---
title: "Send Private Class Message"
method: POST
path: "/chatrooms/{room_name}/chat/private"
tags: ["chatrooms"]
---

# Send Private Class Message

`POST /chatrooms/{room_name}/chat/private`

Ask the teaching staff something the rest of the class will not see —
or, as staff, answer one.

WHO MAY SEND WHAT:

  * A STUDENT sends a question. `to_user_id` is refused: they are asking
    whoever is teaching, not a named adult, and letting a student address
    one specific member of staff is the first half of a private channel we
    do not want to exist.
  * STAFF may only REPLY, and only into a thread that a student already
    opened (`to_user_id` must name someone who has asked in this class).
    There is no way for a teacher to open a private thread with a student.

That asymmetry IS the safeguarding design, so it is enforced here and not in
the UI. Students in a school class are often minors; a lane an adult can
open is a back-channel, and a lane only a child can open is a help desk.
Nothing is hidden either way: `_may_read_class_private` lets the school read
every thread, during the class and afterwards.

Synchronous and boring on purpose — no data-channel publish, no push. See
the lane comment above `PRIVATE_ASK_MAX_CHARS`.

## Path parameters

- `room_name` string, required

## Headers

- `authorization` string, nullable

## Request body

- PrivateAskRequest
  - `text` string, required
  - `client_id` string, nullable
  - `to_user_id` string, nullable

## Response `200`

Successful Response

- unknown

## Other responses

- `422` — Validation Error

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/fluentea/apis/aurqa-language-learning-platform-refactored.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/fluentea/apis/aurqa-language-learning-platform-refactored/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/fluentea/aurqa-language-learning-platform-refactored/revisions/78f314acd8bf/schema)