Scandal in the 6

This past month’s story involving six students from an all boys high school assaulting two fellow classmates, has been the talk of the town on social media. St. Michael’s College School is one of the most prestigious high schools in all of Canada. If you are not to up to date with this news story, here is a recap:

Was the bullying inspired by 13 Reasons Why?

The details are certainly disturbing. While hazing and bullying are nothing new to adolescents, could it have been inspired from programming seen online?

Netflix’s controversial show 13 Reasons Why, takes a look at teenage pressure such as sexual, alcohol and drug abuse. It is quite possible that what happened at St. Mike’s could have been inspired from the hazing that character Tyler Down endured on the show:

What to do now?

It’s a terrible thing to see our youth emulate what they see on their devices.  I think bullying in general is never going to go away and with a medium like social media, we can react fast and raise attention.  In this case, the videos were briefly circulating on Instagram and it was a matter of time before the authorities got involved.

As for the school turning a blind eye originally, shame on them.  It took local news outlets to expose them for not paying attention to the school culture that goes within their hallways.  What they thought that was happening was just a small level of teasing, has now turned into a sexual assault case, with six students aged 15-17 being expelled for good.