A bunch of eighth graders in a “wealthy Philadelphia suburb” recently targeted teachers with an extreme online harassment campaign that The New York Times reported was “the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the United States.”
According to The Times, the Great Valley Middle School students created at least 22 fake accounts impersonating about 20 teachers in offensive ways. The fake accounts portrayed long-time, dedicated teachers sharing “pedophilia innuendo, racist memes,” and homophobic posts, as well as posts fabricating “sexual hookups among teachers.”
Impersonating someone to suggest sexual relationships threatens their marriage or partnership.
Implying pedofilia threatens their freedom and all their relationships.
This isn’t telling jokes at the lunch table, it’s shouting them in a public forum. Tik Tok is no different than putting up a billboard or running an ad spot on television.
I’d say it’s a lot more like the lunch table, or even like a table at a restaurant off-campus. These kids were not directing these jokes at anyone but each other, but were in a semi-public place where they could be overheard. It’s basically equivalent to a teacher walking by a table full of students making jokes about their teachers by pedophiles and getting them in trouble after overhearing.