Schoolchildren are using their camera phones to mock up photographs of staff abusing pupils, unions have warned. Midland officials said the incidents raised worries about pupils using them to falsify evidence in allegations of abuse. Brian Robinson, county secretary for the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers, said he had been contacted by nine teachers over the past fortnight detailing pupils' misuse of camera phones in schools. "This is quite a growing concern. It started off a fortnight ago with a mobile phone appearing at a school window and photos being taken of a female teacher," he said. "The headteacher wrote to me because he wanted to write a letter to parents and was asking if I could shed any light on whether it was happening at other schools. "Then a headteacher in Tamworth contacted me saying that a pupil had mocked up a picture on his phone using Photoshop. It looked as if a teacher was hitting a pupil." He added: "Malicious allegations are made about teachers on a regular basis, with pupils saying 'a teacher hit me' and so on. "With all the technology available, does this mean pupils will be able to back them up with a photo?" Mr Robinson, who works at Lakeside Primary School in Tamworth, Staffordshire, said he had received calls from secondary schoolteachers in Stafford, two from Newcastleunder-Lyme and five from Tamworth. He said two years ago, when camera phones were coming on to the market, there was a similar incident at a school he worked at. Mr Robinson said while it was untenable to ban mobile phones in the classroom in a thousand-strong secondary school, firm action had to be taken with those abusing the technology. "The message has to go out that this won't be tolerated and that pupils will be severely disciplined if they use their phones to invade individual's privacy and potentially even defame others." Neil Hemmings, headteacher of Woodhouse High School in Tamworth, said there had been an incident in which a pupil was caught trying to take pictures of the staff. It has now been stamped out, he added. | 
