The major thing with the district is the bullying law and their concern for discipline is that the activity has to occur on school time and not from their home or from any other computer. That is part of the bullying law for schools in this state.

When the student is home or somewhere else and not on school time, the district has no say in their activities, period. While it may rise to the level of slander, might I remind you that the Washington State Supreme Court has recently declared in a ruling that political candidates may publish, post or state inaccurate, incorrect or even false information regarding a competitor. This ruling could be expanded to those posting this information.

“One of the creators of the site, Elizabeth Bloch tells me, she started the site with friends because other social networking sites like MySpace are "narcissistic", and "gossip is a healthy thing."”

I disagree with Bloch’s comment that gossip is a healthy thing. I’ve seen a lot of people hurt by gossip, and when it’s as wide-spread as on a website then it can quickly get out of control and do a lot of damage. Idle chit chat between a couple people is less harmful, but most adults I know would acknowledge gossip as a bad thing. Add kids to the mix and it’s even worse. I think the school has every right to restrict what a student can access on a school-provided computer. I also think it’s proactive of them to put it up on their website to try to inform parents about what it going on. Do they have a right to punish someone who is caught making derogatory remarks about another student? Why not? Same thing used to happen when a student was caught with a note that ripped on, or lied about, another student. It boils down to malicious intent, and I think there should be consequences for that.

I think the site should be removed. if people want to gossip, there are other means of doing it that don't hurt poeple, such as chat or email.

Thats BS oh boowho someone said something bad on a site about your kid. They know its not true you know its not true. Perhaps you should be asking yoursalf as to WHY these kids are saying yours is a whore, maybe she is. If its not acoring in school and in class then its not their problem. Worry about your own little snowflakes dont worry about everyone elses. Stop your kids from doing it if you dont like it. Give your kids enough self control not to base their self worth in others thoughts.

tl;dr
The problems its not with the site as it is with the students.

Well I can think of a few reasons as to why kids would be talking crap about other kids- they want entertainment, they are unloving and hateful and want to drag down other people to make themselves feel better about themselves, or maybe they want attention. But none of those reasons justify spreading rumors and gossipping. It's so immature and irresponsible to do that...SO pointless! What good comes of it? That you feel better about yourself? Talking bad about others (even if what they're saying is true) doesn't make others realize their bad behavior. Think about why they're acting promiscuous in the first place...they probably have low self esteem and feel they need it to feel better about themselves. Or else they don't realize how wrong it is. So what would talking crap about them do? It would send them further into a spiraling decreasing self esteem binge, and would make them want to do "bad" things more. Love and understanding, empathy, and trying to help people does way more than chastising and criticising. We can't always control what our kids do and don't say and do in their free time, sometimes we have careers and our kids go behind our backs. Kids will always come out of life thinking what they want to think once they turn 18 even if we did control them 24/7. I understand the problem is with the students, and we should do more to help them realize the importance of being kind to others, but sometimes they don't want to hear it from us adults...they like to hear things like that from people their own age, peers. And the site, it is an enabler, allowing them to do it, saying it's okay. I think the problem lies with both the site and the students.

I disagree anon. There is something wrong with a website that's intent is to air other people's dirty laundry. We all make mistakes in life, we are all human. Would you want your worst mistake/choice in life broadcasted on a website? I don't think so. I would challenge each person who reads that website, or supports it, to think about how they would want to be treated and put yourself in those teenagers' shoes. Haven't you made a mistake you wouldn't want your entire high school knowing about?

jackie, i agree. i disagree with anon, as well.

I think every teenager should be required to read the book "Slut." It discusses, very candidly, women who were harrassed and gossipped about in school. I think so many kids aren't being gossipped about because of truth, I think it's a jealousy issue. Kids are mean and will take anyone down to make themselves feel better. I'm getting ready to start a family and I hope, that above everything, I teach my children to be kind and loving to all others. To treat people how they wish to be treated themselves... not to just follow the pack to be cool. The school district absolutely needs to do something and parents should be taking a more active role in their kids' lives... The troublemakers should be punished by their parents, but unfortunately I've learned that the apple doesn't usually fall far from the tree.... The parents are probably laughing right along with their kids. Some people just shouldn't be allowed to reproduce.

Oh common, you pro website people need to really get a fast clue on life! Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, however, when do really publicly share them with the world? Here's one for you anon, your an idiot.

Where is it healthy to talk about someone else's habits, problems, or secrets? What the world really needs is people that will step back and look at them selves first before passing judgment on others. YA YA we all heard it before my fecal material don't stink! BS.

So, if kids are doing this at school, it is extremely inappropriate and they should be punished.

If you want to have a website the is going to perpetuate the teen drama, have it log IP addresses for posters and don't let people post anonymously. Keyboard courage is a great motivator for kids to rip one another apart, because they aren't held accountable for the hurtful things they say. It only serves to make them more cruel.

If it is done off of school time, but is harassment of a student and that student no longer feels safe at school, there should also a right for the district to step in.

What a ridiculous website. Parents need to talk to their kids about how harmful gossip can be, how kids can cope with being harassed AND the district absolutely is right to monitor the site and hopefully have that and all personal sites blocked from student use on school grounds.

Legally speaking, non-factual information meant to defame or harass is considered libel. These kids should be held accountable for their words.

I spent years working as an IT network admin for public schools before I went to the private industry, and quite frankly, filtering this site isn't going to do a thing in stopping the kids from visiting the site during school hours, nor is it going to get them anywhere in determining who is posting information on that site. Proxies pop up hourly so kids can get past filters and no one can determine where they are really going online.

