After the district’s warning about unofficial school-related social media accounts, students have mixed feelings about how the school is attempting to get rid of these accounts.

“I was just kind of like, ‘They made everything worse,’” Junior Robyn Shepard said.

EMSISD Safety and Security Director Charles Ramirez sent an email on Dec. 7 warning parents and students that the anonymous accounts likely violate the Student Code of Conduct, or in some cases, copyright or harassment laws.

“Creating accounts like these is a serious offense that can have considerable consequences,” Ramirez wrote. “Cybercrime investigators are actively working to identify the creators of these accounts.”

Shepard said she thought the district’s letter felt heavy-handed.

“They could have just made an announcement in the mornings,” Shepard said. “Try to solve it that way instead of making it seem like they were coming for the kids who started it, because they were probably sophomores just messing around.”

While the topics of the accounts range from bad parking to “shade rooms,” Ramirez said the accounts are “designed to humiliate or make fun of others.”

While many accounts are seen as innocent, senior Zoe Schultz said others make students uncomfortable.

“It’s just uncomfortable seeing people that I know being posted on them,” Schultz said. “There’s ones that are calling my friends out for the way they dress or the way they act around people. Then they feel bad, and then I feel bad for them, and it’s all a big mess.”

Since the district’s crackdown, several account owners have them and or made them private.

“I know a lot of them were like deleted,” Shepard said. “(One account) has started covering up license plates and being like, ‘If you want your picture deleted just DM me,’ because they’re kind of afraid of getting suspended and stuff like that.”

However, Schultz said she hadn’t noticed any changes or disciplinary actions.

“I didn’t see anything about them dealing with it,” Schultz said. “I heard that they were just reporting the accounts, but that doesn’t really do anything because you need a lot more reports than just a few to get an account taken down.”