Slashdot Mirror


Missouri High School Principal Resigns After Posing As Student On Facebook

longacre writes "Suzy Harriston wanted to be friends on Facebook. The profile said she was from Clayton [Missouri] and had more than 300 friends, many of them from Clayton High School. No one seemed to question who Harriston was. That is, until the night of April 5, when a 2011 grad and former Clayton quarterback posted a public accusation. '"Whoever is friends with Suzy Harriston on Facebook needs to drop them. It is the Clayton Principal," wrote Chase Haslett.' Suzy Harriston quickly disappeared from Facebook, and Louise Losos, the principal, subsequently took a leave of absence, and then resigned."

13 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. News for nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Slow news day eh timothy?

  2. She was running Linux.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...so calm down.

  3. More related to nerd news than you would think by parallel_prankster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would say this one is still an okay story to put on Slashdot compared to some of the other constantly anti-Apple stories ( really, have we all come to a consensus Apple is evil and others are not? and I am not an Apple fan either ) and the anti-TSA stuff (how many stories do we need of that? We all are in agreement about that one for sure). Why is this particular story interesting? IMHO , how bad is faking your identity online ? I mean did she solicit students for sex ? or was it just to know the current vibe among? Did she just wanna be a cool principal by knowing what goes on among her students ? I briefly read the above article about the whole PE teacher thing. I dont know. Has no one used a fake name in real life ever? Does Facebook have a policy that you cannot lie about your age to underage kids ? I think it raises some interesting questions about online identities. I mean what if she was friends with some kid in the school and she got that kid to give her the username/password of their fb account (hypothetically speaking) and just looked at all her friends profiles and walls etc. Wouldn't that be similar to this?

    1. Re:More related to nerd news than you would think by rohan972 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not that wrong? As an agent of the government at best it's a 4th amendment violation, it she was aiming to take action against people who criticized her that should be a 1st amendment violation.

      There seems to be no possible motivation for this behavior that isn't pretty creepy. Maybe we just have different definitions of wrong.

  4. Know your friends by bbartlog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I was on Facebook, I didn't friend anyone unless I actually *knew* the person. If you friend someone on Facebook just because they friended you and you want a really big number of friends, well... the joke is probably on you.

  5. Re:This happens more than you think by rogueippacket · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, Facebook "creeping" seems unscrupulous, but it is much, much better than the alternatives. A nosy person is a nosy person - they'll get into your business if they want to, at least Facebook keeps them across a digital divide. Besides, it teaches the kids a valuable lesson - if you put it online, it's never private.

  6. Re:This happens more than you think by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Funny

    I know for a fact that stuff like this happened in my old high school in Missouri, but we didn't ever 100% prove it. Whenever the principal would find something that someone had posted on Facebook during school...

    This word 'old'...I don't think it means what you think it means.

    --
    No sig today...
  7. Losos could be in the shit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If "Suzy Harriston" was indeed a fake profile created by Losos, then she violated a recent Missouri law which went into effect this year which bans teachers from friending students. What's worse, the school district seems to be covering up any attempt to find out if that's the reason why she resigned.

  8. And she'd have gotten away with it too... by m1kesm1th · · Score: 5, Funny

    if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

  9. Re:This happens more than you think by PPH · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, Facebook "creeping" seems unscrupulous, but it is much, much better than the alternatives.

    It's a boundary violation. Passing as a student creates inappropriate relationships between kids and people who are supposed to be authority figures and professionals.

    "The alternative" is what, exactly? Spying on kids without probable cause and something resembling judicial oversight is just teaching them to expect the same behavior from law enforcement or other authorities once they become adults and make it out into the real world. Its probably different for 10-year-olds. But kids have to have a continuum of responsibility and autonomy. High school is right next to adulthood and people need to behave as such.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  10. Re:Political correctness has gone far too far. by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 5, Informative

    It grates badly enough on old ears to hear "they" and "them" be used for singular

    Only if you're a moron. The practice dates back to at least Chaucer, presumably earlier since it's unlikely he invented it. 'They' has been the gender neutral singular since Middle English. It's a lot older than you are, so I can only conclude that it grates on your ears because you never read any proper literature in the English language (like Shakespeare, Jane Austen, or George Bernard Shaw). The idea that it shouldn't be the gender neutral singular is a fabrication of 19th century assholes. Don't be like them.

  11. Re:principal by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 5, Informative

    n stories like this, it's almost never worth reading the article, and the summary is usually wrong anyway. The reporter spent 400 words to expand a 40 word brief, and then another 600 words on a story that is only vaguely related because the principal apparently used the fake profile to spy on kids who supported some guy who was fired.

    Having read this article closely, now I feel sorry for Ms. Bock that she's got such a shitty beat...

    Ms. Bock did more than just puff up a story - there was the fact-checking of school records to see if there was such a student, as well as a search of public records for ANYONE with that name. That's more than what passes for "reporting" on Faux News.

    She also put it into the greater context of the on-going school board problems.

    --
    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
  12. Re:Political correctness has gone far too far. by TapeCutter · · Score: 5, Funny

    Informative grammar Nerd crushes grammar Nazi like a grape, win-win!

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.