COMBATING CYBER BULLIES

COLLEGE CALLS FOR BOYCOTT OF GOSSIP SITE
By Kerri Yost

"Boycott, boycott, boycott,” says Jacquelyn Condon, vice president for student life and dean of students at Monmouth College. Condon is referring to the gossip site collegeacb.com which is being criticized by students and faculty alike on college campuses around the country. “We are outraged about this site and are calling for a boycott of it.”

Collegeacb was created and is run by 19-year-old Peter Frank who attends Wesleyan University in Middleton, Conn. He created the site after the college gossip site Juicycampus.com shut down. Condon recommends that everyone stop visiting the site because “This guy is making money off of garbage,” and he makes money off of every visit people make.

Some actions the college is taking to deal with this problem include complaining to the FCC, senators, and congressmen. “We are deeply concerned and are filing formal complaints,” explains Condon. The College has limited options when it comes to situations like this since the site can’t just be shut down, and also because the people who are posting vicious and vile comments are anonymous.

Condon encourages anyone who has firsthand knowledge of a student being involved in inappropriate postings on this site to notify the Office of Residential Life to fill out an incident report. A hearing will be held for anyone found to be involved and Condon assures, “there will be sanctions against them for doing this.”
Brittany Forney, sophomore at Monmouth College, is hurt and disgusted by comments made about her on the website. Although she feels that the college is doing all it can, Forney is taking matters into her own hands. “My dad has gone to an attorney to see what rights I have in this situation.”

This situation comes in wake of other occurrences of cyber bullying such as that which occurred in Massachusetts causing the suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince. “This isn’t a light situation,” say Forney. “People retaliate in different ways when they’re getting made fun of.”

Forney offers advice to other victims saying, “It’s hard to say don’t worry about it. You just have to know who you are.” Although Forney thinks what the perpetrators did was sad and hurtful she says, “All I would like is an apology. That’s all I care to get.”