Turns out social media, romantic relationships, and mortuary science don’t mix.
A student at the University of Minnesota, smarting from recently getting dumped, wrote on Facebook that she wanted to stab her former man in the throat with a trocar, a tool used to drain dead bodies. When she showed up at mortuary-science class on December 14, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, campus police officers questioned her about the post and banned her from campus while they investigated. The police had heard about the posting from an instructor in the mortuary-science class. The student, Amanda Tatro, was allowed to return later that week, after missing two finals.
Ms. Tatro wrote on Facebook that she was “looking forward to Monday’s embalming therapy. … Give me room, lots of aggression to be taken out with a trocar,” and “I still want to stab a certain someone in the throat with a trocar.”
Tracy Mitrano, director of information-technology policy and the computer-policy and -law program at Cornell University, said it was appropriate for the university to investigate
“It doesn’t surprise me that school officials, at the very least, wanted to talk with her about that posting,” she said. “If people in this day and age do not understand they are making their private thoughts and feelings public [on the Internet], I suppose we need cases like this to remind us of that fact.”
4 Responses to ‘I Still Want to Stab a Certain Someone,’ and Other Ideas Not to Post on Facebook
daaroncc - January 4, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Good for them. If they hadn’t and she had stabbed someone, they would be assailed for having ignored such an obvious cry for help.
11272784 - January 4, 2010 at 6:02 pm
As the genius Forrest Gum said, “Stupid is as stupid does, sir.”Good for the campus folks for jumping on this and checking it out!
siguccs - January 17, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Just because it’s on facebook doesn’t make an off-handed remark more dangerous. If anything, less so, since there’s a semi-permanent record of it. This is how we get to a police state.
davidvictor - February 1, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Lot’s of people are getting themselves into trouble with social networking sites. The stuff posted is nowhere near private and can come back to haunt you in the future. It won’t be long before candidates pictures from Facebook are being discussed during a presidential election. Think people before you do thinks!