Fredericton’s St. Thomas University is weighing its legal options against a Facebook group.
The group invites students in the city’s College Hill neighbourhood to submit their so-called confessions or compliments, which are then posted anonymously for all to see.
St. Thomas University said it received an anonymous complaint about the page two weeks ago and is concerned about students being named and sexually harassed.
“There are comments on the site that would clearly violate our sexual harassment policy and would clearly violate our student code of conduct,” said Jeffrey Carleton, the university’s director of communications.
While the majority of the posts are of a complimentary nature, some have raised red flags.
Carleton said STU is consulting its legal advisors to see how the relevant laws have changed and what options the university has on the table.
The University of New Brunswick is also involved and has made contact with the Facebook group’s administrator.
Many students are aware of the site and have also expressed concerns.
“I definitely think that it makes sense that the university would look into it as each of the sites is attached to the university,” said student Lindsay Hodd. “It’s UNB Confessions or St. Thomas Confessions, it’s not Fredericton Confessions.”
“When you have an online forum where people can post anonymously, especially about people they know on a really small campus community, it’s really easy for people not to think of all the consequences of what they say,” said student Tiffany Brown.
STU isn’t sure what it will do next, but officials didn’t want to ignore the concerns of students.
“The fact that it’s on a website or Facebook site makes no difference. The fact that it may be off campus makes no difference,” Carleton said.
“Some of the people targeted are STU students and that makes it unacceptable.”
Attempts to contact the site’s administrator were unsuccessful Wednesday afternoon, but he contacted CTV News Wednesday evening to say he plans to delete the Facebook page.
With files from CTV’s Nick Moore
