Principal Anna certainly seemed very upset by what the boys "created" on My Space. We, of course, did not see all that was said on the site, so we can not fully understand why she now lives in fear. These boys were wrong to do this, and it was beyond the usual "teenage prank".
But, for her to take them to court and charge them with a felony is also beyond the usual response.
I am a parent of three children. My youngest is 15 years old. I am familiar with My Space because I DO monitor what my child is doing. But the very nature of blogging lends itself to a "fantasy" way of thinking.
Just as Road Rage occurs to some drivers that are normally very kind, and civil, the annonymity of being in a car seems to protect the driver into feeling emboldened to let out their frustration and anger, at that other annonymous driver, by flipping the bird! Sometimes the response is worse, of course. None of this is appropriate, but these are adults behaving this way!
Now, you put that feeling of annonymity on My Space, and the feeling that they can say anything, and couple that with peer pressure, or a "gang mentality" on the internet, and you have teenagers that cross the line, or many lines! They do it for laughs, or to try to impress other students, or to release frustrations. But, like Dr Phil said, they cannot predict the consequences to their actions, especially in this "protected" and "annonymous" environment, like My Space.
This does not excuse what they did. But to classify this as a felony is wrong.
Principal Anna is in a position to try to bring out the best in children, even when they make very poor choices. She has been professionally trained to do this. She seems to have dropped the philosophy of trying to bring out the best in these students. Labeling a student as a felon for the rest of their life is highly destructive. It would not accomplish anything. It would only destroy, which I am sure, is not why she got into this profession.
But now, she is focusing only on herself. She is not concerned anymore with what is best for the student. I would think that she would understand the mentality of teenages, and the nature of My Space, and not be destroyed by a blog that even the kids understand is usually fantasy and made up. If she is afraid because she appears on My Space, with info that probably is very obviously written by a teenager, then why is she not afraid to be even more exposed on national TV, on the Dr Phil show? (On My Space, the kids write with improper spelling and grammar. It would be obvious that kids wrote all that stuff about their principal. A principal would be able to spell!!)
If she wants to not be afraid anymore, she should know that she needs help with that. No monitary judgement will do that. Nor will destroying these teens' lives do that. She was crying at the end of the show. Why? Because she's afraid, or because she saw that the audience was not completely behind her on this? If she is emotionally fragile, she should get help with that. She can choose, with help, to not let this destroy her. But destroying young boys lives is revenge, which is not in the best interest of anyone.
Kids across the country are playing pranks and harassing teachers. Tericka, a high school science teacher who loved her job, lived in fear of her scandalous past catching up with her and getting her fired. Students eventually found out about her shocking past and the news spread throughout town like wildfire. Are other teachers taking her side, or do they feel her punishment was justified? How can she move forward? Then, Anna, an assistant principal, was harassed on the Internet when two students created a fake MySpace page alleging to be her. She says they completely attacked her character and need to be held accountable for their actions. Was this just a practical joke gone bad, or were these students out for revenge? Find out what Anna did to show these kids that some jokes just aren't funny. Could the mischief your kids get into end up costing you thousands of dollars? Talk about the show here.
