Wake Up and Dream Catalyst: Short inspirational thoughts for the day. Raising questions & hopefully opening a dialogue with people interested in learning how to turn their dreams into plans and start navigating their way towards them.
This Fake Fictional Video by Jessica Barba, age 15, led to suspension from school
Thought for the day: On Monday, I posted a 1 minute video to share with parents, teachers, & students in the 1st in a 4 part series on Bullying. Today I'm sharing a video made along with a fake Facebook Page as a school project by15 year old High School freshman, Jessica Barba. The project got Jessica suspended for 5 days for "disrupting school" in Middle Island, New York. The video portrays the years of physical & cyber abuse leading up to the character's suicide the day before the video was posted. Although Jessica put disclaimers, letting viewers know that Hailey Bennett, the character portrayed in the video & in the facebook profile was fictitious, a concerned parent of another student, did not see the disclaimers, saw the video, called the police who called to warn the school. The school reacted by suspending Jessica. The suspension lead to the Today Show's interviewer to say, "This just does not make sense," while interviewing Jessica & her parents (the school refused to comment due to student confidentiality rules). Did Jessica deserve to be suspended for posting the video & facebook page that simply tried to encourage others to, "Speak Up, Speak Out Bullying is 100% Preventible." You be the judge should she have been suspended or commended for the project?
