Parents Concerned Over Tahoma Schools’ Non-Inclusive Response to Social Media Bullying
Bullying in schools is not a new issue, but rather one that has changed dramatically in the last couple of decades with the rise of social media. Before the internet, kids of the past had time to escape and decompress after the school day had ended. Modern day students are constantly connected however, often unable to escape the targeted harassment by their peers.
A new trend in the Tahoma School District (TSD) has begun, where students have been making TSD parody accounts, often using them to bully other students. This harassment on social media led to a divisive joint response letter from TSD Middle School principals.
Dear Middle School Families,
We have seen a recent uptick in students who are having negative experiences on social media and through text messaging, which is impeding their ability to effectively learn in the classroom. Students are coming to school distressed by posts they’re seeing online, some of which are targeted cyberbullying attacks against them. There are a handful of social media accounts that have been created using school logos and usernames that are sharing harmful messages about individuals and groups in our schools. This includes comments about students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and staff.
We want our families to be aware in order to have appropriate conversations with their students about the dangers of cyberbullying and “digital drama.” What may seem like harmless jokes or actions can have serious impacts for both individuals being targeted and those doing the bullying.
We strongly believe it is critical for families to know the social media channels that their student subscribes to, and consider whether the content they’re engaging with is appropriate or potentially harmful. Please talk to your student about their social media and phone use, and encourage them to act appropriately and respectfully online. Remind your student that posts online can last forever in cyberspace and that if they wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, they shouldn’t post it online. Also, families can remind students they have the power not to participate in negative conversations and posts in order to choose a healthy mindset.
If you or your student witnesses cyberbullying or harmful interactions among students online, we encourage you to contact a school administrator. For students who are feeling unwell about what is being shared online, we encourage them to visit one of our school counselors for support. Resources and contacts can be found on the TSD Wellness Page.
Here are additional resources for parents/guardians to consider about digital media and its effects on students:
● Parenting Children in the Age of Screens (Pew Research Center)
● How Can I Help My Kid Avoid Digital Drama? (Common Sense Media) - [link from district is broken]
● Social Media and Teen Anxiety (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or concerns. We appreciate your partnership.
Sean Cassidy, STMS Principal
Bill Weis, MVMS Principal
While it’s great that leaders within the district are responding to the issue, many seem confused and unhappy at the response, stating that their non-LGBTQ, non-minority children have often been the target of bullying. Furthermore, these parents claim that the district has done little to stop or prevent it. Why is the district only concerned about certain groups and why are they putting emphasis on them while other kids are bullied as well? Is there a severe imbalance in harassment?
Tahoma Parents looked into the issue to see if LGBTQ and students of color were being disproportionally cyberbullied. While we cannot say with 100% certainty that we found every parody account, we can confidently state that we found a large amount of the content causing concern for both parents and the district.
The first thing we noted is that a large portion of these parody accounts seem good-natured and include friendly banter among friends. We found accounts for “Tahoma Light Poles,” an account literally just for pictures of light poles around Tahoma, “Tahoma Affirmations,” containing often humorous motivational quotes for students (even though some may be a bit inappropriate), “Finest Cars,” and more. The trend of parody accounts even spawned a parody of the parody named “thsaccountaccount” with the headline “Official Tahoma account for official Tahoma accounts. It's a problem”.
Sadly, even with all the fun things, there are those who take it too far. Within the mix of parody pages we found pages designed to harass and target individuals. These accounts are clearly intended to harass people by shaming them for their looks, their personalities, and even their mask wearing choices. We also found accounts meant to sow discord against specific staff members, and we even found an alarming page for Maple View Middle School designed to sexualize the students where people can vote to “Smash” or “Pass” (which we will not post).
Some parents showed concerns for other accounts such as ones depicting groups or stereotypes that include: “ths_hicks,” “ths_negros,” and “ths_gingers.” It is hard to verify whether these are cases of targeted harassment or friendly banter amongst peers. As an adult looking in it’s obvious why this would spark concern, but in reading the threads on these pages it would appear as though the subjects are often amused/involved, while joking in the comments. Furthermore, these pages often show support for the individuals in the comments/description. If anyone has more info on these pages, please contact us.
Many of these accounts have since been deleted or made private, but many are still up with their anonymous managers facing no fear of repercussion. While we found that there were in fact minority students that were the targets of harassment as claimed by the district, the vast majority appeared to be non-minority.
Parents of straight white students who are victims of bullying from minority students seem to be especially concerned by the response, stating that their children have even been “belittled by teachers” following episodes of such targeted harassment. The parent of a child who was one of the targets of violent intent which caused a school lockdown last month stated that the assailant was colored & LGBTQ.
We even discovered a violent video posted to a “THS Worldstars” parody account, in which a non-minority student was assaulted by a minority student from behind. We cannot show the video, but we have included a screenshot. It should be noted that we do not know the backstory of this incident.
This begs the question from many parents as to why the district would feel the need to highlight the harassment of LGBTQ and students of color only? Is the harassment and sometimes violence against straight white students (which seems to occur just as much if not more often) a lesser offense in the TSD? If we consider the parody pages highlighting Tahoma’s students of color as harassment, then why would the district not give equal consideration to the ones highlighting students of non-color (“Gingers,” “Hicks,” etc…)? This seems to be doing nothing but stoking further division.
Contact Us to tell us what you think.
Instagram has a strong commitment to protect people from cyber-bullying. Concerned parents can take immediate action by reporting accounts designed for harassment.
