Teenagers and technology are remarkably similar. Both can easily be corrupted, are full of information, are constantly bettering themselves and are not going away any time soon. Like teenagers, technology is young. In this day and age, technology, especially through social media websites, makes information (good and bad) spread extraordinarily fast. One mistake caught on camera could be broadcast for anyone to see and resurface at any given time.
“I don’t think [engaging in risqué behavior is] a change in teenagers as much as a different media. It doesn’t mean that this didn’t occur in my generation, but it’s a viral world right now. Things are instantly put on the web,” said LHS Substance Abuse Coordinator Todd Schneider. “Nowadays I think teenagers and everyone need to be sensitive to the fact that at any moment, what they are doing can become global. In my generation that didn’t exist. There was no access to the World Wide Web.”
LST team leader, Sean Ferrell, also believes teenagers are not “changing.”
“What’s different are the circumstances...In our society, people are able to pass information much more quickly than they could 25 years ago. Our lives are much less private,” said Mr. Ferrell. “When I was a kid in high school and you wanted to get a message to someone you’d have to write it and hand it to them. If I wanted to develop a picture I had to take it to Walgreens and wait a couple days…now I can take a picture and send it to 10, 20, 30, even 40 people in a matter of seconds.”
Libertyville High School has adjusted to this change. LHS, according to school resource officer Bob Uliks and Mr. Schneider, is connected to many different Facebook pages from athletics to academics. While the school does not actively search its students’ pages, sometimes they come upon inappropriate pictures (such as a student drinking or using drugs). Most instances are turned in anonymously, but anything the high school is made aware of must be acted on.
“[Posting inappropriate pictures] can result in school discipline or even cross over and become a legal issue. There is no typical consequence. It’s all case specific,” Officer Uliks said.
The person captured in an inappropriate picture may not even be aware of it. Last year, an LHS freshman was invited to a birthday party at a waterpark with a couple of friends. The girl who invited them was a classmate they had known for a couple of weeks.
“We were changing in the locker room…she had an iPod. It was right around the time they were coming up with cameras on them in January. We thought she was texting…but she was taking pictures and put them up on Facebook,” said a current LHS student who requested to speak anonymously.
The students in the pictures were unaware they were posted until a friend informed them that he had seen pictures of the girls changing on Facebook.
“I don’t like it when people take pictures of me at parties anymore. It made me cautious of my surroundings…it has changed the way I think about Facebook,” said the student whose privacy was violated.
When the school must deal with these situations, usually a dean and Officer Uliks are involved. Mr. Schneider gets involved when there is drug and alcohol content, and athletic director Mr. Briant Kelly becomes involved when a student athlete’s behavior is in question.
Athletes sign an athletic code of conduct (found in the student handbook) before participating in sports. The code states an athlete cannot knowingly use, attempt to use, possess, sell, or assist any other student in the use of tobacco, alcohol, drugs, drug paraphernalia, and any non-prescribed controlled substance. An LHS athlete also cannot engage in inappropriate behavior detrimental to their team or school. Displaying these acts through a social media site is considered a code violation.
If a student posts or is involved in a picture drinking or engaging in other unaccepted behaviors, they are breaking multiple codes.
“An athletic code meeting is with the student athlete, parents, coaches, a team leader, the SAP coordinator and myself. We sit with the student and see if there’s anything we can do to help the student athlete, if there’s any education that we can help them with,” Mr. Kelly said. “Of course the second piece is that they’ll have to sit out of contests…it’s a percentage of the season…alcohol and drug violation is 40 percent of the season. We do allow that to reduce to 30 percent with an education or counseling session.”
Last year, several LHS athletes from multiple teams were seen in a Facebook picture with drinking material. The school was made aware of the picture anonymously.
“I was suspended from the soccer team for a total of five games and had to watch from the bench, not even allowed to wear Libertyville HS soccer attire,” said a recent LHS graduate requested to anonymously. “Someone anonymously turned in pictures of me and my friends at a party ‘drinking’ and we all got athletic codes. But people who were not involved in sports had nothing happen to them.”
According to Officer Uliks, this has not been the only sports team drinking scandal posted on Facebook.
Teenagers often forget that what they put on Facebook is accessible to all kinds of people—even those who they are not “friends” with. Officer Uliks explained that there are profiles of “students” in this school who are not what they say they are, they might not even be students here. This is a trend commonly seen in online predators. According to Net lingo, a cyber-safety website, 44 percent of online teens with profiles on Facebook have been contacted by a stranger, compared with 16 percent of those without profiles. With this, one out of every five adolescents is sexually solicited online.
To protect yourself from these dangers,
Officer Uliks suggests that you protect your password and that you have your settings on the most restrictive, so only friends can see your Facebook. Mr. Ferrell teaches students from the words of his colleague, LST team leader Sara Rogers, never to say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face, whether it be through a text, instant message, or Facebook post. He also suggests that if anyone has doubts about how something may be interpreted, not to share it.