Two students at a Toronto high school have been suspended for posting derogatory comments about teachers on a popular social networking website, CTV News has learned.
The Toronto District School Board describes the teenagers' passages on Facebook.com as "cyber bullying," for which it was a zero-tolerance policy.
"We have to focus on character development and reminding our students about what is appropriate and what is not," said Superintendent Anne Kerr.
"We are in the business of running safe and caring schools and safe and caring learning environments."
The school board says more suspensions could come from the incident at Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in Scarborough.
Officials aren't identifying the disciplined students or what they wrote.
Some students told CTV News the comments were aimed at the principal and school staff.
"If they delete one, there's just going to be another one that pops up that's going to be pretty much the same thing," said one student.
"I think (the school) should have a program here to filter out what's happening on these websites because a lot of people are getting in trouble for this and it's hurting a lot of people," said another."
Nineteen students at a Toronto-area high school were suspended last month in a similar incident.
The teenagers at Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School in Caledon East were accused of posting vulgar and obscene passages on Facebook.com about the school principal.
The students blamed the principal for a recent ban on personal electronic devices, such as cellphones and iPods, despite the restriction being part of a board-wide policy.
Cathy Wing of the Media Awareness Network said online bullying and intimidation is a growing issue, but officials are unsure how to tackle the problem.
"This is a really challenging thing," she said. "Most of these activities are happening off school property, but they are impacting a great deal in the classroom."
With a report from CTV's John Musselman
