The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

Tweets torment teens: Social networking becomes a gateway for cyberbullying

From Facebook to Twitter, the use of social networking sites has skyrocketed over the past decade. While they allow people to connect with friends, share photos and keep up with the latest news, there is a darker side to these websites. With the increasing popularity of social networking, a new problem, termed “cyberbullying,” has emerged in recent years. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, cyberbullying is defined as any form of harassment or intimidation of another person through both text messages or internet mediums, usually occurring among adolescents.

Cyberbullying may have serious consequences. In 2010, Massachusetts high school student Phoebe Prince committed suicide after being cyberbullied by some of her classmates. But cyberbullying comes in many forms and the consequences aren’t always as extreme in nature.

Recently, several anonymous Twitter accounts were opened and are currently being used to call out WJ students, although the accounts have become less active over the past two weeks. One of the most popular is “WJ’s Finest,” with nearly 150 followers. The tweets on the page reference individual students, mostly juniors, often making outrageous allegations, many explicit and sexual in nature. However, there has been a mixed response from those who have been mentioned on the page.

“I’ve laughed out loud at a lot of their tweets, but that’s because I think the creator means no harm,” said junior Sydney Collins. “In my opinion, WJ’s Finest is really funny.”

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The account previously tweeted an allegation regarding Collins’ personal life. However, she did not take it personally.

“I even laughed at the tweet about me,” she added.

While some, such as Collins, have found the tweets sarcastic and humorous, others, such as junior Jonathan Karpatkin, have found them malicious and offensive.

“I think it’s really cruel,” he said. “People shouldn’t have random lies like that attached to their name. The only humor I see is the sheer outrageousness of these tweets. And I think the account is so popular because of that.”

Middle and high school administrators have tried to determine ways to deal with this delicate issue. However, in many cases, such as in Montgomery County, there is no specific policy that states the appropriate course of action to take when students at a school are involved in cyberbullying.

“From our standpoint, it’s a very difficult thing to deal with because it happens mostly in the privacy of people’s own homes, off campus,” said Principal Jennifer Baker, adding that administration starts to get involved only when issues are brought on campus. “If somebody’s upset, or groups of people start to get upset, then that’s where we really feel like we can step in and talk to students, work with families and try to help out.”

According to Baker, most instances of cyberbullying are reported to the school administration by students and parents. Just last year, the website “High School Memes” blew up with gossip and negative comments targeting specific students and teachers. Fellow students submitted these memes anonymously or under a pseudonym, which, as a result, left little for administrators to work with in terms of reprimanding those involved.

“Think about it: how do I punish somebody for doing something off campus, in their bedroom?” said Baker. “Where do I draw that line?”

Even if there is no specific punishment involved, Baker makes it a point to sit down with parents and students to discuss the issue.

“We try to get them to see how hurtful it is,” she said. “We minimally try to meet with students and talk with them about it, and just have a conversation, about what’s appropriate and what’s not.”

Karpatkin believes it is not the school’s responsibility to police social networks. At most, he said counselors should call the parents of the responsible parties. He also thinks the best course of action would be for students to report the account for abuse, so that Twitter could deal with the situation accordingly.

“I guess I just hope whoever is doing this is prepared to face the consequences,” said Karpatkin. “They are making a lot of people very angry, and I doubt they can keep themselves anonymous forever.”

Collins also believes that administration should not get involved with this incident.

“I definitely think some kids take it personally because they don’t understand that it’s a joke,” she said. “Most of the tweets are sarcastic, and although [they are] about kids from WJ, the owner of the account doesn’t actually pursue or bully the people they tweet about.”

Cyberbullying accounts are not the only anonymous pages being opened. Students have also been creating social network pages and accounts to counteract these negative posts and tweets. Facebook account “Walter Johnson Compliments” was created on Dec. 3, and much like WJ’s Finest, it is run anonymously. However, instead of posting insults, its statuses consist of student-submitted compliments.

According to Walter Johnson Compliments’ “About” section, the page was inspired by a social project started at Queen’s University and later at Columbia University, aiming to spread joy to their students.

 

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