ME- Halloween argument leads teens to online harassment

11-6-2008 Maine:

YORK — York police on Thursday, Oct. 30 — the evening the town celebrated Halloween — charged a juvenile with assault after a confrontation with another York High School student.

The teenagers were out trick-or-treating in Winterbrook when the incident occurred, said Sgt. Martin Doherty of the York Police Department.

The 14-year-old male, a York resident, was reportedly confronted by several other teenagers in an altercation that led to him pushing a girl. The juvenile female told her mom, and the two made an assault complaint to the police.

The juvenile male is scheduled to appear in York District Court on Jan. 5, 2009.

Both Doherty and York High School Principal Robert Stevens cautioned against allowing teenagers out on Halloween.

"I wish parents would exercise a little judgment in sending kids out to problem areas on problem nights," Stevens said.

However, the incident did not end Thursday evening.

"The next day they're all e-mailing each other and threatening each other," Doherty said. Comments were apparently made over MySpace.com pages.

The issue of Internet harassment — or cyberbullying, as it's often called — needs to be addressed and monitored by parents, both Doherty and Stevens said.

"(Parents) should police these kids on the computer," Doherty said.

Stevens also cautioned that many students don't know the full repercussions of their online actions.

"More and more, colleges and universities look at MySpace accounts as part of their applications to college, and kids are shocked when they find that out," he said. ..News Source.. by Allison Knab