Does it seem like adult warnings about internet dangers directed to teens fall on deaf ears?  Maybe if they don't engage them it's time to ask what will.  How about Dashka Slater's Accountable?

     An Albany, California teen started a private Instagram account with racist memes.  He considered it merely edgy humor.  

    His victims didn't.  They told school officials who were totally unprepared.  Things blew up.  Pretty soon you had seriously traumatized victims, the accused (the boy and his followers) facing school expulsions and criminal charges, lawsuits being filed on both sides, and a community being torn apart.  

     This real life narrative is as suspenseful as fiction.  You can tell Slater did her homework.  The characters and situations are portrayed as complicated and complex.  There are no good guys and bad guys, no DARE preaching, and none of the talking down to that teens understandably have no patience with.  Readers are treated respectively as intelligent and aware human beings.

    So provide this fine book to the teens in your life and do some active listening.  No adultsplaining PLEASE.

    This is also a must read for school administrations and boards.  Too many are still in the dangerous mindset of it couldn't happen here.  Too many are misled by higher ups.  In my school board days I went to a lawyer-led workshop where the whole focus was protecting your school from legal liability.  Any mention of actual kids was treated as completely irrelevant.

Jules Hathaway