Two incidents on social media sites have recently spurred cyberbullying claims after the sites made fun of students and talk of them spilled over to conversations at school.
The anonymous user responsible for one such account, a Twitter account called @hater_quotez, deactivated the account on Friday, Jan. 13 after being up over winter break. The account targeted a handful of freshmen and eighth grade girls, with tweets bashing them on such topics such as their appearance, weight and personality.
Freshman Hannah Phipps heard about the Twitter account through a friend. The comment about her said, “You’re such a b – – – – and you need plastic surgery and facial reconstruction.”
“I definitely think cyberbullying is a show of a really insecure person because if they really had a problem with someone, they would be able to confront them,” Phipps said.
Phipps said @hater_quotez tweeted 16 girls, saying things like they were ugly or needed to stop bleaching their hair.
Another student, freshman Annie Crouch, tweeted the account back to stop after they tweeted that she wore too much makeup.
“It’s just embarrassing to have your name put on there,” Crouch said. “People will notice if you wear too much makeup because it’s on there…I stopped wearing so much makeup because I wondered if maybe I do.”
Five girls reported the account to school resource officer John Midiros, yet cyberbullying differs from other forms of bullying in that in order to take legal action, Midiros must first determine that the incident takes place inside of school and causes a substantial disruption to the school day. The Twitter account fit neither requirement and was ultimately taken down by the person responsible for it at their own discretion. According to both Midiros and principal Tobie Waldeck, the person behind @hater_quotes has not been caught and neither Midiros nor Waldeck are pursuing the account creator.
“I’ve got so many policies, rules and Fourth Amendment rights I have to abide before I can take action, and it’s frustrating,” Midiros said.
Although the school has limited ability to control bullying outside of school, threatening cyberbullying in any setting can become a felony offense. If someone threatens your life, you as an individual without the school’s help could go to the police. If the cyberbullying severly damages your reputation and invades your personal life, you can sue the person responsible. Midiros has suggestions in dealing with this kind of bullying.
“For evidentiary purposes, always save it,” Midiros said. “Don’t reply to it, don’t stoop to their level basically and do the same thing.”
Waldeck said students could perceive the school as inactive towards cyberbullying .
“…You have a cyberbullying incident taking place and news travels fast and people think it’s not being addressed when it actually is,” Waldeck said. “…We take all of these situations seriously and we want Mill Valley to be a place where students feel safe.”
Another example, which many call the “roasted” page, began on Facebook and became a forum for harsh student comments. The page, which the school is aware of but cannot shut down, remains intact with nearly 30 fans, down from a 130 fan high. The page features generally unflattering pictures tagged with the names of students.
Despite these incidents, Midiros says he has dealt with less cyberbullying issues this year.
Freshman Averie Niday became affected by the Twitter account after rumors spread she was behind the posts. Niday had never heard of the Twitter account before but had posted on the roasted Facebook page.
Niday says both pages prove a similar idea.
“It just shows people in these grades can be really cruel and not think for anybody else,” Niday said.
The “roasted” page seemed less harsh to Niday.
“I didn’t find it that bad because they didn’t find people who didn’t know about it,” Niday said.
Niday’s point shows how cyberbullying can sometimes be hard to define. Comments on the page seemed to express the idea that it was not bullying.
“It’s obvious people are a little too sensitive in this group…” one comment said.
Despite legal action sometimes being tricky, Midiros emphasizes the importance of telling someone about your experience.
“They’ve got to understand there is help out there. Their friends have to help the most,” Midiros said. “[But] as we live in this free speech nation, can we stop everything that everyone’s saying?…We have to learn as a society how to deal with this stuff…There are mean people out there who thrive off of negative comments. It happens every day of our lives.”
