A lesson in manners
Dec 14, 2010
from the editorial in Aldergrove Star:
The following is a letter written by a few teenagers, who recently used Facebook to hurt someone, intentionally. Having the letter printed in the local paper, The Agassiz Harrison Observer, is one way they are working on their restitution, through Chilliwack's Restorative Justice Program.
We have chosen to run the letter in its entirety. By law, the teens cannot be named.
To Facebook Users:
Facebook has become very popular over the past few years. With its popularity come also some risks in using it. More people are getting in trouble for engaging in inappropriate and/or illegal activities on Facebook. This is the story of three teenagers who committed one of these activities.
We created a fake account about one of our teachers and impersonated him in sending solicitations to students in our high school as well as in other schools. Shortly after, we were caught and realized the potential damage that we could have caused our teacher and his family. If he wanted, our teacher could have laid charges against us. Thankfully our teacher was very forgiving and instead, we were given the option of completing a community service program under the supervision of Restorative Justice.
We are very lucky and wanted to write this message to warn other people because the next person may not be as lucky as we were. So, if you intend to do something silly, stupid and illegal on Facebook or on any other social network, please think twice. We wish we did!
