A North Oconee High School junior this week removed a Facebook page that he had made mocking the new principal, after school officials discovered the site.
North Oconee Principal Barry Lollis, who came from Windsor Forest High School in Savannah this school year, has seen teenagers overstep boundaries with social media.
"Sometimes they don't realize that something they might say - that they consider to be harmless - might be more than harmless," Lollis said.
He held a student-parent meeting about the Facebook page, reportedly named "Barry Lollis is a Communist," and came to a resolution, Lollis said.
"My understanding is that the website's down," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, the issue's resolved."
Lollis wouldn't say if he punished the student, but did say that he did not write a referral - mandatory paperwork if the student was suspended.
School administrators can dole out a range of punishments for creating online content that interrupts the school day, but it's the longer-term effects that really can hurt a student, Lollis said.
"Employers are now Googling people and doing background checks on folks," he said.
A negative impression from a student's social networking website could close the door on a future opportunity, Lollis said.
Students can be held responsible for what they post online, even if the school day is done, said Oconee County schools Superintendent John Jackson.
"A student can be held accountable for postings that are disruptive to the school, the school day and the operation of the school," Jackson said.
The Georgia legislature recently passed a law that expanded the definition of bullying to include instances of threatening through electronic messages, and the district adopted similar language, Jackson said.
Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are blocked on school computers, but sometimes arguments spawned on the Internet are brought back to the classroom.
In 2006, two 15-year-old students disrupted North Oconee High School for an entire day after creating a gossip-filled MySpace account that sparked arguments among the student body.
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