It’s trashy and at times it’s downright nasty. A Facebook slam page is getting the attention of parents at a Wichita Middle School. Someone created the page and has used it to post pictures of students and spread nasty gossip.
The Facebook page is called “Brooks Trash.” It airs all the gossip at Brooks Middle School whether you “like it” or not.
“A lot of my friends are on it and somebody just takes a picture and they upload it to the page and then put a caption just talking a lot of mess on them,” Says Brooks student Emari Reed. “They write on peoples walls and say mean things to them.”
The comments range from mean to cruel. For instance one girl’s picture reads, “I’m sorry that your legs can’t close anymore and now I see why you’re on birth control.”
A security supervisor at Wichita Public Schools says there were some conflicts between students that got the attention of Brooks Administrators. Several Students connected to the site were interviewed and Michele Zahner of USD 259 says they got close to finding the person responsible. She says the site was reported to Facebook and taken down only to show up again. It doesn’t appear to have been updated for three weeks.
“As a district absolutely we’re just as concerned about it as parents are,” Says Zahner. “It’s part of that whole cyber digital citizenship aspect of things it’s very difficult to deal with.”
The school district says there’s only so much it can do to control sites like this. Facebook is blocked on all school computers so students can only use it at home or by cell phone. Zahner encourages parents to monitor their children’s Facebook activity and talk to their kids about being good citizens online.
USD 259 says students are encouraged to report all forms of bullying including online messages. For more information on how to report inappropriate Facebook pages click here.
