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Apr 12, 2006 10:00 pm US/Central
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Police: Students Faked Teacher's MySpace Page
Coon Rapids, Minn. (AP) ―
Investigators believe they know who created a fake page on MySpace.com that was meant to damage the reputation of a Coon Rapids Middle School teacher, authorities said Wednesday.
The bogus page included child pornography and disparaging references to the teacher's Jewish heritage, so the creator could face child pornography and bias crime charges, said Capt. Rob Bredsten of the Anoka County Sheriff's Office.
"We have a good idea of who at least one suspect is, but we're in the process of executing a search warrant today even as we speak," Bredsten said. He said they didn't know yet if anyone else was involved.
Detectives believe the person had some kind of grudge against the teacher, Bredsten said. He declined to say whether the suspect was a student or an adult, or specify the nature of their relationship, because of the ongoing investigation.
"They are certainly acquainted," he said.
MySpace is a social networking Web site with about 70 million members and is one of the most popular places on the Internet. Fake MySpace profiles have been used before to threaten classmates and to mock at least one school principal. Many schools, including Coon Rapids public schools, block access to it from their computers. While MySpace forbids anyone 13 and under from joining, anyone can lie about their age when they sign up.
Bredsten and the principal at Coon Rapids Middle School, Michelle Langenfeld, declined to name the teacher. Langenfeld said school administrators learned of the site from students and went to police.
"When we first got the case, we didn't believe it was him," he said. "We thought it was a set-up."
Bredsten said investigators are moving quickly because of the potential harm to the teacher's reputation. He said the teacher reported receiving critical e-mails from people who thought the site was genuine.
"He's innocent, and it's caused him, obviously, some harm to his reputation. It's created some consternation for him, no doubt about it," Bredsten said.
School officials didn't say anything publicly until this week because police asked them not do, the principal said. She added she was preparing a letter to send home with students when they return from spring break Monday discussing the potential dangers of sites like MySpace, and what parents can do to police their children's Internet use at home.
"The opportunity for this to happen again and the likelihood of it happening again is great, unless we take some very strong stances in terms of addressing it proactively," Langenfeld said.
Langenfeld said there's no way the fake page could have been created or viewed from a school computer since her school blocks all access to MySpace.
Brett Johnson of the Anoka-Hennepin School District agreed, saying any kind of harassment would have had to come from a private home.
The posting had pictures, so if there are charges, the persons involved could be charged with not only harassment, but possession of child pornography. The teacher also contacted police because he want to press charges, according to officials.
MySpace spokesman Matthew Grossman said the company doesn't talk about specific cases, but that it works extensively with law enforcement agencies. MySpace announced on Tuesday that it had hired a former federal prosecutor away from Microsoft to be chief security officer and oversee its safety, privacy and law enforcement programs.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)