The First TikTok Mob Attack By Junior High School Students, Haunts Teachers In Philadelphia

Illustration of students at Great Valley Middle School (photo: x @gvmsmtters)

JAKARTA - A group of eighth-grade students in a Philadelphia-rich Suburb recently targeted their teachers with an extreme online harassment campaign. According to a report from The New York Times, this was the first TikTok mob attack that junior high school students had known about their teachers in the United States.

Students at Great Valley Middle School created at least 22 fake accounts that mimic about 20 teachers in an offensive way. The fake accounts depict dedicated teachers with "innuendo pedophilia, racist memes," and homophobic posts, as well as posts that fake "sexual relations between teachers."

The principal, Edward Souders, informed parents that the number of students who made fake accounts was likely "small," but hundreds of other students took part in commenting and following the fake accounts. However, there are also responsible students who report this behavior.

"I appreciate many of our students who have the courage to report this behavior," said Souders. He also urged parents to take the time to discuss with their children about the use of responsible social media and encourage them to report any cases of online disguise or cyberbullying.

Some students claim that the group's attacks are just excessive jokes. While some accounts that imitate teachers making harmless posts, there are also accounts that risk damaging the reputation of respected teachers. When creating fake accounts, students sometimes use family photos brought by teachers to class or look for photos shared online.

Impact Of Attack On Teachers

According to a report from The Times, the impact on the teacher was profound. A teacher says that he feels "like being kicked in the stomach" by students' "savage" behavior, while others accuse students of slander and character assassination. Both are depicted in fake posts with pedophilia innuendo.

Great Valley School District (GVSD) Superintendent Daniel Goffredo conveyed a message to the community that the impact on teachers was very deep. He urged parents to use the summer to discuss with their children about the use of responsible technologies, especially social media.

Goffredo confirmed that the school district had explored legal responses to the group's attacks, but found that their options were "constrained" because "the courts generally protect students' right to speak freely off campus, including parodicizing or defaming online educators' unless student posts threaten other people or interfere with schools," according to The Times.

Instead, the high school "hangs on some students for a while," and holds an eighth-grade student meeting to raise awareness of the dangers of cyberbullying, inviting parents to join.

More Action

obstacle Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers' union in the US, told The Times that teachers have never faced harassment of this magnitude. Usually, students target one teacher at a time. Pringle says that increasingly normal online harassment can encourage educators to consider leaving this profession, especially when the US Department of Education is struggling with teacher shortages.

Goffredo said teachers had little choice against it, but he also told parents the district was "committed to work with law enforcement to support teachers who might want to take legal action."

"I repeat my disappointment and sadness that the behavior of our students has caused so many difficulties for our staff," Goffredo wrote in his message to the community. "Seeing GVSD in the spotlight on the news because such behavior is also very disappointing."

Fake Account Reporting On TikTok

The TikTok community guideline prohibits disguise, except for "parody or fan-based." The platform provides a path within the app and on its website to report disguises, requiring teachers to show ID to request removal.

TikTok's enforcement so far seems uneven. Some teachers reported fake accounts and never heard of news from TikTok. Others said they were uncomfortable sharing their IDs with TikTok for reasons of privacy and therefore never reported the fake account.

The fake accounts that appear to be deleted soon are four fake accounts reported by a reporter, which TikTok confirmed, have been deleted. TikTok found that most of the other reported accounts were not available.

However, in some cases, missing fake accounts reappeared later, which disappointed the teachers. Some teachers stopped posting photos online or in their class for fear of further harassment. Others are afraid to discipline students who may retaliate on TikTok.

Experts say continued harassment and fear of retaliation "could damage the mental health and reputation of the teacher."

Teacher fears appear to be evident, according to The Times report. Even two young girls who have been convicted for a while have not stopped attacking, pledging in TikTok's "apologetry" video to immediately post a new video with stricter privacy settings to avoid disciplinary action.

Deleted "Apologies" Video

Two girls who have been convicted for a while are likely to have just gained access to TikTok, as this platform only allows users aged 13 years and over.

In June, after they were disciplined, they posted a video apologizing on TikTok, but the apology sounded empty to some, as the video was posted under a fake teacher account claiming that the teachers were making a big deal of it.

"We never intended to make this so far, obviously," one student said, while the other told teachers to "move on" and "learn to joke."

"I'm 13 years old," said another student, "and you're like 40 to 50."

While one student insisted he "never wanted to be suspended," both threatened to post a new video harassing teachers in the near future, planning to rely on privacy settings to keep the mob attack running.

The Times report appears to have temporarily suspended their behavior. After the newspaper asked the school district to share its report with parents, the apology video was removed and the teacher's name removed from a fake account, according to The Times report. The account now includes a disclaimer who said, "Guys, we no longer act as our teacher anymore, it's over!!"

Goffredo told parents that schools can do very little except focus more on efforts to prevent this behavior ahead of the next school year.

"During the summer, district administrators worked to identify clear and follow-up ways so that our existing focus on digital citizenship could be strengthened in our curriculum," Goffredo wrote in his message to the community.

He warned parents not to rely on school districts to completely stop this behavior as students appear to have the right to disguise themselves as online teachers. In addition to limiting the use of cell phones in schools, the district has little influence on what students do in their spare time.

"While it may be easy to react in a way that suggests that students should be disciplined more severely in schools, some, but not all, their behavior is protected by the right to free speech and expression," Goffredo wrote.

Reporting on this behavior to TikTok can have serious consequences for TikTok fans: a ban that could trigger bans on all their other TikTok accounts. But that only happens in "cases of serious violations of our rules or involvement in avoidance behavior," said a TikTok community guide. That suggests that junior high school students should constantly create new accounts to avoid bans before TikTok may cut off their access to the platform.

Some teachers may not be able to survive to be intimidated if this gets worse. For a veteran Spanish teacher at the high school, Patrice Motz, the target of the mob attack was "weakening." He told The Times that after 14 years, he began to lose motivation as a teacher.

"I can't believe I'm still up and doing this every day," Motz said.