The Colorado-based gossip website PeoplesDirt.com has gotten a lot of press after a kid from Tennessee threatened to kill people at Bethesda's Whitman High on the site's message boards, whose traffic comes mainly from kids in Montgomery County. Go take a look at what's posted there. Sometimes, it's outrageous; sometimes, it's blatantly fake; but it's always really scary.Topics range from the "who is secretly g@y??" thread at Blair (sample response: "nahh [name] ain't g@y son he fucked soo many girls") to the "Freshmen That Need To Be Beat Up" thread at Sherwood (sample response: "i already am taking care of that little f@gg#t"). Both Blake and Einstein have threads titled "black people." Springbrook's pages has a "NAME ALL DA HATERZ" thread; the second post reads "MY MANS DURSO BEEN HATIN FOR A MINUTE YADA I MEAN????", referring to Principal Durso, who received death threats from two students last month.
A thread on Blake High's forum asks "who would u kill?" The post is from last Sunday, a day before the Whitman threats were discovered - but, even if it's not a copycat, other students were quick to put the fire out. "This is the kind of BS that brings negative media attention . . . We know how the Whitman thing turned out," one person writes.
On Einstein High's pages, a kid threatens suicide in a post a month ago; a few people respond over the next couple of days, but it's not until today that someone named "concernedadult," who learned about the site on the news, tries to get him/her some help. For all we know, it might be too late.
PeoplesDirt has quickly become a place for MoCo's youth to air out their dirty laundry, whatever it is. This isn't just locker talk: it's a hot mess of opinions, hormones and frustrations, an online watering hole for kids who wouldn't even talk to each other in the hallways. That almost seems like a positive. Almost, if it weren't for the bullying and suicide. Given that MCPS is probably monitoring this site very closely now, a well-placed threat or cry for help might save a kid's life. Or maybe, with the world's attention turned on you, it might destroy one.
I'm so happy I grew up.
1 comment:
Dan, hilarious comments indeed, on your article on your visit to the Turtle. Other than that I too must remark WTF w/the double polo shirts. Must be a UMCP thing.
I remember standing in line one time to get into the Rendezvous and this was maybe 1983 or so and the frat boys had just discovered overpumping steroids. A car drove past and backfired and these guys all hit the ground like sacks of lead and then bounced up and started beating the crap out of everyone they could reach, they were so rushed out on adrenaline and steroids.
As for the kids on the forums, those are some folks who apparently need to repeat all of their English classes back to kindergarten.
Post a Comment