Many Fairmont students expressed their indignation on their own Facebook pages and defended the girls’ reputations. The photo gallery nevertheless earned the title “the slut list,” revealing how demeaning language seeps into the consciousness of these kids even when they protest against it.
As a mother, I’m not easily ruffled, but this Facebook page made me want to cry. I hated for my daughter to have seen such cruel and sexist comments about her fellow students.
I hated the fact that, before the profile was shut down Wednesday morning, it had attracted some 550 fans.
I hated realizing how far we haven't come — 160 years after Elizabeth Cady Stanton, nearly 50 years after Betty Friedan and "The Feminist Mystique."
My girls owe so much to so many brave women. Yet at a time of unprecedented opportunities, they are subjected to a barrage of degrading images and language that would have been unimaginable in any previous era.
Fairmont Principal Dan Von Handorf said no current students have been disciplined and that school officials believe the page may be the work of a former Fairmont student or dropouts. “We spent all day (Tuesday) talking to kids, parents, police and Facebook about it, and obviously we don’t want kids engaging in that behavior,” Von Handorf said. “If there’s a bright spot, it was an opportunity to talk to kids about reporting inappropriate content as soon as they see it. They can help things like that get taken down sooner.”
Ohio is among more than 40 states that have adopted anti-bullying laws, but the state doesn’t have a cyberbullying provision that, according to some experts, is becoming increasingly important with the pervasiveness of electronic media.
“We’re living in a different world in terms of technology and what is at the fingertips of our young people,” said Patrick Gallaway, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education. He acknowledged that cyberbullying is a growing problem, but said it’s often not reported to the ODE because it takes place outside school grounds. “It’s an evolving situation we are aware of and we hope people will begin taking very seriously, because kids are so vulnerable and so easily succumb to peers,” Gallaway said.
Several Fairmont parents, including Debi DeBanto, became concerned enough to contact the Kettering police. “I was horrified that boys would say these kinds of things about girls,” she said.
Kettering police officer Michael Burke said the department’s school resource officer worked with school officials early this week, but found no criminal act to pursue. Cyberbullying only rises to the level of a crime, Burke said, “if you can prove there’s an attempt to physically threaten someone.”
DeBanto doesn’t know the specifics of Ohio law, but she knows bullying when she sees it. “When we were growing up, the trash talk would get around as a result of a whisper campaign,” DeBanto said. “What’s disturbing is the way that you can spread that smut so virally now.”
She worries about the girls on the list. “They don’t know anything about these girls’ lives; they don’t know where these girls are emotionally,” she said. “Teen suicide is a big issue. What if something like this would push someone over the edge?”
DeBanto isn’t any less offended because her daughter wasn’t on the list. She said she wonders, “Is this language our girls are used to hearing about themselves?”
I’m worried about that, too, but I can’t help feeling encouraged by the way many young women are talking back. As one student so succinctly addressed the online offenders, “You really need to get a life.”
Staff writer Jeremy Kelley contributed reporting to this column.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2209 or mmccarty@Dayton DailyNews.com.
About the Author