A group of bratty teenage girls sank their TikTok fangs into nearly two dozen middle school teachers this past spring, creating fake and defamatory accounts that spread like wildfire on the social media platform.
The TikToks crafted by the ‘mean girls’ painted the teachers as racists, homophobes, pedophiles, and more – but the girls, with barely an apology, were able to walk away unscathed.
The malicious campaign, initially perceived as a joke, escalated as hundreds of students engaged, leaving the school’s educators feeling betrayed and under siege – and a community struggling to make sense of it all.
It’s a story about brazen cyberbullying, the anonymity of social media, free speech, and kids running amock with no parental supervision in sight.
“It's Lord of the Flies meets Animal Farm in Middle Schools. Into that add social media.” one person commented online about the slanderous scenario.
The unabashed actions of these two 13-year-olds even made it into the New York Times, and well, you know the saying, “If you can make it in New York….”
Vicious TikTok mob attack: the beginning
This story unfolds in the wealthy Pennsylvania suburb of Malvern, right outside of Philly, where a typical family home costs just under a million dollars.
Ask any K-12 teacher from Anytown, USA, and they’ll be happy to tell you that cyberbullying (and its cyberstalking sibling) among students has become a major problem in schools across the nation, affecting kids’ mental health and, at times, even leading to suicide.
“It's Lord of the Flies meets Animal Farm in Middle Schools. Into that add social media.”
– mmk of Silver City, NM. New York Times comment. July 6, 2024
But what happens when the targets of a vicious TikTok mob attack, like in this case, are none other than the kids' own teachers – teachers who have had their emails and personal pictures stolen from their own social media accounts to create the so-called false personas?
Images were chopped, cropped, and juxtaposed to make cringe-worthy memes debasing the teachers, each with hundreds of likes, shares, and comments from hundreds of the students at Malvern's Great Valley Middle School.
The targeting carried on for months – even after the teens were outed by a few fellow students with some sort of conscience it seems.
Even after the school’s principal notified the parents and the town became privy to the obnoxious and illegal action of the girls (can we point out blatant identity theft here?), the TikTokers continued in full force.
And even after multiple PTA and school board meetings were held to discuss the outrageous behavior – involving the police, TikTok representatives, and lawyers – it was decided that no punishment would befall the two ringleaders as the dirty deeds had taken place off school grounds.
It’s a world that can – and often does – glorify online cruelty towards others, even when labeled “just a joke.”
Just like a Greek chorus, the internet went wild over the story, mostly outraged at the lack of accountability from the kids, and their parents.
“We're talking about a bunch of entitled psychopaths. There needs to be punishment. We used to be able to rely on public shaming. Now it's a badge of honor to be a total dick-wad,” said another online reader.
Curious how it all ends? Join us as we break down the story, the implications, and what responsible digital citizenship actually means in our new Cybernews Cybercrime podcast where creative producer Josh Murphy and I dive head-first into the world of digital deception.
And more importantly, if the ‘mean girls’ finally got their just deserts.
Author contribution by Josh Murphy.
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