A social media post about a student who was bullied and seriously injured causes outrage in Wilson County.
Now many are left wondering what's true and what's not, and school district officials are trying to clarify.
The post refers to an alleged incident that occurred at Lebanon High School last week. It said a “freshman student with disabilities was found severely injured in the hallway.” The post said the student had been bullied and was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and was in critical condition.
The post showed up on the Hip Mt. Juliet and Hip Lebanon Facebook pages, and received a large amount of comments. The majority of the comments expressed concern about the situation and wanted more details. Both posts were removed Friday.
Jennifer Johnson, the Communications Director for Wilson County Schools, said the incident described in the post never happened.
“Naturally, I was concerned and I wanted to find out what was at the bottom of all that,” said Johnson. “It turns out, none of it is true.”
Wilson County Schools responded with a Facebook post that called the information "fake news." It said to be clear-- NO students in our system have been severely beaten and/or hospitalized."
Johnson said there was a “minor scuffle” recently between two students at Lebanon High School, and one is disabled. She said no one was injured and no one was taken to the hospital.
Johnson warned parents and students to be cautious about what they read online.
“I would just encourage people to take a closer look at where you are getting your news,” said Johnson. “Don’t just pick it up off Facebook or other social media sites. That is where the fake news is coming from.”
Johnson said she would continue to reply to posts and comments online in an effort to clarify the situation.
