By Carlee Keim

Sara White ‘17, was one of the first victims on the “Plainwell Poll” Twitter accounts.

“I was okay with the first one, but once they started talking about me and college it made me want to work harder,” said White.

Plainwell Polls started in late November; currently there are six accounts with varying names. Questions that followers are asked to respond to vary from who is prettier to who has a better car to other polls asking users to rate individuals on specific body parts or behaviors.

The anonymous users tweeted that if anyone found these offensive they would take it down, but others still found the tweets as a form of bullying.

Heather Pond ‘16 characterized them as, “more negative than positive.”

Elise George ‘18 thinks it will lower the self-esteem of those who are subjects of the polls.

Students, faculty, and parents all have something to say about these accounts that could potentially be a form of cyberbullying, since most of these tweets are targeting certain individuals.

“I wasn’t mad about the poll about me, it actually made me laugh that people think they have any input on my life. It shouldn’t be used as a form of bullying, I hope it’s used for the right reason. It should be for having fun, and you shouldn’t let others have an impact on you,” said Aaron Crawford ‘17.

Plainwell isn’t the only school that has polls up on twitter. Lakeview, Otsego, and Comstock all have their own.

“Otsego’s polls are really funny and it doesn’t seem to affect people in a bad way. Most people are not offended by them,” said Jared Rutkowski ‘16, Otsego High School.

“Most of it is a put-down and if they don’t have a Twitter it makes it even worse,” said Josiah Kitchen ‘16, Lakeview High School.

Local news channels have been contacted by at least one Plainwell parent, and administrators have been sending emails to students in an effort to get them to understand the possible effects of what can look funny on the surface, and to use peer influence to stop students from using the polls.

Assistant Principal Debra Burley has contacted the student body as a whole, as well as the Quiet Heroes and faculty.

“This is not who we are as a school,” said Burley.

The current situation with the accounts is that they seem to be calming down. The polls have been coming to a stop and people are winding down their comments as more progress is being made to shut down these accounts.

“I would say no to some polls because of how mean they are, I didn’t mean for it to come down to this. I deleted my account because I didn’t want to get in trouble,” said an anonymous Plainwell High School junior who was an original owner of one of the accounts.