Students at Steinbrenner High School have recently been using Snapchat as a form of communication connecting the entire student body. By using the new feature called “geo-stories”, students are posting to these Steinbrenner Snapchat stories, similar to a group chat, to get as many people as possible to view their photos and comments.
The content of these stories aren’t always school appropriate. While there are the typical photos of updated bell schedules and eating lunch with friends, there are also plenty of images depicting inappropriate content, such as students offering to sell vape and vape juice, name-calling and bullying of students, and “roasting” of school events (pep rallies, sports games, etc.).
More specifically, there have been students taking photos of teachers and other students without their knowledge. This violates the school-wide student phone usage police implemented by administration to not take photos of other students on campus. However, this rule has been frequently broken, even before the Snapchat stories had been taken into effect. Students are also breaking the Hillsborough county and school implemented anti-bullying policies by posting videos and images making fun of students for their behaviors.
The most bizarre is the selling of vape juice. By posting comments such as “message me if you wanna buy some vape,” they are offering to illegally sell their products on school campus. This not only violates school and district policies, but also the law and could have potential legal consequences.
What’s being posted isn’t all bad. There is a lot of information that is helpful to students and is similar to what would be posted on the official Steinbrenner Twitter page, such as updated school bell schedules, class chants, who to vote for during homecoming season, and more. Many students in defense of the stories have claimed that it’s also a good way to connect more with the student body and feel more part of the Steinbrenner community.
“Anything that is inappropriate and causes a disruption at school or disrupts the learning for students here, because they become the target or victim of things that are inappropriate, the school does actually have authority to render consequences. We’ve done it previously and we will continue to do it.” said Principal Kelly King.
These Snapchat stories aren’t a small population. Each story has had everything from only 400 views to over 2,000 views. Almost every student with a Snapchat and cell phone at Steinbrenner has seen these stories, or at least heard of them. They matter a lot to the student populace and seem to be an important aspect of high school social media trends.
Doreen Coreen // Co-A&E Editor and Social Media Manager
