Student government members at BTHS received an email saying a construction accident caused school to be closed the following day. From there, the message spread rapidly across social networks. Problem was there had been no accident, and the email, while appearing to come from an official school address, was a gag, which the student newspaper subsequently reported later that evening.
"This looked believable, but it could not be corroborated from an official source," says Kevin Jarrett. That's critical, he says, and goes to the cornerstone of any lesson on Internet safety for students-make sure to know where information is coming from by developing a healthy skepticism. But administrators also need to learn how easily these kinds of pranks can be generated."