The permanent effects of reckless tweeting
By: THE MONTAGE EDITORIAL BOARD
It is safe to assume that we all say things we regret during times of extreme frustration. In most instances, such things can be said with little or no consequence— but what happens when they are put into writing? What if one were to take it a step further and decide to share their thoughts with a public audience? People often fail to acknowledge that a much wider audience, reaching beyond our friends and followers can see the intellectual property we share via outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. For one student at Meramec, the audience included Meramec’s public affairs office that monitors mentions of the college on Facebook and Twitter daily.
The problem with sharing frustrations on Twitter is that readers have no way of understanding context or tone. Thus, common phrases along the lines of, “I’m so angry I could kill someone” can be misinterpreted and taken literally. What most people consider to be a common expression of anger can be interpreted as what local media outlets have described as a “violent threat”. Unfortunately, St. Louis Community College found that the best option in dealing with a student who chose their words poorly would be to remove her from all STLCC locations. Of course, this begs the question: did the student really plan on killing anyone? The answer is clearly no.
The college took appropriate measures in ensuring the immediate safety of students and faculty, but the situation quickly turned, yet again, to a mess of misinformation and sensationalism. KMOV reports, “A St. Louis community college student turned herself in after making a threat against a Kirkwood campus employee.” This statement is incorrect in that the “threat” was not made toward a specific individual. The local news source goes on to report, “Meramec staff were monitoring social media when they saw a tweet threatening to kill people in the financial aid office.” Once again, the student did not directly threaten to kill anyone in the financial aid office. The student merely credited the financial aid office as the source of her frustration.
Thus, the college took extreme measures by prohibiting the student’s return to campus— perhaps too extreme. Particularly since the last student to make a death threat back in April (and act on it) was allowed to return to the campus next day. Perhaps the most disheartening aspect of the situation is that it could’ve easily happened to anyone. The student who made the seemingly accidental Twitter threat was certainly not trying to “withdraw” anyone from life. If nothing else, this should serve as a lesson for all of us, don’t post anything on the Internet that you wouldn’t say in front of a St. Louis Community College public affairs official.
