Recently, cyber-bullying has been turning out to be huge issue. After the tragic death of Phoebe Prince, who has been victimized by cyber-bullying, these sort of malicious actions are growing more and more. One noticeable case of cyber-bullying is a Facebook fan page called, “Evanston Rats.” This page has greatly infuriated the superintendent of Evanston Township High School, Eric Witherspoon. Witherspoon declared that students who post items on this page have been the source of hateful and humiliating reputation, and those students will be disciplined by the school or even punished by measures of prosecution. Witherspoon was highly insulted by the materials on the Facebook page and said out to his students, “Bullying at ETHS (Evaston Township High School), including cyberbullying, is a serious violation of school rules and can result in serious consequences; students can be suspended for up to 10 days and/or expelled, and removed from extracurricular activities, including prom and graduation.” All students were warned to stop any access to this page, even out of curiosity.
However, despite Superintendent Witherspoon’s desperate attempt to shut down this page, the reputation of ETHS seemed to be crumbled by this ill-willed Facebook page and even some students of Evanston Township High School seemed to be adversely affected by the after viewing or visiting this page. This page had over 300 fans after a course of just few days. Nevertheless, ETHS did not just stand and watch. Many of the students were infuriated by this page and decided to fight back against it; with kindness. Therefore, the “Evanston Mice” page was created on Facebook. Nearly, 1000 students were involved in order to turn the cyber-bullying upside down and instead of posting malicious items about ETHS, compliments and praises about ETHS studensts were posted. For example, a post about Anthony DeCapri said that he is an amazing pianist as well as a great friend. Cyber-bullying was now being turned around with cyber-praising.
It’s quite impressive to see students demonstating their willingness to fight back against what is clearly wrong. However, such actions of cyber-bullying should never be started in the first place, and extreme disciplinary actions with the involvement of the law should be taken against those who initiate such mean-sprited issues.
References (feel free to browse the following):
- http://cbs2chicago.com/local/evanston.mice.cyber.2.1640778.html
- http://cbs2chicago.com/local/evanston.rats.facebook.2.1629611.html
- http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-04-14/news/ct-met-evanston-rats-0414-rats-20100414_1_bullying-facebook-officials-evanston-township-high-school
Image taken from:
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/evanston.mice.cyber.2.1640778.html


