Legal options limited to stop fake TikTok accounts harming teachers, school says.
See full article...
See full article...
Middle schoolers lash out at 20 teachers with disturbing fake TikTok accounts
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Other peoples' children continue to be the best form of birth control advertising.
I don't know what's more incredible, honestly: that people choose to have children or that people choose to work with children.
I don't know what's more incredible, honestly: that people choose to have children or that people choose to work with children.
Upvote
136
(271
/
-135)
For the non-US audience could an age range be provided? 'Eighth grade' doesn't mean anything to me. Yes, I can look it up but it would be nice to not have to. It doesn't have to be in metric units.
Upvote
-57
(107
/
-164)
Man, it was such a privilege to be young and stupid when one's "permanent record," for lack of a better word, wasn't nearly as publicly visible.
Upvote
347
(350
/
-3)
Upvote
121
(153
/
-32)
but they didn't mean to get into trouble! /s (fwiw that was actually said by one of the children in their "apology")
Upvote
205
(206
/
-1)
Extremely familiar with the area, surprised this happened at a public school first. Figured it'd be one of the prep schools nearby, where all my classmates could charitably be described as future Brett Kavanaughs.
Upvote
245
(260
/
-15)
I feel like intentionally masquerading as another person and presenting yourself as a child abuser should really fall afoul of defamation law. I'm not a fan of undue punishment for kids, but these ones were functionally not punished at all, and they're obviously going to do it again.
Upvote
450
(453
/
-3)
Definitely happy we figured out a method for the worst of us to have the biggest megaphone. /s
Upvote
255
(256
/
-1)
The Economist's recent special report on the state of schooling in the OECD mentions that teacher morale, retention, and recruiting are issues almost everywhere, mostly varying in severity.
I can't imagine stuff like this helps at all.
Upvote
237
(238
/
-1)
With their social media experience, I'm sure Ron D. would love to have them work on his campaign.
Upvote
49
(52
/
-3)
Upvote
172
(175
/
-3)
Schools and their governing boards will do nothing to protect their employees from these little nightmares. They have been taught nothing about right and wrong or consequences, so naturally most of them have started their inevitable path to prison. I saw the so-called apology from 2 of them. It amounted to nothing more than telling teachers to get over it and that they will be posting new defamatory content, but will be making it private so the schools can't see it (which in their eyes makes it okay, because they can't be caught - proving once again that this generation has absolutely no clue about how technology works). What I don't understand is why Tik Tok won't shut down access to the app for any user that commits this level of misinformation and fraud. They are posting this content from their phones, so it would be extremely easy to identify the users. In the UK they could all be prosecuted, but in the US there is nothing that prevents a child from posting defamatory content online.
Upvote
158
(173
/
-15)
You consider going out of your way to intentionally impersonate multiple teachers and present them as literal pedophiles to the world as typical underage behavior?
Upvote
374
(379
/
-5)
I hope that the reason that the newspaper reporting had an effect is that these parents contacted an attorney and asked how much trouble they could be in. The attorney likely told them that while it probably wouldn't happen, there was a small chance that if a teacher were fired due to false accusations of pedophilia, the resulting defamation suit could make them sell their home and liquidate their retirement funds because of their daughter's stupid mistake.
I really don't think these kids grasp how serious this was, and I'm not sure that law enforcement is either. This wasn't harassment, this was a deliberate attempt to get teachers fired. These little psychopaths-in-training are likely to keep at it.
I really don't think these kids grasp how serious this was, and I'm not sure that law enforcement is either. This wasn't harassment, this was a deliberate attempt to get teachers fired. These little psychopaths-in-training are likely to keep at it.
Upvote
293
(296
/
-3)
Well, thank goodness we pay teachers commensurate with turning their entire lives into an open, throbbing wound subject to the monolithic attention of a naturally socio/psychopathic demographic.
Upvote
222
(223
/
-1)
Citizenkain
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Expel the trash kids and blacklist them from any public schools. Maybe their parents could learn to do some parenting at this point.
Upvote
161
(176
/
-15)
Free speech and expression doesn't mean no consequences for being an asshole. Start lowering their grades 25% for every post and they'll stop quickly or fail. Even without a formal policy, it's hard to imagine those kids getting good grades after getting caught doing this.
Upvote
94
(111
/
-17)
I'm not usually a fan of throwing the courts at stuff involving kids, but seriously, if you are a parent and your kids are not getting the message that this is absolutely, completely unacceptable, then monetary penalties are the next lever to get you to get off your worthless ass and actually parent.
Prep schools don't have their hands tied in the same way as public schools when it comes to punishment, and the parents who pay for prep schools are not going to sleep on their kids doing this.
Upvote
214
(217
/
-3)
If these were kids protesting the slaughter in Gaza, or some-such, I could see the comparison, but we're talking about a bunch of entitled psychopaths. If they can cause that much pain and suffering without remorse (for the pain caused), how else can they be described?
Without TikTok policing this content, or local, state, or fed govt intervention, this will not be the last time. Nor will it be the worst.
There needs to be punishment. We used to be able to rely on public shaming. Now it's a badge of honor to be a total dick-wad.
Upvote
175
(185
/
-10)
I genuinely don't know how to explain the difference between "said among students" and "on the public internet".
Upvote
276
(277
/
-1)
13 year olds, with access to the internet, will certainly be exposed to discussions about presidential behavior.
Upvote
151
(153
/
-2)
In Pennsylvania I don't think you can send your kids to a public school outside of the district where the parents or guardians live.
The parents would likely need to fork over money for private school or move. Or perhaps another school in the district would be acceptable depending on the scope of the expulsion.
[EDIT]
Some facts on expulsion in PA:
https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/expulsions-in-pa.pdf
https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/022/chapter12/s12.6.html
The school board must vote to expel, so another school in the district would not be an option. However schools need to have officially adopted rules, in writing stating an offense could lead to expulsion.
Last edited:
Upvote
51
(53
/
-2)
There's a viable path, depending on how aggressive the teachers want to be (weighed against the reputational harm of being perceived as a litigious teacher). Teachers could sue the children's parents for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress due to the highly charged and public nature of the accusations, and a failure of the children's parents to stop them, with damages paid out by parents' insurance.
Presumably the difference between this and when you were in K-12 is the size of the megaphone, which is relevant to the potential harm, especially if they could later demonstrate the insinuations were scooped up by data brokers or profiling algorithms to mark these instructors as ineligible for new teaching jobs (if/when they go hunting for one).
Upvote
121
(123
/
-2)
If I'm not mistaken a plethora of teachers have actually been caught for abuse based on social media postings. This is hardly "so over-the-top that it's not possible to believe".
Edit to address Wickwick's edits: none of this is commentary. Intentionally impersonating someone else without any disclaimer or pretense of satire is not commentary.
Last edited:
Upvote
180
(181
/
-1)