Shalom College students involved in rating games prior to student suicide

The principal of a school attended by a 14-year-old who took her own life has unleashed at social media giants after revelations her former classmates had accounts to rate and slur their peers.

Former Shalom Catholic College student Isla Marschke took her own life last week.

The principal of a school attended by a 14-year-old girl who took her own life last week after online bullying has told how requests to social media companies to remove posts harming students are “futile”.

“We are often left to deal with young people who are damaged by the words and actions of others – who may be local or they may be acting from thousands of miles away,” Shalom Catholic College Principal Dan McMahon said.

Mr McMahon lashed out at social media behemoths saying platforms were riddled with posts targeting students but it was close to impossible to convince them to take them down.

“Asking TikTok to remove negative content seems to be completely futile.

“Social Media platforms make it very difficult to remove content – you’ve got to love those who just love ‘free speech’ and get horrified that anyone should impinge upon the rights of trolls and others to spew hate and disinformation,” he said.

“Some social media ventures seem to think that ‘free speech’ outweighs the trauma inflicted on innocent victims of people who want to spew hate and disrespect on others.”

Shalom Catholic College in Bundaberg was rocked last week by the death of student Isla Marschke who tragically took her own life on Tuesday after years of online torment and mental health struggles.

In the wake of her death, an array of online campaigns rating and ranking female students at the school has been uncovered.

Accounts rating the “finest” students appear throughout TikTok. Picture: TikTok

Mr McMahon said the school was aware young people used social media as a tool for “personal and social gratification”.

“This is evident in posts/groups/pages that potentially draw out rating and comparison,” he said.

“When they have been reported to us, we investigate them thoroughly and follow the online procedures to have them removed, if the creator cannot be identified.”

He said in cases where the poster could be identified, the school could work with them for “both reprimand and restoration”.

However other times the school relied on take-down requests to social media giants which were often received with “a glacial response”.

“With Social Media companies, some respond positively if we can harness enough people to register an objection to a post, it might eventually get deleted. That is a lot of work and sometimes, not effective.

However he said it was difficult for schools to respond to the issues if no one reported them.

It comes as a Courier-Mail investigation reveals former classmates of Isla had used social media accounts to rate and slur their peers.

Some had posted on social media pages used to “rate” their peers in the months leading to the tragic death.

Accounts that play guessing games can accidentally describe the subject in a derogatory way. Picture: TikTok

Some of the posts seen on an account dedicated to showcasing “cuties” at the school posted nine videos, highlighting the “hottest” students.

A TikTok account belonging to a student also featured a video with the hashtag “#fakeeverything” and “#fakebody”.

Just a few weeks earlier, the student uploaded a photo of themselves appearing to suck in their stomach as they stared into a mirror.

Students from the college have asked people to rate them on a scale of one to ten. Picture: TikTok

In June, an account named “Shalom’s Finest” reported a dancing video uploaded by students at the school, while earlier this year, videos with the “hottest” students at the school were uploaded, asking viewers to tag the people featured on the account.

A 2023 account uploaded the “finest” and the “hottest” girls by taking screenshots of their TikTok accounts.

Another 2023 account described a student as someone that thinks they are an “eshay” while a another tagged the “finest Shalom girls”.

The posts were met with fury from some students, including Isla’s friends.

Shortly before the teen took her life, one of her friends uploaded a series of photos with the caption, “don’t be the reason someone hates the way they look”.

Accounts rating students can be extremely harmful. Picture: TikTok

Mr McMahon said the problem plagued schools across the state.

“All schools face the difficulties placed upon us through social media and poor choices made by all stakeholders in any one particular community, this includes the parents, local media and community members who are all, at times, irresponsible in their public commentary of issues.

“You can ask TikTok to remove negativity, it will then turn up somewhere else.

One ‘guess who’ account describes a person as an “eshay.” Picture: TikTok

“We work enormously hard to create a culture here where students arrive at school every day and can have an expectation that they will be treated respectfully – by everyone,” he said.

Two months ago, The Courier-Mail uncovered more than 60 schools implicated in a student rating scandal on TikTok, with experts speaking out against teenagers accessing social media.

Queensland neuroscientist Selena Bartlett said adolescent brains are only starting to develop in their early teens, and it’s impossible for preteens and teenagers to truly comprehend the danger of what they are uploading to social media.

“Adolescent brains are already crazy because of hormonal changes,” she said.

“The reason things are much worse in 2024 compared to 2023 is because the nature of AI and recommendation systems, will feed a bubble of information that is the same.”

Students have uploaded content showing inappropriate poses, tagging the videos with #fakebody. Picture: TikTok

Some ‘guess who’ accounts are viewed by thousands of people on social media. Picture: TikTok

Originally published as Shalom College students involved in rating games prior to student suicide