I do spend too many hours on Twitter — sorry, Elon Musk, but I refuse to call it “X” — and occasionally use Facebook, though not for politics, but I’ve never created a TikTok account. One of the people I follow on Twitter is Chaya Raichik and her wildly popular Libs of TikTok, where she made a name for herself by checking through TikTok and reposting to Twitter the most inane and insane things that the left were posting there.

So, while I haven’t checked out any of these things, this story in The Philadelphia Inquirer greatly amused me:

Malvern middle schoolers created more than 20 TikTok accounts that impersonated teachers and posted inappropriate content

Great Valley Middle School students set them up to impersonate, and demean, staff members.

by Maddie Hanna | Saturday, July 6, 2024 | 5:56 PM EDT | Updated: 7:02 PM EDT

Earlier this year, fake accounts impersonating more than 20 Great Valley Middle School teachers appeared on TikTok, some depicting racist, homophobic, or sexually inappropriate content.

District officials said that middle school students had created the accounts, which gained a following among other students.

The impersonation campaign created turmoil in the Malvern middle school’s community, in what the New York Times described Saturday as “the first known group TikTok attack of its kind by middle schoolers on their teachers in the United States.”

In a message to the Great Valley community Saturday night, Superintendent Daniel Goffredo said it was “disheartening” for the district to be an example of behavior “that has caused such duress” for staff.

There’s more at the original. However, as is frequently the case, the Times’ journalism was more detailed than the Inky’s. Reporter Maddie Hanna, whose Inquirer biography says, “i cover K-12 education, focusing on suburban schools, charter schools, and education funding,” omitted the names of some of the teachers impersonated as reported in the Times. The Grey Lady did print, amusingly enough, two photos of named teachers, but with their backs to the camera.

(Spanish teacher Patrice Motz) found a fake profile for @patrice.motz, which had posted a real photo of her at the beach with her husband and their young children. “Do you like to touch kids?” a text in Spanish over the family vacation photo asked. “Answer: Sí.”

In the days that followed, some 20 educators — about one quarter of the school’s faculty — discovered they were victims of fake teacher accounts rife with pedophilia innuendo, racist memes, homophobia and made-up sexual hookups among teachers. Hundreds of students soon viewed, followed or commented on the fraudulent accounts.

I can see why Miss Hanna excluded Mrs Motz’ name, but the description of the post was in the Inky.

A fake @shawn.whitelock account posted a photo of Mr. (Shawn) Whitelock standing in a church during his wedding, with his wife mostly cropped out. The caption named a member of the school’s student council, implying the teacher had wed him instead. “I’m gonna touch you,” the impostor later commented.

“I spent 27 years building a reputation as a teacher who is dedicated to the profession of teaching,” Mr. Whitelock said in an interview. “An impersonator assassinated my character — and slandered me and my family in the process.”

Wait, what? A teacher at Great Valley Middle School has just said that the casting of homosexual aspersions on him “assassinated (his) character” and “slandered” him? Is Mr Whitelock telling us that he sees homosexuality as a bad thing? 🙂

While the Inquirer does not allow reader comments on non-sports articles, there were 1292 comments on the Times article. Yes, the Grey Lady moderates comments, and I suspect several were disapproved, because in those through which I scrolled, all were about what punishment the students could receive, and many included suing the parents, but there wasn’t a single one I saw which even hinted that perhaps the fake TikTok accounts were pointing out things that the students knew and were at least partially true? How many stories have we read in which teachers were sexually involved with students, taking photos involving child pornography, or ‘grooming’ students for some form of sexual or pornographic activity?

If students were hinting that teachers might be involved with touching students inappropriately or showing sexual attraction to some, isn’t that something which ought to at least be quietly investigated?

I can’t be the only person who, upon reading the stories, wondered if the students were actually spreading information about inappropriate conduct by at least some of the teachers, yet if there was any concern about that in 1292 comments on the Times’ article, I didn’t see it, though, admittedly, I didn’t read them all.

Yes, it is very possible that every one of the faked TikTok accounts was a completely unfair slamming of teachers who had done nothing wrong, and yes, middle schoolers can be unrestrained and cruel, sexist, racist or ‘homophobic’; a lot of kids don’t like their teachers. But it is also true that middle schoolers can be savvy and smart and notice things which they’re not meant to see. They frequently don’t report such to their parents or teachers, but spread the gossip among themselves; even though I haven’t been in school since the time of quill pens and inkwells, I remember some of that. With two daughters who were in middle and high school in the very early 2000s, while they never said anything directly to me, I occasionally heard uncharitable gossip with their friends about other students.

To me, the news articles tell us more than they actually say.