Six girls arrested for Facebook invitation to attack a teacher

The girls were released to the custody of their parents after their arrests. They were suspended from school for between three and five days.

The Facebook invitation was removed by a parent of the girl who posted it.

Sadler said the teachers targeted by the threatening comments were shocked by the arrests, because the six girls were good students. Some held leadership positions, while others had top grades.

“I would say their reaction was, ‘Are you serious? Is this really happening?’” Sadler said. “The more they thought about it, they said they were not OK with it. This is kind of disheartening to an educator.”

Kathy Haas, a Carson Middle School teacher who taught two of the students who were arrested, said she was surprised because they seemed normal.

“It shows you just don’t know what’s going on in their minds,” she said. “I don’t understand their motivation. I don’t think they think about the consequences, because they’re young. They’re pretty immature then.”

The arrests gave teachers at the schools a chance for classroom discussions with students about appropriate online behavior, Haas added.

“It’s a teachable moment, and hopefully it prevents [this kind of online behavior] from happening in the future,” she said. “Most students know it was wrong. A lot of students said they knew about [the Facebook invitation] and deleted it.”

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said the case demonstrates the need for parents to monitor their children’s online activities.

“They made some pretty violent comments about some teachers, and this isn’t even close to a joke,” he said. “Children’s stresses are so great that they can act out on their frustrations. Parents need to monitor what their kids are doing on communication devices.”

Previous 1 2