons classes are not the appropriate outlet for these discussions and redirect your back on topic.
Safety examples
If your lesson requires the learners to use any materials that could be potentially dangerous, such as sharp objects in a cooking class, designate the time at the beginning of class to discuss the proper way to use/handle these materials. Or if your class involves a discussion on a topic that may trigger more serious emotional responses, you should first make sure that your learners are equipped with the right skillset to participate in these conversations.
When creating classes, you should also include this information in the description section of the class listing. Be sure to set age preferences appropriate to the lesson plan and class topic.
Privacy
Student privacy and compromising situations
As a TakeLessons teacher, you are also responsible for maintaining learner privacy both on and offline.
Instructor’s electronics should be secured and all information about learners guarded. Teachers should not share passwords to their TakeLessons account with anyone. Your individual teaching account or information about learners (or their families) should never be accessed by anyone other than you.
As a rule, a teacher should not reveal or encourage students to reveal any personal information about an individual student or a student’s family. Personal information can include, but is not limited to, a student’s full name, birthdate, personal email address, address, or phone number. You may ask learners to share their location at the country or state level, provided you give minors an option not to share if they prefer not to.
In addition to not sharing personal information about your students, you also should not share any private information about your classes outside of the platform. This includes using student’s voices (audio), using student first or last names, or showing student faces.
Exchanging contact information
You should keep all communication on TakeLessons platform during group class time. That means never sharing your personal contact information with students. In addition to keeping all communications on our platform, TakeLessons prohibits teachers and parents/families from meeting in person, unless at private one on one lessons purchased through our platform.
Online tools
When choosing other third-party tools to help run your class, please consider their approach to student privacy and safety. If you would like to use another site that requires signing up for a new account, make sure you go through the complete sign-up process ahead of time to find out if that site has any age restrictions in place. If there is a minimum age requirement, do not encourage learners to lie about their age. You should instead disclose this in the parental guidance section of your class listing and explain that the parents will need to create an account with their learners.
Substitutes, guest speakers and co-teachers
We do not allow for substitutes of any kind, regardless of whether the individual is an approved TakeLessons educator. We understand that unexpected emergencies or illnesses may occasionally arise at the last minute, preventing you from teaching your class. If this happens, you should cancel the meeting.
We do allow co-teachers so long as they also have a TakeLessons teacher account. While a Guest Speaker is allowed, we do not guarantee payment for their appearance.
Steps to take during the class in TakeLessons Classroom
If you will be using TakeLessons Classroom to teach your class, we suggest familiarizing yourself with the TakeLessons Classroom that you'll use to manage your class before the first session. This will ensure you're able to respond quickly if safety or behavior problems arise. If you are using an alternate platform for your class, take time to research how to use the tools associated with that service.
- Block the Student
First, click the three stacked dots near the top-right of the Class Roster. Next, select which student you need to block. You can also block a student while simultaneously deleting a message.
A blocked student can only observe the rest of the class in webinar mode. Their video and audio are disabled for the rest of the class, and they cannot raise their hand or write in the chat. You may have to block a young student in class for causing a distraction to other students.
Note: You cannot unblock a student from your class. Students will still be able to join other classes scheduled that day.
- Delete Chat Messages
Hover over the message you would like to delete in chat, then click the stacked dots that appear. You will see the option to Delete Message or Delete Message and Block Student
The video below will show you how to delete messages and block students in the TakeLessons Classroom.
If you are using an alternate platform, you are responsible for managing incidents that occur in your classroom. Here are some links to some support articles for popular services. However, teachers should always take time to research how to use the tools associated with the platform they will be using to teach.
Zoom: How to Keep Uninvited Guests Out of Your Zoom Meeting
Microsoft Teams or Skype: Remove a person from a meeting
Manage attendee audio and video permissions in Teams meetings
Google Hangouts: Add or remove people from a Google Meet meeting
After the class has ended, report the incident
Report any inappropriate or suspicious behavior to TakeLessons immediately after class through our Contact Form. Be sure to add student name(s), and details of the incident.
Responsibility to report
If you either see evidence of or hear a student describe abuse or neglect, TakeLessons requires that you immediately report what you've witnessed to our safety team. Likewise, TakeLessons asks that you inform our team about any student talk involving self-harm, suicidal ideation, dangerous behaviors, or acts of aggression/violence towards others.
Depending on your geographic location, you may, in addition, have an individual responsibility to report abuse or neglect to your local authorities or CPS. While abuse or neglect can be hard to define, you should immediately report any time a student expresses that they believe they are in danger or describes having experienced something more than acceptable physical discipline. For additional information regarding what may constitute abuse or neglect, please refer to the Child Welfare Information Gateway
For U.S. teachers, please review this site to determine whether you must comply with your state's mandated reporting requirements.