BHS reminds students to think before they hit that send button

Stop.

Before hitting that send button on a cellphone, Facebook page or email, think.

Think about how will it affect the future, because once that message is sent, it’s gone and no longer in the sender’s control.

That was the underlying message of Monday’s assembly at Bigfork High School. Spearheaded by Connie Cermack, owner of the Bigfork based social media consulting business Social Nectar, the assembly covered, texting, sexting, cyberbullying and everything in between.

“The people you share with can always share with other people,” Cermack told told students from Bigfork High School and Swan River and Bigfork Middle Schools. “Discretion is more important than ever.”

BHS sophomore Tara Clark introduced the assembly. She was the student that prompted the school to get an assembly together in the first place.

Clark said she saw fellow students get bullied at school and on Facebook, and wanted to get the word out to others that it’s okay to speak up against it.

“I’m taking a stand,” Clark said during the assembly’s introduction. “Why do we do it (bully)? Do we even know why? Is it just to be popular?”

While Bigfork High doesn’t have an epidemic of cyberbullying or sexting gone wrong, BHS principal Matt Porrovecchio said a couple of cases popped up over the year and even just one case is too many.

“Even if there’s no cases it’s something people need to know,” Porrovecchio said of the assembly. “I think, inherently, it’s kids making bad choices.”

Often times it’s choices made without thinking or knowing about the unintended consequences.

Flathead County juvenile parole officer Nicole Tannheimer spoke about some of the legal ramifications of actions that start with a cell phone or the internet. Consequences for some teenagers she’s worked with included violation of privacy and communications and being listed as a sex offender for distributing child pornography.

Owner of Cerberus Computing Anthony Robinson covered safety and security measures that should be taken by kids communicating in cyberspace. Those measures are as simple as making sure Facebook privacy settings are set as high as they can be, and only becoming friends with people you know.

“It’s really re-directing their focus,” Cermak said. “Away from bullying and trying to be popular to thinking about how what they do today will affect their future.”

Cermak’s main goal when she speaks to students about the topics she covered on Monday is to get them to make better, more informed choices when using the internet.

She said that it’s especially important now with predators, depression and suicide rates as high as they are and the ability for information or mis-information to spread so quickly.

“It’s effective if one person stops bullying,” Cermak said. “If one person takes a stand against someone that’s hurtful.”