February 23, 2019, an anonymous user created an Instagram profile name “ex.273” that mocked and made fun of select Plymouth-Canton middle school students. The account made fun of people and made hurtful ‘jokes’ about people in the Plymouth-Canton district. After a parent reported the account on behalf of their child, the account was taken down.  This hurtful account eventually became the schools’ administrators problem because it became a distraction for students.

West Middle School staff were able to track down who was running the account, but it was only after the multiple kids’ feelings were hurt. Mr. Smiley, WMS Principal, stated, “ Um this is a problem because people don’t think about what they’re doing when they’re online. People text things they shouldn’t text, you guys did that cyber safety thing last year and… middle school kids get a phone and you know they have this device. When they are in 6th grade and they really don’t get much training on it … everybody just hands their kids these [phones] and nobody does any training on it.” Cyber-bullying is becoming a problem. Middle schoolers do not know how to handle having a phone. 

Jenna Redmile, WMS seventh-grader, was one of the victims of the anonymous account, “It was supposed to be funny and honestly it wasn’t that bad, but some kids got their feelings hurt.” She wasn’t very bothered by it but could understand why people were. The account took an old picture of Jenna and made a mean comment about her.

Think before your post. Many people were hurt by this “joke”.