Victoria Mitchell, 17, a student at Baltimore City College, watched the footage of the student beating the Reginald F. Lewis teacher. Though the attention these videos bring is undeniable, she said it's not the sort of fame she wants for herself.
"It might make you popular, but that person is actually getting hurt," she said. "That's not cool attention."
When Pam Riley, the executive director of Students Against Violence Everywhere sees such videos, she's particularly disturbed by the apparent lack of remorse. While being arrested, one of the suspects in the Florida beating asked if she'd still make cheerleading practice.
"In general, it's a reflection of our society's loss of civility," she said. "Not only was this individual disrespected, physically abused and humiliated, but the posting makes them feel like the entire world is seeing them in that compromising situation. How do we make that worldwide audience aware of the consequences?"
Aftab's plan involves grooming a "cyber-army" that would do nothing but troll the Internet, find offending material and force sites to remove it. Sites like YouTube do not police themselves; they rely on viewers to flag objectionable content.
"They're making money," she said. "Every time they post a fight video, they get more eyeballs. If there's a fight video, it's lots of money for [Rupert] Murdoch," she said, referring to the media mogul who owns the file-sharing site.
If the sites won't post the material, Aftab says, the kids will stop making it. Or at least she hopes so.
"We need to turn around as a community and say enough," she said. "Or somebody's going to get killed."
jill.rosen@baltsun.com
Sun reporter Sam Sessa contributed to this article.
