WSFA.com: News Weather and Sports for Montgomery, AL.Prattville to hold meeting on bullying tonight

Prattville to hold meeting on bullying tonight

Posted by Cody Holyoke - bio | email

UPDATE: The City of Prattville will hold a town hall meeting on bullying tonight at 6:30pm at First United Methodist Church of Prattville. (Video interview with information attached.)

Miss Fountain City, Jessica Brookshire, has arranged to have Mrs. Tina Meier visit Prattville and speak at the meeting. Tina is the mother of Megan Meire, a young girl who committed suicide after being cyber-bullied by a mom who pretended to be a boy who liked her on MySpace. 

The mom's daughter and Megan had been childhood friends and had a falling out, and the mom created a MySpace account to see if she could get Megan to "talk trash" about her daughter.

Jessica's platform is on bullying. Her platform is titled  K.A.R.M.A. - Kids Against Ridicule, Meanness and Aggression.

The ultimate goal of this platform is to stop bullying through education and awareness.

PARENTS, EDUCATORS FIGHT GOSSIP WEBSITE

PRATTVILLE, AL (WSFA) - It's an online storm that caught educators off guard.

Prattville High School principal Lee Hicks fielded dozens of complaints from parents in just about a week's time.

"Unfortunately, our hands are kind of tied," Hicks explained.

The complaints are all because of a website that's popular with students.

The site, called, "Campus Gossip," gives people a chance to say whatever they want anonymously.

The problem?  Prattville is the only high school on the website, and the comments on the school's page are all over the place.

Some question the sexuality of students and teachers.  Others post racist material. Writers even threatened to hang black students.

"A person's good name and character is in question, and it's by individuals that don't have to stand behind their words," Hicks said.

Administrators are working with police to help shut down the page.

Meanwhile, the owner of the site is speaking out, telling WSFA 12 News students were already posting on a page he created for students at Troy University.

In a statement, founder Lance Lohan writes he "...never intended to expand to high school campuses."

Lohan also says the site "created a gossip page for Prattville High School" to get the comments off the Troy page.

Parents say most students should know better.

"If that child has any love in him and respect, he would ignore it," said Mamie Williams of Prattville.

Meanwhile, educators try to curb the dangerous comments.

"Hopefully, sooner or later, somebody can be held accountable for this," Hicks said.

Police are now urging parents to file complaints with the National White Collar Crime Center, which they say could investigate and stop the activity.

Investigators say you can do so by clicking here.

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