The website HSMemes has not only been blocked by the administration before spring break, but publicly condemned by Principal Madelyn Ball in a school-wide meeting on April 16.
The site allows users to make memes, concepts that spread via the Internet through pictures and captions, about their high schools on their high school’s personal page. There were several memes made that targeted student groups and individuals. Ball spoke about her shock at the “horrible, offensive things that were written on HSMemes.com before Easter vacation.”
Ball started the assembly by reading the JC mission statement and asking all those who believed that he or she was “sensitive to others and a young man and woman of moral integrity” to stand. After everybody stood, she said that some of the people who stood “did not tell the truth. Some of you are not sensitive to others. Some of you are not young men and women of moral integrity.”
“We are sick and tired of you shaming the fine name of the John Carroll School. We are sick and tired of your bullying. We are sick and tired of your cowardice. Yes, I say cowardice, for those of you who partake in cyber-bullying are cowards,” Ball said.
“You say harmful, cruel, pathetic things online. You say these things online because you are too much of a coward to say them to somebody’s face . . . You are not cool, you are not liked by your peers, and the rest of us are sick and tired of your actions,” Ball said.
She also promised that public and private apologies would be made by those who had posted the statements that bullied others, saying that “Everyone will have to apologize face-to-face to the victim they offended.”
While she could not comment on individual punishment to The Patriot, Ball also threatened other general punishments during the assembly. “I know who some of you are and you should be very worried. How will your parents feel when I show them what you wrote? How will you feel when I make you face the person you wrote about and apologize, looking them straight in the eye? If you’re a senior, how will your college feel when I write them a letter about your actions?” Ball said.
The administration has set up an email account, [email protected], to which students can send names of people who made the memes. She has received some names from students, but tried to convince those who made the memes to turn themselves in by saying, “We want the cyber-bullies to get a backbone and confess what they’ve done.”
Some offensive memes have been taken down due to a feature on the website that allows viewers to flag content as inappropriate. However, many memes are still on the website and users are still able to post new memes. “We are doing our best to take offensive postings down. The website has been contacted and we are working on it,” Ball said.
Students have been urged to tell teachers and administrators if they know of anybody who wrote the offensive memes. “I want to help heal this school of damage brought on by cowardly people,” Ball said.
Martha Schick is a Managing Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.