High School Antics used to be very local. The old super-glue the locks trick, or the classic release-livestock-in-the-school gag are all well known but had little impact on anyone other than the kids who got caught and the janitors left to clean up.
Twitter, however, has begun to change even how pranks are pulled and the possible consequences that can come from them.
Such is the case in Lawrence North High School, located in Indianapolis. Several students created three fake Twitter accounts as the school's principal, football coach, and basketball coach.
According to the Indianapolis Star, the tweets contained quite a few sexually and racially charged comments. One, from the fake account for the basketball coach, read "I love it when girls wear those black yoga pants." Another, from the faux football coach, suggests that he would prefer black athletes to white.
The accounts were only up for a little longer than a day, but they've caused quite a stir. Not only were three of the students involved suspended, two are facing expulsion and another is facing extended suspension.
Lawrence North says that Twitter wasn't blocked because it wasn't supposed to be. The school often uses the site to tell students about functions and scholarship the school is hosting. Normally, sites run through a filter and a firewall.
Oddly enough, there are even legal ramifications. Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines ruled in favor of students protesting the Vietnam War by wearing armbands, stating that student speech may not be punished as long as it is not disruptive to school activity or invades other people's privacy.
There was a sharp divide in our editorial board in how this should be handled. On one hand, we all agree that there should be some sort of punishment for using school computers for something other than schoolwork, but that's mostly where we divide.
Some of us believe strongly that the students should be expelled. In a way, we believe that it is defamation of character to go on a public forum posing as another person and post lewd comments.
Parents could take it the wrong way and demand action from police and officials, which could severely disrupt school activity.
Others believe that the twitter pages were obviously parody. Each account wasn't intended as a serious attempt to impersonate the teachers; they were jokes for other students. Although they were undeniably crass and inappropriate, they were harmless teenage jokes.
What everyone agrees on, however, is that kids need to be educated on not only the value of using social media, but also the possible consequences to using it. It's unlikely that the students had started a secret conspiracy to damage the credibility of school officials, but not all parents fully understand how sites like Twitter work.
Lessons from Lawrence North can also be applied to our own use of the Internet, as well. Remember that what you're posting isn't going to just be seen by the people you intend it to if you are not careful, and once people see what you're posting it can be held in cyberspace for almost an infinite amount of time.
Watch out the next time you put up a red Solo cup photo on your Facebook.
