Facebook-row teacher fined £250 over ‘offensive’ postings

Nyanza Roberts, 25, was sentenced at Hull Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to a charge of persistently making use of an electronic communications network for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety at an earlier hearing.

She was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £15 victim surcharge.

Roberts, of Western Gailes Way, Hull, left her job at the city’s Westcott Primary School last year after apparently being involved in an online conversation on the social networking website in which local residents were described as “thick” and “inbred”.

The postings, which caused widespread anger in the wider community, were put on sheets of paper and displayed outside the school.

Hull East Labour MP Karl Turner was among those who weighed into the row, saying: “I am born and bred in east Hull and it does annoy me. I left school at 16 without an O-level but I am not thick and inbred.”

Roberts was suspended while an investigation was launched by her employer, Hull Council. The council has declined to reveal the outcome of its inquiry.

It said in a statement yesterday: “In order to pursue other opportunities Miss Roberts has decided to relinquish her post as teacher of Westcott Primary School from 15th December 2011. The IEB (interim executive board) thanks Miss Roberts for her contributions to the school and wishes her well for the future.”