Lawrence and Douglas county

Facebook page concerns parents of Lawrence High students

Parents are upset about a Facebook page called Lawrence HS Halls, designed to spread gossip at Lawrence High.

August 22, 2012

As the school year kicked off last week, several parents expressed concern about a new Facebook page set up, apparently, to help spread gossip within Lawrence High School.

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Some concerned members of the public notified the school administration and the Journal-World of “Lawrence HS Halls,” a page that’s anonymously set up to emulate a person with the stated mission “if something is going on, it’ll be soon posted on here so you don’t have to waste your time going around trying to find everything out.”

It started on Aug. 12 and has 164 friends but, so far, no posts — at least not ones that are publicly visible.

The district’s policy on bullying and hazing doesn’t mention Facebook or any other social networks by name but does define cyberbullying as “threats or harassment over Internet through web pages, email, instant messaging, text messaging, or by other electronic means.” Students can be disciplined for such acts even if initiated off school grounds if the bullying “substantially disrupts” the educational process.

Really, though, there’s not too much school officials can do when it comes to online issues, said Kevin Harrell, division director for student intervention services in the Lawrence district. To address online bullying that occurs outside of school, he said, he encourages parents to contact police.

Each building in the district can have its own manner of reporting on- and off-line bullying. All are confidential but none is anonymous, Harrell said. They include online forms and boxes where students can drop notes. Parents with concerns, he said, should contact their child’s principal.

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Ragingbear 9 months ago

~Dislike~

grammaddy 9 months ago

Concerned parents ought to pay more attention to what their teens are doing online.

cammieb 9 months ago

Anyone with a Facebook page can report this to Facebook. Having a profile that is not a real person is in violation of Facebook guidelines and policies. This purpose of this profile would also fall under the anti bullying policies and could be reported as bullying.

To report: go to the Lawrence HS Halls profile, click on the down arrow icon (next to Message and * ), click on Report/Block.

timetospeakup 9 months ago

This is allowed if it's a facebook page, but not as a profile. There are thousands (millions?) of facebook pages that are not "a real person", which is allowed.

lily 9 months ago

If there is cyber bullying, online gossip, anything that can cause our children distress, there best be something they can do about it. Bullying is bullying. You can watch what your kids do but what about other kids? If it starts online, it will make it to the school in the hallways, classrooms or other events. Parents, police and school officials need to pay attention.

costello 9 months ago

Was this meant to be an example of how not to talk to someone? :)

Irenaku 9 months ago

Agreed, lily. Additionally, using LHS's logo implies LHS endorsement of this page, and I think may violate copyright laws?

Paul R. Getto 9 months ago

It does , if the school registered their trademarks.

Irenaku 9 months ago

I not really FB savvy, but I wonder if several parents could set up fake FB accounts, keep themselves anonymous or ambiguous at best, and "friend" the page, keeping tabs on what is being said?

Nonsense 9 months ago

This is no worse than the gossip spread on LJW's comment section. The kids are just doing what they see the 'adults' doing.

somedude20 9 months ago

by somedude20

Liberal 9 months ago

Like throwing old people over a cliff and calling Romney a felon and a tax cheat? Or how about Palin and George Bush being stupid, yeah Fox news is responsible.

bhall87 9 months ago

So? Money is money. Do you think everybody who is donating to Mitt Romney acquired their money from "honest" or "moral" means? And why are you blabbering on about Obama and Sarah Palin and Bill Maher when this article is about Facebook and Lawrence High?

rvjayhawk 9 months ago

I happen to like Fox News and find their reporting much more accurate and honest than MSNBC, ABC, or CBS. And their female reporters are much more attractive than the sorry looking ones at the other networks. As for your comment, it is pure hypocrisy. You are very critical of those who would slam others, yet you are very quick to slam Fox News.

Clickker 9 months ago

Read the district 497 policy manual.:

“Cyberbullying” means threats or harassment over Internet through web pages, email, instant messaging, text messaging, or by other electronic means. Bullying shall include cyberbullying initiated on or off of school premises which threatens or endangers the safety of students, employees, or third parties, or school property, or which substantially disrupts the educational program of the district. Bullying shall also include cyberbullying initiated off school premises which threatens or endangers the safety of students, employees, or third parties, or school property, and which substantially disrupts the educational program of the district.

