INTERNET CAN UNVEIL FFHS POLICY VIOLATORS

Like Eden Prairie, Web Has Alerted Administration To Some
Wrong-Doing.

Days after students at Eden Prairie High School were interviewed
about suggestive photos on the social networking site Facebook,
administrators at Fergus Falls High School say they, too, share
concerns about what students post on the Internet.

In the case of the Eden Prairie students, photos on Facebook
suggested students were consuming alcohol at a party, prompting
interviews and disciplinary action on the part of administrators and
a walk-out by roughly a dozen students Thursday.

Fergus Falls High School Principal Greg Winter said local staff
simply don't have time to peruse the Internet for potential offenders.

"We do not go looking for those things, in all honesty," he said.
"But certainly if that information does come forward, as a school, we
have to investigate it."

That has happened a handful of times in the three years Detective
Kevin Sonstebo has served as the school's liaison officer. A couple
years back, Sonstebo said, online photos showed students holding cans
and bottles clearly marked as alcoholic beverages. This year, photos
on MySpace showed a Fergus Falls student smoking a marijuana pipe.

In both cases, Sonstebo said, the students' peers reported their
behavior to school officials.

"That's the main resource that we have - students looking out for
other students," he said, explaining that high schoolers may come to
staff with concerns about the health of their friends.

When an incident is reported, Sonstebo said, parents are notified and
students are referred to Jim Schaffer, high school social worker.

"We try to be as fair as possible and talk to those students," Winter
said, "but we already have procedures and consequences that are put
in place for those things that students are well aware of, especially
student athletes."

Athletes and participants in other activities under the Minnesota
State High School League are subject to the League's zero-tolerance
drug and alcohol policy year-round, Sonstebo said, recommending all
students be smart about Web use.

"They've got to understand that everything on the Internet is
available (to nearly everybody)," he said. "Those pictures are not
just their property. All somebody has to do is cut and paste them."

Winter said he thinks the school does a good job of educating
students about the consequences of poor choices on the Internet.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.