By: Isabelle Foley
Sentry Staff Reporter
A vicious rumour has circulated on Twitter that two students were suspended for having oral sex in the school bathroom. Many people believed this story to be true because a picture was posted of an ARLnow.com article with a headline reading, “Yorktown Students Suspended for Oral Sex.” However, this article was a hoax.
It started with a tweet. A screenshot of the falsified article spread like wildfire across the social network. Quickly, students and parents alike heard the news. At first glance, the shocking title may have been enough information for those passing on the story. But the article, which named one of the students “involved’ and was ridden with grammatical errors, should not have fooled anyone who bothered to read it in-depth.
The entire series of events laid out in the article reveal its falsehood. First, the article named a sophomore boy (a completely unethical act in cases of underage sexual misconduct and against regulation) and claimed that he had relations with an unidentified freshman girl. It also claimed that students “heard strange noises coming from the bathroom.” At this point a teacher supposedly investigated the sounds, and upon finding the students, “heard chants of Satanic rituals.” Perhaps most bizarre of all is that the supposed motive of the freshman girl is that she was offered “two Starbuck Coffee drinks.”
Ultimately, the persons responsible for forging the article were identified and action was taken against them. ARLnow, however, was not involved.
“It was handled, and the police were involved,” said Principal Doctor Raymond Pasi.
The whole situation begs the question, why is information and news posted on websites like Twitter taken at face value? How much do people choose to believe without questioning it? If there was any question about the validity of the article, the first place to check would have been the arl.now website. Upon visiting the site and searching “Yorktown,” no such article would appear. Furthermore, searching the article by its date would again produce no results. Many people may claim that in this technological age, it’s nearly impossible to tell if something is fake or real. In many cases, however, it is as easy as a few clicks of a mouse to determine fact from fiction.
