OXFORD – A former Oxford Academy student has been arrested for allegedly creating a fake Facebook account that impersonated a local high school employee, on which he posted controversial remarks and other materials in the victim’s name.
The Village of Oxford Police Department arrested Johnathan Corbett, 19, on Friday and charged him with two misdemeanors – second degree criminal impersonation and second degree aggravated harassment.
Police Chief Richard Nolan said Corbett created a Facebook account under the name of a male Oxford school employee and began posting remarks on the site as if he were that person.
“After reviewing the defendant’s statements, I don’t think we can say the victim was targeted for a personal vendetta. Basically the defendant said he did it more because he thought it would be ‘cool,’ funny and get attention from his peers,” said Nolan.
Superintendent Randy Squier said Internet intimidation and bullying are not uncommon in today’s younger and more technology savvy generations.
“It’s an issue that occurs in Oxford and schools all over the country. There have been several incidents involving social networking sites, but this is not a typical incident,” he said.
Squier said teachers had already been discussing the issue of cyber-bullying with students in class and that the district had programs in place aimed at informing teens of the potential consequences, both legal and emotional.
“We’ve provided workshops for parents too, to help teach them how to monitor inappropriate activity on their home computers,” said Squier.
Nolan said police were called by the district over the Facebook page in February. Police contacted Facebook and had the profile removed, but had to wait before arresting Corbett because he was away at college in a different state.
Nolan said Corbett was posting statements on the site that threatened the employee’s job and reputation. “He was on the site posing as the victim and saying things like ‘I like this, I don’t like that’ and so on,” explained Nolan, who declined to detail the remarks. “They were not good things.”
Nolan said within a few days after the account was created, school administrators approached the teacher over the information posted on Facebook because they thought it was inappropriate.
The victim then told administrators he had no idea what they were talking about, and the district called police.
Nolan said police were able to track down the profile’s creator with the help of Facebook officials.
Squier said the targeted employee is popular in the district among both staff and students and had no explanation as to why he was targeted.
“We try to educate our students on the hazards of engaging in this kind of activity while they’re in school because when they do turn 18 and you carry on this level of unacceptable behavior, you’re going to have trouble with the police,” he said.
“Even after making an arrest in this kind of case, there is no way to account for all the people who viewed the site under the impression it was genuine and all the potential damage it may do to a victim’s personal life,” said Nolan. “Just imagine how you might feel if you were violated like this. It’s completely unacceptable.”