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First-known TikTok mob attack led by middle schoolers tormenting teachers (arstechnica.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/news@lemmy.world
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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."

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[–] 31 points 2 years ago (12 children)

The idea that parents actually have or even should have complete control over their kids is laughable. Did you perfectly obey all of your parents wishes while you were young, even when they were not watching?

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    He's not talking about obedience, he's talking about liability. There's a difference between raising your kid to take out the garbage on command and raising them to be functional people. These parents failed that second aspect. And yes, they are in fact responsible for letting their little sociopaths out of the house.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    No, a child that makes a mistake is still potentially functional. Peer pressure is a hell of a drug.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    This isn't 2+2=5. It's not forgetting to pay for your groceries one time. It's not even tying your shoe laces in a knot instead of a nice bow. Those are mistakes.

    This is a group of kids setting out to humiliate and potentially incriminate teachers at their school for apparently no good goddamn reason according to this article. This is a group of sociopaths failed by their parents. Yes, the children should be punished. The parents should also be punished. Idk how that punishment should go, but IMHO it should involve mandatory community service at a soup kitchen every weekend for a year or two.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    No, even good kids are capable of making much more severe mistakes depending on their environment. To really judge we'd have to go through their social media exposure whatever trends/cultures were going around the school at the time.

    Don't forget, this is America where a former President and current candidate supported Qanon. People, especially kids, are vulnerable to being misled.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    Reading some of these responses, I swear these people are armchair parents. There’s an entire science of nature vs nurture. Nurture also includes peers and group acceptance and even the best of kids sometimes do horrible, shitty, stupid things for nurture of their peers.

    It’s like they do not want to entertain that this happens. Head. In. The. Sand.

    Source: Am parent with a good kid who is learning to push boundaries, entering the teen years soon, and sometimes does stupid shit even when I taught him better. I was also the good kid that did stupid fucking shit every once in a while despite having parents who taught me better/right v wrong.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Should the teachers be punished as well, given the state’s shared role in raising kids and inculcating them with values?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago*

    Clearly they were already punished, and inappropriately so. Nobody "taught" the students to act like little sociopaths in the same way nobody "teaches" your puppy to shit on the floor. This is, in fact, the direct result of a lacking education. This education is not taught in schools outside maybe pre-k, as children are expected to act civilly in a classroom, let alone middle schoolers.

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  • [–] -4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    This attack has nothing to do with being “functional people”.

    I am not much of a functional person — can’t kept a job, terrible social life, etc — and I would never run this kind of attack on a person let alone join a group to do it en masse.

    Being functional has nothing to do with this thing. This is about evil.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Basic empathy is a requirement of being a functional person.

    Not a job, not forcing yourself to be around other people, not owning a house, none of that shit.

    You are valid so long as you recognize that every person matters. Anything less is to be inhuman.

    Like coughcoughisraelcoughcough

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