Mount Si students get eye-opener to social media laws

BY CAROL LADWIGStaff Reporter

There’s no changing your mind in cyberspace. Stefanie Thomas thinks anyone who posts online should keep that in mind.

In other words, once you post something on a social media site, it’s out there in the public eye for good. Or for bad.

“When you post a photo online, you’re giving up ownership of that photo,” Thomas told students at Mount Si High School last week as part of a PTSA-sponsored event. “You don’t know where that photo is being used, or in what context.”

Thomas, a victims’ advocate with the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes group, spoke to stu-dents and adults throughout the day Monday, Nov. 8, about many of the big social media concerns related to juveniles. She received a positive response from most who saw her.

“We feel that it was very success-ful,” said Principal Randy Taylor, who scheduled Thomas’ presentation.

The school initiated the discus-sions after an upsetting incident last year with websites put up in memory of a Mount Si student who commit-ted suicide, Taylor said.

“We felt that we needed to provide more training for our students, and our parents,” he said.

Thomas had given a similar pre-

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Police warn teens of cyberspace dangers

Fast on his feet

Seth Truscott/Staff Photo

Jake Sanden, 4, of North Bend, paces mom Maria in the final stretch of the Snoqualmie Ridge Turkey Trot children’s run. The one-kilometer race was Jake’s third organized run. “He actually trains for it,” said Maria, who runs triathlons and wants to get her son interested in healthy activities. More than 1,400 people took part in the third annual Turkey Trot, its biggest turnout yet.

A small bomb exploded in the 1300 block of North Bend Way just before 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, but it caused no injuries or property damage.

According to the report from the King County Sheriff ’s Office, someone threw the explosive device out the window of a mov-ing truck. The vehicle used is reported to be a 1990s-era pickup truck.

Sgt. John Urquhart, a spokesman with the King County Sheriff ’s Office, said there was not enough left of the bomb to deter-mine how it was made, and there were no suspects and no leads to follow up for an investigation. Although there was no damage from the explosion, he said the incident is troubling.

Pipe bombs “can go off when you least expect them to,” Urquhart said.

Anyone with tips that could help the investiga-tion can call the Sheriff ’s Office at (206) 296-3311.

Pipe bomb explodes in North

Bend

Lost man found near

Valley Lake

BY SETH TRUSCOTTEditor

Snoqualmie police have found the Clyde Hill man who vanished Monday, Nov. 8, after a visit to Mount Si Golf Course.

Now, investigators are trying to learn why 64-year-old Wayne Lee Singleton disappeared for four days.

Singleton reappeared Thursday afternoon, Nov. 11, in North Bend, several miles and one city away from where officers found his car.

At 1 p.m. Thursday, Singleton phoned his wife, asking that she pick him up near Rattlesnake Lake. He was found on Cedar Falls Road by Snoqualmie police, then taken to Snoqualmie Valley Hospital for an eval-uation. Afterwards, he was

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New Carnation flag flies with help from clubs

Courtesy Photo

The city of Carnation celebrated the dedication of the new city flagpole on Saturday, Nov. 6. Carnation mayor Lee Gruman kicked off the celebration, followed by Carlos Aragon, President of the Rotary Club of Duvall and John Firth, Commander of the American Legion Post 199, Carnation, who spoke. Boy Scout Troop 411, under the leadership of Jasha Droppo, and the associated Girl Scout Troop under the leadership of Marilyn Loftus, had the privilege of raising the flag on the new flagpole for the first time. It was a rainy day, yet there was a good-sized crowd to witness the ceremony. The flag pole was donated to the city by the combined efforts of the Rotary Club of Duvall and American Legion Post 199. The all-weather flag will be illuminated at night so it can fly 24 hours a day.

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sentation at a district middle school the previous year, and because of her background, Taylor wanted to bring her to the high school. She is 25 years old, close to the students’ age, he noted, and has posed as a 14 year-old online to catch Internet predators. She is as Web-literate as the students, and she uses technology to send the message, Taylor said.

Liz Piekarczyk, co-president of the Mount Si PTSA, thought students received the message better because it came from Thomas, who was more like a peer than a parent.

Thomas covered cyber-bul-lying, FaceBook and sexting—sending sexually explicit or suggestive messages and pho-tos online—with parents and students, but focused on dif-ferent aspects of online safety for each group.

“With the kids, I think it’s about getting them to think ahead,” she said. “They can’t anticipate the future con-sequences of their actions, because the future seems so far away to them.”

The consequences range from emotional damage and lost reputations, all the way up to violent crimes and criminal charges.

“One in four kids are vic-timized online,” Thomas said, and 30 percent of high school students have met in-person someone that they first met online. She shocked students

and parents alike with the facts about sexting, that sending or possessing a photograph showing partial to full nudity of anyone under 18 years old is a felony, and those found guilty—even if the photograph is of themselves, their boy-friend or girlfriend—will have to register as sex offenders for the next 25 years.

To Piekarczyk, that’s over-kill.

“Some of these kids who are sexting have absolutely no idea what they’re doing, and to have legal implications on top of the social implications... it’s like killing a fly with a ham-mer,” she said.

Piekarczyk says she’s always paid attention to what her chil-dren do online, with parental controls and periodic browser history checks, but she became concerned about the safety issue after the incident with the student’s memorial web-site.

“That was ‘trolling,’” she said, “and I had no idea that there are people out there who look for sites to post things just to be mean.”

She was happy to help facilitate the presentations when Principal Taylor approached the PTSA about it. Although she hasn’t seen evidence of a problem in this community with cyber-bullying and the like, she suspects it could become a problem now, or soon. It

surprised her that many par-ents didn’t know their chil-dren were involved in such activity, she said, adding that the list of signs Thomas gave them, such as changes in relationships, or being upset after getting off the Internet, were invaluable.

By the end of Thomas’ presentations, everyone had learned something. In one exercise, Thomas reviewed a person’s FaceBook website for potential risks. Then she asked how many students had FaceBooks sites.

“Most of them raised their hands,” she said. Next, she asked if anyone was willing to have their website reviewed in front of the group, she said, and “Every single hand went down.” Afterward, she heard many students comment on needing to update their FaceBook pages.

In addition to her first tip, Thomas thinks all social media users, especially chil-dren, should remember these things:

• Nothing you post is ever anonymous.

• If you don’t know a FaceBook friend in real life, you don’t know them.

• Always think about your reputation before you post something.

• And finally, “The Internet is a public space, so you bet-ter assume that the public is seeing it.”

taken to Mercer Island to speak to investigators about his disappearance, then went home.

Snoqualmie Police spokes-woman Becky Munson said Singleton is cooperating with detectives, and that the inves-tigation is in progress.

Singleton was reported missing on Tuesday, Nov. 9, after he failed to return home from a golf game the previous day. He had last been seen

eating lunch at the Mount Si course restaurant. North Bend police found his car, a Mercedes S-550, parked near the course.

Snoqualmie Police, King County Search and Rescue and detectives from the Major Crimes Task Force, a coalition of county and city police agen-cies, launched a search in the vicinity of the course, which includes marshy woodlands adjacent to the Snoqualmie

River. Police dogs and a heli-copter were called to the scene, but failed to find him.

When he was found, Singleton appeared healthy and little worse for wear, police said.

Singleton requires blood pressure medication daily.

Mount Si Golf Course staff said Singleton usually plays at the course a few times a year.

Clyde Hill is located near Bellevue.