Students have been accused of creating a fake Facebook page designed to bully fellow students in Worcester.
Administrators at Worcester North High School are working with police to find out who created the phony page that was used to bully.
"We were surprised and disappointed at students who would do… such efforts. Worcester Public Schools has very aggressively promoted our policy around bullying, and made all students aware that there was severe sanctions when this does happen," said Worcester Mayor Joseph O’Brien.
Worcester’s mayor and school committee chair said the Facebook page mainly mentions one female student, but other students were named. The tone of the page was obscene and lewd, and was promoting cruel rumors.
"It has stirred up some animosity, some hostile feelings among students and I think based on that we can say that it probably wasn't one student that was targeted and we need to look a little deeper into that," said chief academic officer Jeff Mulqueen.
"Whenever these kinds of things occur students feel pitted against the another and I think that's inevitable and that's one of the difficulties with bullying and creating a hostile environment," Mulqueen added.
Administrators have spoken with at least one female student who was targeted by the page.
“We want parents to educate their kids that they immediately need to bring these to the attention of the school administration, that we will not only investigate it internally, it will involve the Worcester Police Department. We will…make sure to identify perpetrators, and they are dealt with very severely here in the city,” said Mayor O’Brien.
That Facebook page was deleted before administrators could access it, which makes identifying the students responsible for creating it difficult.
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