My oldest child begins college in about 10 weeks. He will be starting in a summer session at the University of South Florida, his father's and my Alma Mater. I am very happy for him , even though he was labeled as a "summer acceptance" . Apparently , this doesn't mean that he was so smart that the school could not wait to get a hold of his over sized brain. It really means he had something on his high school record that made the USF admissions dept. be "on the fence " about him. Now, he applied and was accepted to 7 schools in all. No other school deemed him a summer acceptance , so that says a lot for USF's high standards. The reason USF was "on the fence" had to do with an incident that occurred his junior year of high school. He was suspended for 5 days due to a tweet that the district labeled "cyber bullying" . Anyone who knows Zach, knows bully is the least of what he is. He is so passive that sometimes I think he's comatose. However, one tweet to a random kid changed the way his future Alma Mater looked at him. He will enter on June 29th on "behavioral probation" , and if he does well in his classes and avoids trouble he will be cleared for Fall semester with a clean record. All because of a word that was on twitter sent to another student. One word almost made USF turn him away.
I am writing this because I can not stress enough the importance of not putting every mean, thoughtless word out on the internet. Not because you don't want to say them, but because of the ramifications of saying them. This one thing that Zach did has affected many aspects of his life, from being banned from junior prom last year to losing a long standing family friendship. Sadly, he was just a kid doing what they all do , tweeting endless drivel hoping to get attention. Which he got, in spades. So, make sure you tell your children the lasting effects a few words can have, especially if they are floating in cyberspace for all to see. No one ever thinks they will be labeled a "cyber bully" for something so simple as a word. No physical contact ever even occurred in this instance. I jokingly told him he should've just punched the kid, the consequences would've been the same and he would've been more satisfied. Of course I was kidding, but you get the idea.
The last 4 years of high school have been a learning experience for Zach (and me too) in so many ways. The most important lesson we are coming away with is there are consequences for every action, both good and bad. An honor student/ athlete was the least likely kid to end up with a "behavioral probation" label entering college but it happened and if it happened to him it can happen to anyone. So, to all my friends with high school students please use this as a teaching tool/scare tactic/whatever. I wish I would've had this knowledge a year ago. But instead we will enter USF as a problem child and make quick work of proving everyone wrong.
