On Saturday, January 10, more than three hundred Seaholm students were asking themselves that very same question.
Nearly every Facebook user belonging to the Seaholm network received a friend request on January 10 from a girl named Jenny Carlisle. She was supposedly a junior from San Francisco who was set to start classes at Seaholm on Wednesday, January 14.
The Facebook page had a profile picture album, and at least two other photo albums. All of the pictures in each album were of the same person, a blonde-haired girl with blue eyes. One of the albums even contained photos of a little girl, supposedly a younger Carlisle.
Junior Brittany Lea was among a number of Seaholm students who wrote on Carlisle’s Facebook wall, welcoming her to the school.
“I actually wrote on her wall,” Lea said. “I wanted to be friendly at first.”
Hospitality turned to animosity, though, when Carlisle’s pictures were discovered on another Facebook profile belonging to a girl from Montreal named Peyton Hart.
In addition, other pictures from Carlisle’s profile were found on a MySpace profile and a dating service advertisement, also on MySpace.
“I wanted to ask her what her classes are to see if she was legit,” Lea said. “She didn’t know her classes, she didn’t know her counselor. Some of the other girls asked where she lived, [that] kind of stuff. She couldn’t even tell crossroads or anything.”
Students began questioning Carlisle's authenticity, and the profile was deleted on the night of Sunday, January 11, one day after it was created.
Assistant principal Deb Boyer said that the next day, three upperclassmen mentioned the incident to her.
“On my way into the building Monday morning, one of the upperclassmen said, ‘Mrs. Boyer, is it true that we’re getting a new student, a senior,’” Boyer said. “Then later on that same morning, I had two other students come in … and their attitude was a little different. They weren’t smiling about this as if it were something funny.”
The two students expressed concern over the profile and wanted to know if Boyer had heard of the incident.
Boyer checked with Dianne Hogan, Seaholm’s counseling authentic enrollment specialist, who said no one had enrolled or was in the process of enrolling at that point, which didn’t come as a surprise.
“Any time an upperclassman would enroll this far into the trimester, for certain I would know about it,” Boyer said.
Most distressing to both Boyer and Lea was the fact that at least two students gave their phone numbers to the creator of Carlisle’s profile.
“I know that some people had given her their numbers so I was concerned that she wasn’t real,” Lea said.
According to Oakland County Computer Crimes Unit Detective Sergeant Joe Brian, Lea’s concern is justifiable.
“By giving your personal phone number out, you’re opening a child up for stalking, harassment,” Brian said.
Brian said that posing as someone else, or unlawful posting of a message, is a two-year felony. Using a computer to commit a crime is a felony of two years as well.
However, he stressed that by simply making a Facebook profile, the creator of Jenny Carlisle did not do something illegal.
“I’ve got ten different [online] profiles myself right now, boys and girls,” Brian said. “That’s not against the law to do that … he or she didn’t do anything actually wrong.”
While the person behind Carlisle is still unknown, Boyer believes she (or he) does not pose an actual threat to anyone.
“For the moment, at least, I’m writing it off as a prank…but my antenna is up,” Boyer said.
The real problem, Brian said, is students’ willingness to become friends with someone online without actually knowing them in person.
“It’s more status,” Brian said. “It’s ‘I’ve got 1400 friends, you’ve got 800 friends. I’m more popular than you.’ No … you’re more friends with people on the network that don’t care.”
He added that by accepting a friend request from someone unfamiliar, a student is allowing a stranger access to their personal information.
“You’re giving them everything they need,” Brian said. “There’s no difference in that than just walking in the mall with a sign on your neck with everything on it, except that a mall’s safer because you can see what’s coming at you.”
Boyer echoed Brian’s concerns, adding that people should always be wary of computer hackers.
“I think you always have to be cautious when someone you don’t know asks for your information, because you always have to be aware of people phishing,” Boyer said.
As for the Jenny Carlisle incident, though, Boyer maintains that it was simply someone playing a prank.
“I see nothing that could be threatening or harmful, and that’s always one of my guidelines: are my students safe,” Boyer said. “I see nothing that worries me in that regard.”
For now, Boyer says, she is not looking into the situation.
Lea also remains unworried, saying that she believes the incident will simply be an amusing memory for those involved.
“It will be a class joke kind of thing, like ‘Remember that one time?’” Lea said. “I feel like this is something that happens at a lot of schools. It just hasn’t affected ours before.”
