By Dia Sharma, HamletHub Intern
Last night, the Facebook and Twitter homepages of current and graduated Ridgefield High School students were flooded with outspoken statuses regarding a recent Twitter account which targeted gay and lesbian students in the community, namely at RHS.
Within a few hours of the creation of the account, students acted out against the unknown creator of the account, and more importantly, cyber-bullying in general. Kelly Aaronson, a senior at Ridgefield High School, made her status “Ashamed to be a part of the RHS student body right now.” Aaronson’s got thirty-one likes and twelve comments on it last night, demonstrating the youth community’s views against cyber-bullying.
When asked about her involvement in responding to the offensive Twitter account, RHS Alum Kiera Bloch said that it was impossible to stand by and not react to the fact that individual students were being called out. “In light of recent local events, as well as the general crimes against the gay community on a national level, we felt it was necessary to address the issue,” Bloch said.
Holly Walker, another RHS Alum, and Bloch drafted a letter to RHS Principal Jeffrey Jaslow last night, posted the letter on Facebook, and asked students to sign their name in a Facebook Inbox to add as an addendum at the end of the letter. Within hours, hundreds of students had demonstrated their support for the anti-cyber-bullying movement currently taking place through the social media vessel in Southern Connecticut.
A Facebook group titled “Southern Connecticut High Schools: An End to Cyber Bullying” was created last night. It was originally titled “RHS: An End to Cyber-bullying” and was renamed with Southern Connecticut in the title to incorporate multiple high schools in the area, including Joel Barlow High School and Weston High School. The group currently has over 1000 members, including students from a variety of high schools as well as parents of students.
“We have all been bullied or know someone who has been bullied,” Bloch said. She, in addition to hundreds of students in Ridgefield, believe that it is the responsibility of Ridgefield High School’s administration, faculty, and student body to foster an environment where students feel safe, regardless of their personal beliefs or sexual orientation.
Although the Twitter account has been deleted, the aftermath is still very much alive. “It's important that the victims of these accounts are aware of the tremendous positive response that has come from the entire Ridgefield community,” Bloch said. “It’s inspiring and it’s important,” she added.
When RHS Alum and Class of 2011 Valedictorian Patrick Ford-Matz was asked about the issue, he said, “I’ve been bragging about RHS since I got to Penn. My friends here seemed shocked I felt comfortable enough to come out in high school, but it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to me. In retrospect, Ridgefield High is a remarkably accepting and progressive place. Sure, this incident shook my faith a bit, but the remarkable and massive reaction by the student body just reinforces why I’m so proud to be a Tiger. And a gay one, at that.”
Bloch and Walker are still working diligently to spread the anti-cyber-bullying movement, working primarily through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but also sending informative emails to news sites and administrators in and around Ridgefield.