Students Suspended For Cyber Bullying Their Own Principal
Posted February 12, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There have been feuds for years between students, teachers and principals.
But the ones many of us remember came long before there was an Internet.
And it’s taken the nature of those battles to a place few could ever have imagined.
At least 19 students at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School have been suspended for cyber bullying their own principal.
The teens were angry when Edward McMahon enforced a rule banning electronic devices – like MP3 players and cell phones – in the school.
They took their complaints to the worldwide web site called “Facebook”, a MySpace-like entity that encourages kids to chat with each other.
And chat they did.
At first the postings were just gripes about the policy. But they gradually deteriorated into vulgar, sexually explicit and untrue comments about the principal.
Many aren’t printable. “I have a few words for the big man. Get on your knees, open your mouth and …” one begins, before getting disturbingly graphic.
Other students joined in to the chorus of boos and things only got worse.
The students CityNews talked to at the school Monday admit their principal was being slandered. But some didn’t seem too concerned about it.
“You’re sitting there at the end of a test and you don’t get to listen to music,” gripes one. “Don’t get to do nothing.”
But others think it’s doing a lot more harm than good. “We’re creating like such a false image of them,” laments one thoughtful pupil. “And of our school, too. It’s quite sad.”
When it was brought to the attention of school officials, the hammer came down on the 19 judged responsible at the Caledon East campus.
They’re out of class for just over a week for their cyber bullying, a trend that sees mostly anonymous posters terrorize a chosen figure via taunting and false postings over the web.
In most cases, it’s another student. But this instance is unusual because an adult authority figure has been the target.
Among those sent to home detention: a student council member and a big-man-on-campus jock.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board notes McMahon didn’t do anything wrong, because he was simply enforcing existing policies.
And the Board is taking a harsh line with the kids. “Just the tone and the really vicious attacks,” points out spokesman Bruce Campbell. “They’re sexually explicit. They were demeaning, vulgar and potentially libelous.”
But the students complain some of those told to stay home weren’t guilty of any egregious offences and are being lumped in with the few who may have taken it too far.
And they worry what the suspensions might do to their permanent records or college applications.
The postings have since been taken down.
Cyber Bullying: What can you do?
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