FEAR THE ROO: I Do

There's something going on with the kids at Lake Washington High School. Maybe not all of them, but with a noticeable amount of them. Some of them are your children. As a community, all of them are our children.

They're angry. I mean, really angry.

You might not be able to tell that at the games. Maybe not in the classroom. But you'll see it if you visit a Facebook page called Lake Washington High School Compliments/Confessions. The premise of the page is that students can post thoughts and/or praise about the school and the people there. Few of the comments fit those categories. Instead, the majority of them are hate blasted, vicious, so harsh that reading them feels like a slap.

The page seems to be run by a student and all posts are sent to the page and then reposted onto the site with no names attached. Anything the kids want to say, they say anonymously, without censoring and without repercussion. The page is public; anyone can go to it and read the posts. Over 360 people have 'liked' the page.

I wanted you to read the kind of things these kids are posting. Due to the nature of this site, I will add an asterisk here and there but as much as possible will keep the statements as is. I want you to see exactly how ugly they are. Brace yourself. Here's a sample:

"There is no such thing as hot Blacks or Asians. they are either ugly as f*ck or extremely hot"
"(girl's first and last name visible) is fat, idiotic..someone kill this fat hoe"
"To all of you who have sex in the bathrooms..."
"Looks like (girl's first and last name visible) is getting around"
"Shut the f*ck up"
"Shut the h*ll up"
"It's only a matter of time before you piss off the wrong kid and get your *ss handed to you"
"(girl's first and last name listed) can deep throat my meat burrito any time"
"shut up sexist motherf*ckers"

As an LW grad, I read those things and was stunned. Those of you whose taxes helped fund the new LW have the right to wonder what kind of education these kids are giving each other.

Ironically, LW celebrated an Anti-Bullying Day just last October.

Whether or not the LW Administration has ever seen the site is unknown. A different Facebook page, Kang News, which is run by the school's broadcasting department, has posted a link inviting people to go check out the Compliments/Confessions page. I wonder if a school run page should promote something that makes the school look so bad.

Since these students are still kids you may still have the chance to help them work out whatever anger is feeding this site. That kind of viciousness didn't begin yesterday. Whatever was needed to prevent it wasn't done or it wasn't done well enough. The kids who wrote those comments may be your paperboys or babysitters. They may sit at your dinner table every night.

Since nothing on the site violates Facebook rules, it is unlikely to be taken down. Then again, if the page is removed how will we know the level of anger a lot of these kids seem to have?

The LW students posting this hate may not have been speaking to you but that doesn't mean you can't answer them.