Head's YouTube warning to pupils

YouTube has become one of the internet's most popular sites

A head teacher has sent out a warning to his pupils who might feel tempted to post clips from school on internet video sharing sites.

Alan Pritchard of Cyfarthfa High School, Merthyr Tydfil, said he sent out letters in response to the posting of "inappropriate" clips.

It has been reported that a teacher from another school had a heart attack after seeing a clip on YouTube.

Mr Pritchard said "serious sanctions" could be taken against pupils.

The head - who is also a branch secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders - said he had been told about the incident involving a teacher at a nearby school.

Mr Pritchard said his warning letter was also in response to another video posted on YouTube involving Cardiff pupils, filmed last year.

In that video, two girls from the city's Llanishen High School were seen fighting out of school, and one ended up with blood over her face.

Mr Pritchard, who has 1,500 pupils in his school, said: "Across England and Wales this matter of videoing fairly significant and often nasty incidents is getting out of hand.

"We have read recently in our town of a teacher whose health has been badly affected by an inappropriate incident being filmed and uploaded on to YouTube, I will not allow it to happen in this school.

"I wanted to tell pupils how seriously I view this matter, I will not allow it to happen in either invading the privacy of other students or invading the rights of teachers to take appropriate action," he said.

Mr Pritchard added: "There was that awful footage in Llanishen of someone bloodied and battered.

"Somebody somewhere saw the need to put this on to YouTube for other people's supposed enjoyment, I am really really concerned this is getting out of hand," he said.