The way to find out even though it'll make a lot of parents and stick-up-the-rear-end admins cringe - I'm not sure what Marysville is using for filtering or how they setup their logins, but if its websense and they are giving each kid a personal login to access the internet, take the site out of the block list and record who is accessing it. In Websense you can even setup a custom rule set that emails whenever someone accesses a site in the list. The kids who spend a bunch of time on the site are typically the ones doing the posting and punish them accordingly (and actual punishments, none of this out-of-school suspensions, aka "a free vacation day!", make the troublemakers scrub floors after school and throw them out of JV and varsity sports if they are team members).

Kids gossip either way. At least this way it's out in the open, so people know what awful rumors are being said about them.

If it's harrasment or bullying, the kids should be punished...

But if it's just gossip, it's really no different that what the tabloids do, seems like it's covered by the freedom of the press.

Just a quick request - if you're not in IT, and have never administered a server or network, please don't suggest technical solutions to this. It just sounds dumb. Logging IP addresses does absolutely nothing, and any site like this that didn't let people post anonymously would lose all of its users, and a replacement would pop up in hours.

You can't shut a site like this down legally, but you could sue individual users for libel, subpoena server records, and probably track them down. That would probably scare off a lot of people.

Of course the school district should help step in a make these kids see that the publication of one's private matters is something they will not get away with in court, even if the information is true. Better now than later.

Joe Mama, Gossip is harmful...period. You have the "kids will be kids" attitude. If we brush it off like this then we will continue to have incidents like Columbine...and we will have no one to blame but ourselves because we allowed it to happen and accepted it as a "normal" behavior.

Wrong is wrong no matter how you slice it!

Kids were pretty merciless when I was a kid but I am amazed at how evil and malicious kids have become. What's worse is they can be cowardous and do it anonymously! Where is the fairness in that?!? I can say anything I want about you and I don't have to worry about the consequences! I bet if you had to post your name, they wouldn't be so bold or vicious for that matter.

It's NOT okay and if this site is distructive to the MENTAL and PHYSICAL health, and welfare of our children then it needs to be nipped! When did abuse, libel, and slander become okay? Please tell me, because I really want to know. All kids know these days is hatred and anger. There is no such thing as values or personal responsibility any more. And it's down right disgusting!

GossipReport is extremely harmful…

The creators and promoters of the "gossip report" website are completely wrong. Their website should be held accountable because of its recklessly poor monitoring practices. First, anyone can place personally identifying information such as pictures, videos and last names on the website without that person's consent. Second, anyone can post any information about that person anonymously. Third, staff members of the website have repeatedly claimed that they will not remove information that are lies and/or hurtful to people. At the very least, there is no way that the staff members to verify all the posts that are lies and/or hurtful. Fourth, there is evidence that students at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington are being targeted with vicious, graphic postings that are not being removed from the website by the staff. Fifth, there is a pattern of conduct by the staff members that indicate they are reveling in free publicity from the outrage over what is happening to innocent minors. These staff members include Elizabeth (hmm…) Bloch, Ashley Murphy, and "investor" David Chase who runs a criminal background organization called "Castle Branch" out of North Carolina.

All of this leads to the conclusion that the operators of this website do not want to reasonably safeguard innocent minors from harm. See the following article:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080321/NEWS01/706213764

Without immediate changes in the way this website operates, there should be immediate legal action against the site, laws that prevent similar sites from being established so recklessly in the future, and boycotts of everything their creators do to earn a financial living related to this site.

Thanks for listening!

This is a serious concern to me. I see a lot of folks arguing for childrens' personal responsibility, or children needing tougher skin, or children being mean by nature. I don't think these are fair assessments. I agree with the comments that many children will always gossip and bully - this is a normal (though I wouldn't call it healthy). They are emotionally fragile, many lack the tools to build compassion and self-esteem. They are at the stage of development where social networking is paramount, and pander to each other any way they can to entertain and gain friends. The students who say such damaging things to each other need counseling, and need to be faced with what real consequences can arise from their actions. Victims of harassment and bullying are often driven to major depression, self-harm, and even suicide.

Children are not mature and they do not have the perspective required to fully realize how harmful their actions are.

HOWEVER, adults have no excuse. I am horrified that the 24 year-old creator of this site has shown absolutely no remorse for her actions, and continues to defend this website. She is preying on vulnerable teenagers for her own personal gain, and I hope that someone finds a way to prosecute her. The first child that harms themself or another because of her site - the blood will be on her hands. I hope she has the sense knocked into her in time to destroy this site before someone is seriously hurt.

This is a serious concern to me. I see a lot of folks arguing for childrens' personal responsibility, or children needing tougher skin, or children being mean by nature. I don't think these are fair assessments. I agree with the comments that many children will always gossip and bully - this is a normal (though I wouldn't call it healthy). They are emotionally fragile, many lack the tools to build compassion and self-esteem. They are at the stage of development where social networking is paramount, and pander to each other any way they can to entertain and gain friends. The students who say such damaging things to each other need counseling, and need to be faced with what real consequences can arise from their actions. Victims of harassment and bullying are often driven to major depression, self-harm, and even suicide.

Children are not mature and they do not have the perspective required to fully realize how harmful their actions are.

HOWEVER, adults have no excuse. I am horrified that the 24 year-old creator of this site has shown absolutely no remorse for her actions, and continues to defend this website. She is preying on vulnerable teenagers for her own personal gain, and I hope that someone finds a way to prosecute her. The first child that harms themself or another because of her site - the blood will be on her hands. I hope she has the sense knocked into her in time to destroy this site before someone is seriously hurt.

Gossip is healthy? Ms. Bloch obviously does not have a happy life.
michele