NHS And Brookfield High School Combine Efforts

To Combat Online Predators

By Eliza Hallabeck

Newtown High School and Brookfield High School students have been combining efforts to create a presentation for middle school aged students on the danger of online predators. On Tuesday, January 12, the students met after school at NHS for their weekly meeting.

A grant distributed through Education Connection, a regional service center that promotes success of school districts and communities in western Connecticut, sponsors the program.

The two local efforts came together when Education Connection sent out an email to schools describing the grant and the project, according to NHS computer technology teacher Kristin Violette, who oversees the project for Newtown.

Susan Troupe, school-to-career coordinator and overseer for the Brookfield High School effort, said the students are learning a lot from the project.

A core group of eight NHS students — Tim Arnone, Abigail Johnson, Craig Frigon, J. Stevens, Maggie Hoolehan, Megan Rockwell, KellyAnne Brophy, and Rica Hutchison — along with the seven students from Brookfield — Jackson Camp, Rachel Deutsch, James Dillon, Justin DoBosh, Jenna Kline, Allison Malek and Leanna Pizzo — have been meeting to create a website and presentation targeted at eighth through tenth grade students to inform them about online predators.

“They have a lot to present,” said Ms Troupe. “One of the things the police officers, the FBI, and the attorney general’s office have told us is that the audience the students are going to talk to will believe it more when they hear it from other students rather than adults.”

Ms Troupe said she thought it was a good idea when she heard about it, and she posted announcements along the walls of the schools for students to participate in the group.

“It is very scary when you think about it,” said Ms Troupe. “It is scary for both parents and students. They are growing up at a time where there are situations that we did not have to deal with. I think it is very important to be aware and for them to know what they can do to help themselves prevent problems.”

Education Connection representative Kali Rohr said the students are doing a nice job on the presentation, and added that Education Connection is proud of the students’ efforts.

Ms Violette said the Newtown and Brookfield students meeting once every week for two-hour sessions.

“This is a pervasive topic,” said Ms Violette, adding it is nice to see the effort being brought into schools.

Once the presentation is completed, the students will present their work to 5,000 eighth through tenth grade students in the region, and could possibly present in Newtown, according to Ms Rohr.

Detective Ron Blanchard, with the Naugatuck Police Department, was present for a recent meeting of the group to share information about sexual predators online. He said he investigates sexual predators in Naugatuck, and on Tuesday he shared information on how predators “groom” their potential victims.

“We’ve been doing this for four years now, sexual predator investigations,” said Detective Blanchard. “We’ve arrested 42 guys so far.”

He added no women have been arrested yet in Naugatuck. Online predators, Detective Blanchard said, try to make their potential victims feel like they are best friends.

“You have to keep all your profiles on social networking sites to the bare minimum,” said Detective Blanchard. He also said a good tip for students to remember is to keep screen names generic, without a specific name in them.

Newtown High School student KellyAnne Brophy and Brookfield students Leanna Pizzo and Jenna Kline worked together on the presentation during Tuesday’s meeting.

“I never realized it was such a big problem,” said Jenna. “I heard stories about it, and when the topic came up, I was interested in helping to get awareness out to the community. So many people are getting Facebook accounts these days, and they don’t realize [the potential problems].”

Leanna said as older role models for middle school students, the audience will connect with them easier than they would to teachers.

“It is stuff that happens everyday, too,” said KellyAnne. “So it is something they can easily connect to, and it is stuff they will become more aware about. They will go home, go on Facebook, and remember, ‘Oh my god I remember that presentation and that screen they showed on Facebook.’”

Across the room, other students worked to create a website for the group that will further the presentation and permanently inform its visitors about the dangers of online sexual predators. Craig Frigon is currently taking a web design course with Ms Violette, and said that led to creating the website.

Brookfield student Justin Dobosh said he is adding his personal story to the website.

“Lots of people take it as a joke,” said Justin. “Even I thought that and last year it happened to me.”

Justin said his experience being victimized by an online predator made him want to help more people. While the man who victimized Justin was never caught, he said he wants to make sure other students are aware of the danger.

“Just be aware of who you are talking to,” Justin said. “If they say they are a friend of a friend, you have to use common sense.”

He said to pay attention and listen to what other people are saying when talking to them online, and be careful what information is posted to social media accounts.

NHS student J. Stevens worked on Tuesday to type up Justin’s story for the website. He said he at first thought the topic was not a big deal, because it had never happened to him.

“I was online,” J. said, explaining how the topic became important to him, “and someone sent me a photo of this one girl. She was not nude or anything, but she was pretty close. It could have been a picture sent to a boyfriend or something. I actually knew her from the school I used to go to. I called her up about it, and she started crying on the phone. She regretted it. She knew it was online now, and she couldn’t do anything about it.”

After that, J. said he took online privacy seriously.

“This stuff is serious, you know?” J. said. “It sounds like it would never happen to you, but considering how many people it actually does happen to all over the world, hundreds of thousands of kids like every year globally. It is something you have to look out for, have to play it safe.”