Facebook Bullying: Spring Branch School District Investigates Rumor Page

A Burn Book like the one featured in the movie Mean Girls that singles out students and calls them names has led school officials in Texas to launch a district-wide investigation.

The "Spring Woods Book" was removed from Facebook Tuesday after the Spring Branch Independent School District in Texas launched an investigation into the page, KHOU reports. The Facebook site featured insensitive comments and pictures of students. The page's creator is still unidentified.

Miracle Camero, 17, was listed under the "SLUTS" section of the page.

"They put me under slut and they called me the B word and said that I was stuck up and that I'm all over guys that give me a second look," Camero told KHOU.

Cyberbullying has been a hot issue lately, and Camero isn't the only one who's been victim to relentless online taunting.

Last January, 15-year-old Phoebe Prince Hanged herself after being bullied at school and through Facebook. One of her bullies, Sharon Chanon Velazquez, was recently released from Juvenile Court and spoke out on the Today Show last week.

Facebook and Time Warner announced yesterday that they will partner to fight cyberbullying, and Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) signed into law last week a bill that allows schools to suspend students for bullying their peers on social networking sites like Facebook.

Camero's mother said she was angry about the Spring Woods Book, but the teen said she laughed it off.

"I was like, thank you for using a pretty picture of me, at least," Camero told KHOU.

Comments

[BrendaSmith009]

06:56 AM on 07/28/2011

Bulling has been rampant these days, and now, not only in school but through social networks online. The sad thing here is, as parents, we don't know everything that happens to them in school, or we know a pinch but they might have been keeping big issues since then. As parents, we don't want suicide to be our kid's last resort. Luckily, I read an article that I wanted to share to you about like an on-star for phone that works perfectly for monitoring your kids. With just a click of a button, your kids gets conferenced with a emergency response agent, a safety network (includes a list of other persons to the conference), and can even get routed to the local 911 if emergency happens. I read it from this article http://www.emergencymgmt.com/emergency-blogs/tips/mobiletrec-safekids-052211.html and you can check the app here http://Safekidzone.com

[Rafael Perez]

04:41 AM on 07/16/2011

lol spring branch is just as ghetto as hisd. I think the only decent districts are Cy-Fair and Katy

[Indigo Tree]

09:59 PM on 07/13/2011

Bullying is serious and there can be no tolerance. BUZZ, a young adult novel available through Indigo Tree Publishing www.indigotreepublishing.com, tells the story of a young man who spends the summer in rural Texas and must endure bullying at the hands of the local boys. This is realistic contemporary fiction and not a fairy tale. There is no easy solution.

[ABACADABRA RABBIT]

08:25 PM on 07/14/2011

easy solution = real parenting

[pphhrogg]

07:13 PM on 07/13/2011

What is wrong with kids today? Better yet, what is wrong with their parents that they don't teach their kids not to be bullies? Most likely the parents are bullies, too.

[mlaiuppa]

10:43 PM on 07/13/2011

I had a bully in my class. A polite boy but a bully. He got over half of the class to torment a little girl by calling her roach girl. I didn't hear about it until May when she and a friend had the courage to come to me after school when no one would know they told. I brought the VP in on it. He had meetings with the entire class to talk about the problem without naming names. This kid didn't understand why we were having the discussion. Then the VP brought the group that was doing it to his office and repeated the conversation only being more specific. This kid, the ringleader, the one that started it, came back and honestly didn't know why he was being included with the rest. I met his Mother. She was a 'polite' bully too. She came to observe my class one day. She said she was looking to see if I was embarrassing her child in class. She told me as long as I was "innocent" I had nothing to worry about.

I had a conference with her, her kid and the counselor where she told the counselor that I was a mean teacher. I objected and said that I had not done or said anything mean. She then said, "Well, you have a mean face. The wrinkles on your face make you look mean."

What do you do with a parent like this? Or a kid?

[ABACADABRA RABBIT]

08:26 PM on 07/14/2011

expel the kid and you will never see the parent again.

[Ben Dixon]

04:07 PM on 07/16/2011

Now thats a parent who just needs to be kept from breding.

