Octorara Area School District administrators are sending all high school and middle school students to seminars on internet safety and cyber bullying this week, following an incident in which an anonymous student angered the community by publishing a Facebook site titled “Octorara Dirt.“
The site, which used the school district crest, photos of students and messages which Superintendent Tom Newcome said were “vile and despicable” comments about the personal lives of students, was taken down either by Facebook or the poster on Oct. 28.
“I now have some concept of what going viral means,” Newcome told the school board Monday, Nov. 8.
Newcome alerted Facebook (which says it does not allow postings which are bullying, intimidating, threatening or pornographic), local police, and has been trying to discover the identity or identities of the anonymous poster or posters.
Newcome said there have also been copycat sites.
“This is the stuff we do on a daily basis,“ Newcome said. “I apologize I didn’t alert the board. We’re looking for some resolution. We’ll stay on top of these things as they happen.”
Newcome said students who participate in such sites are exposing themselves to possible disciplinary action or even legal prosecution. He’s asking parents and students to report derogatory sites and utilize the “block/report this person” features on Web pages.
The district has hired internet safety instructor Megan Augustine, publisher of the Web site Digital Dangers, to give seminars on internet safety and cyber bullying. Parents are invited, said middle school Principal Elena Wilson.
Augustine will speak at 1 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 16 at the high school and at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 at the middle school. Augustine’s Digital Dangers site, http://makkmedia.wordpress.com, offers cyber tips for parents and counsels young people on safely navigating the Web.
“We’re not sticking our heads in the sand,” said Wilson.
In other business during Monday’s work session, the board applauded 22 students known as Octorara Heroes, who pledge to avoid drugs and alcohol and work as role models among fourth grade students. They are: Nathaniel Aquadro, Lindsay Blevins, Candace Bristow, Abigail Butler, Chloe Dean, Alyssa Dehaas, Caleigh Feeny, Hannah Gajari, Mayra Juarez, Connor Kasabo, Amanda King, Bianca Lupo, Amy Miller, Ryan Miller, Jennifer Reeder, Ericka Rieck, Cassandra Shavney, Schott Shepke, Ce‘Asia Thorpe, Alexandra Todavine, Kelly Whelan and Devyn Wolfe.
Finally, school board president Lisa Bowman thanked outgoing state Rep. Tom Houghton for his assistance with the Octorara Regional Planning Commission, which is trying to attract development to the rural district. She said she is hopeful John Lawrence, who won his seat in last Tuesday’s election, will step in and help the district.
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