SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. (WBMA) — Shelby County Schools sent a letter to parents Saturday night that informed them of social media accounts being used to post "inappropriate things about schools and students."
The school district said the social media accounts encourage students to gossip and post secrets about one another using words like, "tea" and "shade."
According to Shelby County Schools, these types of social media accounts are also showing up in neighboring school districts.
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Shelby County Schools said the "spoof" social media accounts are using school and district logos.
The letter also informed parents that the district is working with law enforcement as well as taking other cyber security measures to ensure the matter is resolved. According to Cindy Warner from Shelby County Schools, most of the sites have been reported to Instagram, and they hope they will be looked at and seen as not legitimate.
Warner says they do not know who is creating the sites or if students are behind them. Many of the pages do not have posts, but Warner says there is a possibility that these pages could be computer-generated, and they wanted to take care of this situation before it led to any issues.
"We are trying to make sure that we protect students mental health right now," Warner said. "It is already a challenging time for many of them, and we don't want these types of sites popping up on Instagram to create any division or discourse in our schools or students."
The school district concluded the letter by asking parents to have a conversation with their children about the potential dangers of certain social media sites.
Shelby County is not the only school district seeing these pages.
Both Alabaster and Hoover City Schools have been seeing them and have sent out information to parents making them aware of what is going on and stressing the importance of keeping an eye on their student's social media.
This is a statement from Superintendent of Hoover City Schools, Dr. Kathy Murphy:
Over the past few days, multiple Instagram profiles have popped up claiming to be run by “anonymous” students. The profile names often incorporate “Tea Room” or “Shade Room” in the name and use school logos. Schools locally and nationally are experiencing this issue. The profiles in question promise anonymity for students who provide content or otherwise engage. The profiles also ask students to vote in various polls ranging from teacher preferences to political preferences. As students interact with these accounts, their responses are often displayed via screenshot for everyone to see, obviously breaching the promise of anonymity. We are reporting these Instagram accounts as we see them. Students, please be aware of the harm these Instagram accounts may cause you. Likewise, parents, we encourage you to always monitor your child’s social media activity. Numerous social media resources exist for parents, including Common Sense Media. Again, we wanted to alert you to these disturbing Instagram profiles which have the potential to embarrass, compromise, or otherwise harm you and breach your personal data.
"A lot of parents wouldn't let their child walk to the park by themselves," Assistant Director of Compact 2020 Nathan Kendrick said. "They would want an adult with them. Well, when you let your child have a social media account and give them free reign, there's a lot of danger there as well. We need to be vigilant as parents and make sure we're monitoring everything that they're doing."