[mlaiuppa]

10:43 PM on 07/13/2011

I caught her kid tormenting the girl. I asked to see him at my desk. I told him he would have to stay after school. He told me that I better not or he'd tell his mother and I'd be sorry. I took him outside and asked him to repeat it and he said it again. That is when I initially called the counselor and said I would not be threatened by a sixth grader and I wanted him out of my class. Hence the parent conference.

Not only was I forced to keep this kid in my class, but she went to the principal to complain and I received a written letter of reprimand.

The kids knew better. They knew I had stood up to this kid and his mother. They apparently knew this kid from elementary school too. By the end of the year when we went to the park next door for an end of the year picnic, no one would play with him. One kid brought a ball but then brought it to me to safeguard because he didn't want this kid to play with it. Then several of them stopped playing to come to the table and practice water colors with me. In the end he was all by himself. I'm proud of the kids that finally stood up to this bully in a responsible way. They shunned him. And idea I admit I gave them.

[kinger50]

01:25 PM on 07/15/2011

Well hats off to you for addressing this in your class. Peer pressure is almost the only way to stop this stuff. recommend that whenever you receive a reprimand in writing that you respond and insist it is attached to the reprimand. The trick here when talking to the mother and the kid is to only state facts with few opinions. It is good to have your rules up on the board all year so you can say he broke class/school rules. I have had it with administrators who bully teachers with this stuff. Get a new job if you can. THis principal sounds rather spineless.

[newzbug11]

02:43 PM on 07/17/2011

A couple of year ago I knew a teacher who had a kid in her class who was continually getting into trouble, teasing, bullying and harassing other kids. And pushing and hitting. He was written up numerous time. After a while kids were afraid to say anything because he threatened them with violence. One day on the playground (I was their Lunch Mom) he was fighting with another kid. He made a threat that he wanted to hang the teacher and cut her head off because she gave him so many write ups. WOW, I was expecting the kids to be expelled for such a threat. The teacher was very upset by this. (The kid was a third grade student). But his parents, the student, the teacher, counselor and principal all met and he was allowed to not only remain in school with NO punishment but to remain in the same class.

[Kevin Zielke]

05:10 PM on 07/13/2011

Why are so many people acting like being insulted in high school is something new? Kids call each other names all of the time and it doesn't stop once you're an adult. Even if I go to a school and I choose to insult someone who also attends said school on a social networking site the school should have no right to punish me. Students should not get in trouble for breaking school rules outside of school.

[pphhrogg]

07:13 PM on 07/13/2011

I never got called even one name in high school. I feel only pity for you if you went to a school that would tolerate such bullying.

[Yvetter]

04:31 PM on 07/14/2011

Bullying is not always out in the open. It's also discrete and in the form of whispers, rumors and gossip. You may not have had people call you names to your face, but that doesn't mean that others didn't talk bad about you, make up lies or gossip about you behind your back. And this has a negative effect for those who actually find out about it. People may have been judging you without you knowing it, based on lies. You never know.

[newzbug11]

02:47 PM on 07/17/2011

So what you are saying is, if I have a job and commit a crime outside of my job, I should not get in trouble with my employer? Or get fired? Give me a break. Schools should imitate the real world. Oh and just because it happens every day doesn't make it right. In fact it goes to show how many kids don't realize how wrong it really is. Pushing kids, name calling is just violence of a different sort. It is people like you I feel really sorry for. You must have had some pretty poor friends and role models. Sad.

[sbyvssby]

03:28 PM on 07/13/2011

Facebook should have an entirely separate service for people under 18 and a real age-verification mechanism that works.

Also, parents should be held legally responsible for how they allow their children to use the internet, including for things like bullying.

[mlaiuppa]

10:45 PM on 07/13/2011

I agree. These abuses of Facebook are all too common. No one under 18 should be allowed to use it. There are other social sites specifically for under age children where it is moderated to prevent bullying.

[PowerPridePinstripes]

03:05 PM on 07/13/2011

Her main concern was that they used a pretty picture of her -- so the other stuff meant nothing!

"Girl, yeah they called me a s l ut and said I do xyz - but at least my picture if Fly!!!"... SMH