As covered in the New York Times this July, seventh and eighth grade students at Great Valley Middle School created social media accounts on the platform TikTok impersonating their teachers. Included on these accounts were videos, comments, and photos that aggressively attacked numerous teachers regarding family and sexuality with suggested racism and  pedophilia.

Great Valley teachers in and out of fire from these attacks responded to requests for an interview but indicated that due to an ongoing police investigation, they are unable to answer questions regarding these incidents at this time.

According to WHYY, Great Valley community members including teachers, parents, and the school board met to discuss the handling of this issue on July 15. Included in the conversation was Ms. Nikki Salvatico, president of the Great Valley Education Association. She emphasized that Great Valley is continuously looking for solutions and improvements in policy where teachers have a valuable say. 

While legal action against the students has yet to take place, investigations seem to be ongoing and the nuanced issue of the right to free speech versus slander or libel is at issue. Regarding Great Valley Middle School, sources informed various news outlets that many students only received school suspensions as their repercussions.

Though not occuring at Malvern Prep, the incident and its coverage caught many members of the community off guard during summer break. Upper School Counselor Ms. Desirée Hall described her reaction.

“The most jarring thing was the headline initially because it had said Malvern, but once reading through, it was still unsettling because of how close to home it is… It made me wonder how it was impacting our student body,” Ms. Desirée Hall said.

Hall’s role as a counselor motivated her to support a Malvern Prep family from the Great Valley district.

“I looked through my caseload to see if there were any students who were directly impacted coming from Great Valley. I did reach out to a family that I knew was coming from Great Valley just to let them know that we were here to support them,” Ms. Desirée Hall said. 

Additionally, Mrs. Allison Hall, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication, remarked how the incident coincidentally lined up with a change in Malvern’s employee social media policy. 

“Before what happened at Great Valley Middle School, I talked with [Head of School] Mr. Sillup and discussed that our teachers could be targets of social media attacks. Students and parents look at the profiles of their teachers out of curiosity…It’s ironic that it was already planned to do an update of this policy last summer in the employee handbook,” Mrs. Allison Hall said.

This begs the question: what would happen if Malvern suffered in-house digital attacks? In today’s day and age, Malvern Prep needs to be prepared for any social media dilemma that comes its way. Mrs. Korin Folan, Head of Character Development and Wellness, detailed the framework that Malvern has to ensure these incidents are well addressed. 

“I don’t know all the ins and outs about how Great Valley Middle School handled it. [At Malvern Prep], we can all judge and say what they did right or wrong, but we have definitely discussed the steps we would take… We have numerous sections about social media use in our student handbook about appropriate use, including policies and guidelines to protect every member of the community,” Folan said.

Mrs. Allison Hall explained the responsibilities of Malvern faculty and staff in a crisis management situation. 

“It has always been our policy that if any faculty member or administrator is contacted by a member of the news media that they have a blanket statement. [It] says that they are not the right person to speak with, and redirects contact to the Head of School or Director of Marketing,” Mrs. Allison Hall said.

She emphasized the strength of Malvern Prep’s community and possibility of reporting issues.

“For students, there are so many ways to report things. Some students are comfortable finding an adult in the community and showing them something. Others may want to stay anonymous and use Safe2Say Something, a great online reporting outlet that Pennsylvania has. I am confident in our community [to keep each other safe and informed],” Folan said. 

Folan touched on specifics to handling such an issue and how she feels Malvern Prep is well prepared.

“Depending on what information comes to Malvern’s staff and how quickly it’s disseminated, we have many different options lined up [to address the issue]. We have a crisis management team, Student Academy Leaders, [a discipline team], and policy. Honestly, in the past three years of being in this role, I’ve been so impressed at how well those teams quickly work together to resolve any issues,” Folan said. 

According to Mr. Tim Dougherty, current 12th grade Student Academy Leader and English teacher, Malvern Prep has had its share of digital malfeasance in the past, some even resembling Great Valley’s incident. 

“[Years ago at Malvern], there were students in a Facebook group who used hateful language and addressed a member of our staff inappropriately. The kids [faced] a host of disciplinary responses [from Malvern Prep],” Dougherty said.

Furthermore, Dougherty, who worked as Dean of Students from 2013 to 2022, included how Malvern Prep students have been harmed by social media accounts created by students from other schools.

“[In the past] there was a student who was impersonated on social media with hateful language. A whole Twitter account was created in his name, and the hateful language was damaging to the Malvern student’s college application process… We were quickly informed by a school group and from there, we notified the other school and cleared our student’s name,” Dougherty said. 

Sadly, online incidents like Great Valley’s are becoming commonplace. Malvern Prep senior Michael Waugh recalled problems at his public middle school with online safety and digital citizenship.

“During my time at Fugett [Middle School], I remember many of my friends were targeted by a fellow student on a malicious social media account. Safety and security is definitely something that schools need to be looking out for nowadays, both for students and teachers. These accounts and behaviors from students aren’t rare,” Waugh said.

Many months later, communities affected by the incident continue to voice their opinion on the situation’s handling. A top comment on an ABC News Facebook post covering the incident reads, “Ridiculous. This goes on everywhere and has for years. Letting kids have phones during the school day is malpractice.” 

On that note, neighboring states have cracked down on smartphone usage in school. 15 states have put in official policy restricting cell phone use, with Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and most recently Virginia banning smartphones in schools altogether. Though not totally preventing digital malfeasance, this certainly makes  incidents like this harder to perpetrate. Teenage students would or will no longer be able to film during a class or without someone’s consent, take pictures of them or record their voices without their knowledge. As covered last year, it’s possible that Malvern will follow suit with official phone policy or bans in the near future. 

Another Facebook comment emphasizes how common social media attacks have become: “I’ve seen plenty of comments about this being a Great Valley thing or being exacerbated by entitled suburban kids and their families, but it’s not unique to any one school or demographic, and it’s part of a larger issue with how bullying and misbehavior is and has been amplified as the internet has become more and more a fixture of young lives.”

Are schools doomed until policy cracks down on phone usage in school and legislation better protects teachers from incidents like these? What are students’ roles in creating a culture online and in person in their communities?  Head of School Mr. Patrick Sillup weighed in on Great Valley’s issue and how our community is facing the future. 

“We are living in an economy of negativity online. As a result, hurtful content is being created and shared at alarming rates. One of the antidotes to this macroenvironment issue is a community committed to seeing the light in one another, bound by a common mission. Malvern Prep has this, and I’m confident we’ve all felt it, but it doesn’t make us immune to these issues, which have been well-documented in this piece. So safeguards must be established and revisited often to ensure we have what we need to protect all community members. This combination of community, mission, and policy isn’t a fixed recipe. It is an ever-evolving and evergreen discussion as new and different challenges emerge. This leads to the construction of complex adaptive systems that can navigate an uncertain future–something I am deeply committed to as a leader on this campus.”