So, Cyberbullying can be initiated over the summer( "off of school premises "), that stresses someone out to the point that they cannot concentrate on studies in thier class room ("or which substantially disrupts the educational program of the district")......will result in suspension. If you dont believe they will do that, it has happened to someone I know. A text done over break was forwarded and a person complianed resulting in OSS for the texter

Paul R. Getto 9 months ago

if teachers bully your kid and you get no help, call the cops and press charges. Schools have always had authority to discipline kids for off campus behaviors if the actions splash back into the schools. Cyber crime is no different.

rvjayhawk 9 months ago

WRONG! Schools have never had authority to govern any activities other than those within the school itself. Where in the world did you get your information? From the Democratic platform, I assume.

kuguardgrl13 9 months ago

Unfortunately in this day and age with the internet, bullying outside school makes its way into school. Kids don't stop when the bell rings.

Paul R. Getto 9 months ago

The bullying law, which KNEA pushed, outlaws bullying by all, adults and students.

Paul R. Getto 9 months ago

People can, indeed, complain to FB.

Paul R. Getto 9 months ago

Good points. When shunning and gossip no longer worked, and social groups got larger, religion was invented, then government. We are mean, gossipy chimps. Better get used to it.

beatnik 9 months ago

i think social media is more like antisocial media, it would be tough to be a kid these days

MarcoPogo 9 months ago

"I love my dead gay son!"

johnwoods 9 months ago

Getting back to the subject of the FB page... it could be in violation of FB policy, but a user of FB could have just set up a GROUP page and accomplished the same thing.

There is currently no signs of bullying on the site. Why is everyone worked up about this? I don't see anything to be concerned about yet.

If parents want to protect their kids from the internet, good luck. You better not buy your child a computer or smartphone.

Clickker 9 months ago

"They have no right whatsoever to govern the behavior of a child outside of school. I don't care what the manual says, for I find it hugely arbitrary in ruling our children."

Sure they do. They do it almost daily. Thier justification is that it directly affects what is going on in the classroom. Just try to fight that one.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 9 months ago

I'm thinking these people that want to withdraw themselves and kids from society should maybe just homeschool?

justfornow 9 months ago

Whiners, the lot of you!!

goodcountrypeople 9 months ago

"Beware the naked man who offers you his shirt". Lawrence is full of such people. Kansas parents would be doing future society a great favor if they taught their children to respect decent social boundaries in public. It's mindless, insulting , and disrespectful of equal rights to teach your children to approach complete strangers( Thank heavens! Let's keep it that way) for discriminatory reasons. Even those with perceived bad knees can climb stairs and carry their own bags, and it's a point of personal pride and independence to let them. Wheelchair users can roll over and hit the elevator button. Self-serving chivalry in cases like this is insufferable. Feminists do not take to strangers who think good manners equals opening doors( clumsily tripping people in the meanwhile)Certain individuals end up being unduly mobbed, molested, and having their rights to freedom of movement, education, and employment messed with.

Unsophisticated people have little ability to help others because they clearly lack understanding and respect. It shows an insulting blindness and disrespect for others' internal lives and right to live their lives unimpeded by grabby morons to make aggressive assumptions about the neediness of others in public spaces. Plus, it goes against treasured American ideologies of Individualism and equal treatment for everyone.

by goodcountrypeople

Clickker 9 months ago

What in Gods name are you talking about?

MarcoPogo 9 months ago

Is my computer going gobbeldy-goofy or are the rest of you seeing all of these random words strung together?

classclown 9 months ago

We've become such a wimpy society.

kansasplains1 9 months ago

I work a couple of miles from Facebook's headquarters, and very close to Google's complex in Mountain View.

From what I've seen, many of Facebook's employes are very young - they do not have families, and they like to encourage distaste online as much as possible. To be frank, they have no idea of what the world is like outside their own little space, and what these Facebook comments can do to their own lives at a later time.

Somehow, we need to change that. People need to be responsible for their actions. The first step would be to require names for all posters (comments and blogs) in the Journal-World. It is the anonymous nature of the Internet that makes so much possible today, much of which is not true.

We have to work to change this, because the minds of youngsters are easily influenced, and can hold grudges for a long time.

And by the way, I always post with my true name - except, for some reason, it does not now show on the Journal World web page as it used to except in blogs. Lawrence Morgan

Fitmiss 9 months ago

Did anyone do any research on this at all? I just asked my daughter about it and she said there was an announcement made during school telling the students to use this page to report any bullying they might encounter. So apparently it was set up for exactly the opposite reason the storyline suggests.