Ridgewood district warns school of ‘scary’ text messages circulating
Wednesday March 20, 2013, 3:15 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — A week after a nude picture scandal rattled the high school community, district officials are now warning the parents of fourth- and fifth-graders about a “scary, quite graphic” text message being circulated between students.
Lorna Oates-Santos, principal at Somerville Elementary School, sent an email to parents Tuesday warning of the “widespread” sharing of an “inappropriate” text message “that comes from the internet.”
Schools Superintendent Daniel Fishbein said Wednesday the text message was not sexual in nature.
Correct me if I am wrong – In order to receive a text message one has to have a mobile phone, right?
Since when do fourth and fifth graders have cell phones?
Open your eyes it is a lot more than you think.
its lala land here. not only do this tweens have cellphones they are usually the expensive i-phones in order to keep up with the other spoiled rich brats. Ipod, Ipads, Iphones, and credit cards from daddy.
Yeah… a lot of moron (aka “well intentioned”) parents in town give iPhones to their kindergarteners.
… with full internet access, email and social media
#1 back to say – well then I guess these parents are getting what they deserve.
So what are the educators supposed to do? Throw their hands up and say that the kids are spoiled and we’re not dealing with it? Somerville has always been very adept at staying with the times. Which is more than we can say for the previous commentators here.
It is not a school problem! It is a “chain letter” type of text. The parents need to teach them about the apps that they are using.
Every problem a child has is not the school’s responsibility. Parents take charge. Explain that if they don’t forward the email they will not die. It is an internet thing, it did not start, nor will it end, with Somerville.
Much has been written about the impact of social media on young children. Give a 10 or 11 year old a smartphone and you have all the ingredients for tween drama. If parents of tweens are not monitoring this then they are fools.
“If parents of tweens are not monitoring this then they are fools.”
I thought we have already established the parental classification…
Schools would be equally foolish to pretend that the problem wasn’t there.