Block Students Emailing Teachers?

[SJ98]

Hello,

 

We seem to have a major issue at the moment where students are sending emails to teachers (because they know they can do it) and it's causing teachers to receive so many emails that aren't relevant. Is there a way that it can be restricted in anyway so that we can manage it properly? I know it sounds ridiculous!

 

Students and teachers are on the same domain. We're using Microsoft Office 365

 

 

Thanks,

Sam

[NicholasEsping]

You can use mailflow rules to either have the email approved by someone before they are sent to the teachers or just block the students from sending emails.

[cheekycharly]

Also interested in this as it won't be long before one of them realises they are under the same 365 tennant.

[SJ98]

Hi NicholasEsping,

 

Thanks for the suggestion - I will give it a go and see if it's the right solution!

[ITGuyNW]

I set this up the other day. Added the students to groups and they used those groups in mailflow rules to do what I needed. They're getting frustrated now they can't email each other memes.

[pete]

Have teachers / the school indicated preferred channels for everyday student <> teacher communications?

 

Unless the students are purposefully being annoying (in which case, use sanctions the same way you would in class), it's not unreasonable of them to ask subject-related questions of their teacher.

[DrCheese]

Mailflow rules and groups is how you go about this. We've blocked students emailing other students & external.

 

It was more students emailing each other that was causing us headaches here, so we do still allow them to email teachers & any inappropriate emails are dealt with via the normal behaviour policy. In terms of out of hours emails, I heavily try to push staff to use the quiet hours feature in 365.

[HPlum78]

If you split your mail domains in to something like [email protected] and have staff as [email protected]? (or however your domain is configured) its an inbox rule on the staff side, if not you can setup a mail flow rule to tag mails from students in the header of the message. So something along the lines of Apply this rule if - The Sender - Is a member of this group... Do the following Modify the message properties - set a message header - SchoolName, Value: Student. Then again the staff have the ability to put a rule in place for messages with that in the header.

 

These in my mind are safer than just drop all mail on the floor, or having someone have to release mail from students. Also like Pete says, there should be consequences for those unable to be sensible. Using technology as the judge, jury and executioner is not the way to go and that way madness lies.

Edited January 22, 2024 by HPlum78

[Davit2005]

I think personally this should be a sanction/discipline issue if it is been abused. Additionally Who is going to be tasked with releasing the emails and deciding they are appropriate?

 

By all means do not allow students to email distribution groups without first been checked or jus don't allow students to email groups full stop.

[dmj]

I think personally this should be a sanction/discipline issue if it is been abused. Additionally Who is going to be tasked with releasing the emails and deciding they are appropriate?

 

By all means do not allow students to email distribution groups without first been checked or jus don't allow students to email groups full stop.

 

100% this should in no way should be for IT to 'solve'. Teachers should be there to support students who email them questions, and I am sure most are happy to. Sanction the students for misappropriation of the system (as you would for staff who abuse it), but don't take away an important route for learning or pastoral support.

[Andrew_C]

Obviously, a pupil should be able to email their teacher. Can 365 cope with allowing pupils to ONLY email THEIR teachers? Block mass emailing too.

[psydii]

Obviously, a pupil should be able to email their teacher. Can 365 cope with allowing pupils to ONLY email THEIR teachers? Block mass emailing too.

I'm in the same camp as @Davit2005 and @dmj, so I hate the fact I just looked into it and came up with this:

 

Use your automation to create and populate one Distribution Group per teacher called "NotTaughtByTeacher_Name"

 

Then use this PowerShell to prevent members of these groups sending emails to the relevant staff member:

 

Set-Mailbox -Identity Teacher_Name -RejectMessagesFromDLMembers "NotTaughByTeacher_Name"

 

 

I feel dirty.

 

On the up side, I haven't tested it so (hopefully) it might not work.

[CHiLL]

Misuse of emails is dealt with on a behavioural level, though we do put measures in place to try and mitigate some issues. Such as we use GALs to separate staff and student recipient discovery, so students can't search for staff in the search box. However, it's not hard to figure out a staff email and they can (and sometimes required) to email staff.

[SJ98]

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies and your discussion for this - my main idea was to be able to be able to manage it appropriately. It wouldn't be something that is on 24/7, more like a policy if a student were to just constantly email staff without care for sanction or rule. We do enforce the same behavioural policy in the classroom for students misusing this, but it wouldn't stop them from continuing to do it if they wanted to.

 

Thanks all.

[HPlum78]

So you could take my tagging example above, tag the message as student and then have a subsequent rule that looks if the user is in a synced group that is set to drop the mail or forward it to a moderation mailbox. This way you can block and unblock from your local AD group so not having to login to EOL/ each time you want to manage that group /rule. You can also script it so that when a user is added to the group a sync is kicked off (if you are still using Entra AD Sync) and an email is sent to the student / head of year/ parents and such likes.

[ITGURU]

Mail rule if sender is member of student and recipient member of staff reject the email.

 

we do similar so students can only email staff not other students

[FN-GM]

We do enforce the same behavioural policy in the classroom for students misusing this, but it wouldn't stop them from continuing to do it if they wanted to.

 

Definitely sounds like a management issue. It doesn’t sound good if the school can’t control the students.

[nicholab]

This is senior management with no proper control over students. It poor leadership that not ready to get parents in to deal with their little brats. Up to excluding students if they still can’t follow the rules. It not difficult sit their and learn. Personally I also think it stupid not allowing students to e-mail staff.

[jthompson]

Reading this thread, the first thing that comes to my mind is the word 'expectations'. The expectations around use of email perhaps aren't clear enough to students. That's a leadership/culture thing, not an IT thing.

 

However, nothing wrong with having technical measures ready to deploy for the edge cases when they arise.