OSHKOSH (NBC 26) — A viral video on a Russian-American YouTube channel, filmed in Carl Traeger Middle School, prompted the Oshkosh Area School District to conduct a cyberbullying investigation.
- The district had the YouTube channel take down the video.
- The video reached 3.3 million views.
- In the video, a student points out where "popular kids" and "losers" sit during lunch.
A Russian-American YouTuber posted a video of her daughter, a student at Carl Traeger Middle School, with the caption "Where do popular girls sit during lunch in US schools."
The video shows the student pointing to tables in the empty middle school cafeteria. An English voice over asks the student to point out where popular kids and "losers" sit during lunch, and the student points to different sections of the cafeteria.
The school district received a complaint from a community member, who said the video was cyberbullying.
"The Oshkosh Area School District investigated a social media video filmed at Carl Traeger Middle School," the district said in a statement to NBC26. "Our review confirmed the footage was filmed by a parent in an empty cafeteria after the school day during Parent-Teacher Conferences; no other students or staff were present or recorded. The language used in the video does not align with our values, and we do not condone labeling or language that disrespects others. We have reinforced our policies regarding the use of school facilities and digital privacy to ensure a positive environment for all. Our priority remains the well-being of our students and ensuring our schools remain protected spaces for learning where every child feels respected, welcome, and safe."
The principal at Carl Traeger sent a letter to parents about the investigation on Tuesday.
"We have spoken with the family regarding the video. While the content was described as a staged scene of a cultural observation, we have made it clear that the language used to label or put others down is not acceptable and does not reflect the values of our school community," the principal said in the letter.
Watch the broadcast story here:
The channel, @americatok, has 3.1 million subscribers. Most of the videos describe life as a Russian-American immigrant family.
Most of the captions, titles and comments are in Russian.
“The video referenced in this story has already been removed," the youtuber said in a statement to NBC26. "The school district reviewed the matter and issued an official communication indicating that the situation has been addressed and that no violations were identified by the school. Our priority is our child’s well-being, and we appreciate the school’s efforts to support students and families. We do not believe further commentary on this matter is necessary at this time."
Dr. Megan Moreno is a pediatrician an adolescent medicine physician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Much of her career and research has centered around teen relationships with social media and technology.
"Cyber bullying is a really common form of bullying," she says. "Bullying includes an element of repetition. It's not one encounter– it's that you're having multiple negative encounters. Usually those encounters involve harassment or they can involve physical contact or physical harm, but they they do impact emotional harm in almost all cases. And so, cyberbullying is a little bit different, because all of that is happening online. So the repetition may be that only one thing happened, but it went viral."
Dr. Moreno says there was a decline in bullying and cyberbullying during the pandemic, but that now it is rising to pre-pandemic levels again.
"We know that for some kids, this experience can have a profound impact on their health," she says.
Dr. Moreno says having a clear anti-bullying policy in schools can help prevent bullying from happening.
"Some of the research has suggested that schools that openly talk about bullying, that openly share that they have a policy to protect against bullying, schools that really lean into using a bullying event as an educational opportunity, and setting that culture where bullying is not going to be part of what they do, those are all ingredients that can help a school really be a place where bullying is limited or doesn't happen," she says.
Dr. Moreno is speaking at a community session in Oshkosh on Thursday, Jan. 22 called "Helping Youth Thrive in a Digital World."
The event is hosted by the Women's Fund of Oshkosh, the Oshkosh Community Foundation and UW Oshkosh. It is part of the six-month Smart Social Project campaign, which will host a variety of events focused around creating healthy experiences with social media and technology.
Thursday's session will be held at the Oshkosh Marriot Waterfront Hotel from 8 - 9:15 a.m.
More information on the campaign can be found here.
