In the halls of WRMS, there has been talk about a new WRMS TikTok account where an anonymous student has been cyberbullying 8th grade students. One video starts by showing pictures of 8th grade girls calling them “pick-me’s.” A “pick me” is a person who seeks attention by putting others down to make themselves look better, and it is used as an insult. Some kids who saw the account think it’s unnecessary conflict and a waste of drama.
8th grader Austin Busch saw the account and said, “I think it’s mean and it’s making fun of people for no reason.” One 8th grade girl who was posted to the account was Reese Cureton. “I felt embarrassed when I got posted to the account, I was kind of nervous to come back to school because I knew people would be talking about it.” A day after the video of the 8th-grade girls, there was another video of “pick-me’s at Washburn,” but this time of 8th grade boys. Latwaun Fulton was in the video and had some strong opinions about this account. Fulton said, “The account is immature and lowkey embarrassing. I cried when I got posted to the account. Coming to school after this situation distracted me from my learning environment.”
This serious issue needs to be brought to attention, and 8th grade principal Mr. Dial confirms. At this point, the administration is not able to do anything because the account is anonymous and it’s technically an out-of-school situation. However, that doesn’t mean the administration isn’t aware of the issue. “…it has caused a major disruption to the learning environment and also required quite a bit of our time as school staff in an attempt to get it to stop,” Dial said.
The administration has contacted TikTok and reported the account but for now, that is the most that they can do. If the account continues affecting the school more, administrators can go as far as contacting the law and punishing the student responsible. This disruption to the learning environment that Dial mentions is serious and has the potential to be punishable even if it is off-campus. There are several examples of court cases where the Supreme Court has deemed the students’ off-campus behavior “disruptive to the learning environment,” and sided with the school, such as in the case of Morse v. Frederick.
It’s important to us that this story does not drive traffic to this account but instead calls out this degrading, misogynistic, disrespectful behavior. To the bully behind this account: hiding behind a screen to make fun of people is embarrassing and shameful. We hope the person behind this account can own up to their actions, delete the account, and discontinue this kind of behavior.
