Districts respond to "Confession Pages"
Districts respond to "Confession Pages" (3/13/13)
THORP, Wis. (WEAU) -- "I think there's an explosion of good and bad," said James Montgomery, the District Administrator in Thorp.
The information super highway has done wonders for education, making collaboration, research, and access to information easier than ever. But there is a catch.
"We just found out about it this morning," he said.
That same tool that connects us all can be used to do harm as well. Take for instance "confession pages" popping up on social networking sites.
The idea is to give students an outlet to brag about some of the crazy things they have done at school. Some of the posts on these pages are not what you would call appropriate.
"We contacted our local police chief and just kind of monitoring the situation to see what comes up on there, and if there are things that come up that are legal issues, we wanna make sure we are in communication with them just in case," said Brad Ceraski, the High School Principal in Thorp.
We first told you about this when a Chippewa Confessions Twitter page popped up. Now, there are also pages for Stanley, Loyal, and more.
"I actually had a phone conference with three area superintendents and just happened to ask them if they had a page linked to theirs as well, and all three of them had a webpage that was linked to their school, linked to confessions," Montgomery added.
One of those schools districts is Greenwood.
We did reach out the district administrator in Greenwood to talk about the confessions page. While she wasn't available to talk to us on camera, she says the district is aware of the page, and they have the technology coordinator monitoring it.
Back in Thorp, the page administrator has made calls to keep the dialogue funny rather than bullying. But that is open to interpretation.
The district has reached out to Facebook to have the page taken down and are waiting for a response.
Ceraski says it is always good to know what your kids are doing online and if they are using a site like this, have a conversation.
"I think it would be good to have a conversation with their son or daughter if they are on this site," he added.
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