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The not-so-hidden lives of PTC teensTue, 11/06/2007 - 6:10pm
By: The Citizen
Some McIntosh students boast of guns and drugs on MySpace pages 
Photos above are taken directly from publicly viewable MySpace pages and depict several teenagers who say on their postings that they are McIntosh High School students. Faces are intentionally blurred by The Citizen to prevent specific identification of the minors. Graphics/Crissi Holzmann.
A week after two girls, 15 and 16, were arrested for posting Internet threats to shoot up McIntosh High School, some MHS students are flaunting drug use, underage drinking and gunplay on their MySpace pages, according to a review of the website conducted by The Citizen. MySpace is used by teens across the country as a way to converse with friends and fellow students. Users can post their own blog (think “diary”), post messages on their friends’ MySpace sites and share their current moods, among many other features. Some MySpace sites found by The Citizen show images of a confirmed McIntosh student holding guns. Another MHS student belongs to two different MySpace groups that have the following photos on their galleries: One photo shows two teens with guns pointed at the camera, and the other photo shows a student pointing a gun at his head, although he claims on his MySpace page that it’s not a real gun. Some may consider the images and postings a matter of teenage boasting to enhance one’s image among fellow students. Or they just may be a real-life peek into the culture of teenage drug and alcohol abuse. All of the pages discovered by The Citizen were set to “public,” which means they are published for all the world to see. MySpace users can set their profiles, photos and other features to private, which keeps them hidden from view except to their “friends” on the site. One MySpace profile features a 17-year-old McIntosh student holding a gun while wearing a hooded shirt with a bandana covering her mouth. The caption below the photo reads, “got dat 480 Ruger...(expletive removed) bigga den me!!!” The next photo on the page is of a girl’s hand holding a different gun with the caption, “.40 auto, yup dat attitude adjusta!!!” The user, who goes by the handle “6a6y C” and refers to herself as “Courtney aka Miss. WynnMeade,” has also uploaded a photo of a partially-empty bottle of liquor as well as numerous photos of herself in provocative poses, some in which she is wearing very little clothing. The teen’s profile refers to getting “tipsy” and her profile’s featured song is “Weed Song” by rap group Bone Thugs. The site also allows for users to indicate their mood, and the teen’s mood altered from “high” to “lonely” over the period of a couple of days. The 17-year-old’s mother is listed as her “Top Friend,” indicating that the mother not only knows about her daughter’s MySpace profile, but has seen it, based on comments the girl’s mom made on her daughter’s page on several occasions. The teen’s sister also has a profile on MySpace, and in a comment the McIntosh student posted to her older sister’s profile on Dec. 14 of last year, she said about someone they both know, “she is buying us like all the blacks and cigs and alcohol we want!” Another of the 17-year-old’s MySpace friends, “ENDO (M.O.E.),” has a site replete with images, videos and references to marijuana. The user, a 17-year-old male from Peachtree City, lists himself as a student at McIntosh High School involved in both wrestling and football. Statements on the teen’s profile indicate that he may currently be jailed as comments by various other users include statements such as, “ima break you out some how, you my bro man..... hang in ther brotha man” and “i miss yew cuzo!!!...FREE NORM!!!” which were left on Nov. 3 and Nov. 5, respectively. That same teen is also a member of several groups on MySpace, including one called “thugs of p-town.” One of the group’s photos is of two males holding guns aimed at the camera. Another group the teen is affiliated with is “Peachtree City Sucks” in which the group moderator’s profile picture shows him holding a gun to his head, a gun he refers to on his own page as “not a real gun.” Other groups the teen is a member of include “Happenin weed,” “Lets Get Drunk,” and “PTC Fight Club.” The teen’s profile picture is of him and a friend holding up two bottles of liquor. In another case of a Peachtree City teen touting underage drinking on MySpace, a 16-year-old female with the site handle “kay.” is pictured in her profile image holding a bottle of Jack Daniels Downhome Punch, a drink which contains 7 percent alcohol by volume. Under the girl’s “About me” section of her profile, another image, which seems to have been taken about the same time, shows the girl drinking the alcohol. A caption under the image reads, “Summer ‘07. Live it up. Drink it down.” The teen’s profile also states, “down for a blunt or two? or three? or maybe eleventeen.” Blunt is slang for a marijuana cigarette. The profile belonging to a 17-year-old McIntosh High School student with the handle “Goelz” refers to his weakness for tequila. In response to a survey’s question which asked if he had consumed alcohol in the past month, the boy responded, “yes.” A 16-year-old male from Peachtree City goes by the handle “I Stay High” and lists his mood as “high.” Adding to the effect is the teen’s profile song, “Stay High” by Young Gutta. The teen’s profile features several images of singer, and notorious marijuana aficionado, Bob Marley, smoking weed. Images also found on the site include a photo of liquor and a photo featuring 16 guns of various sizes, including several large guns. Many students used MySpace to mourn the June 2006 death of McIntosh student Dallas Crenshaw, who died after he was shot by close friend Kevin Johnston at an unsupervised teen party hosted by Chris Canderozzi in the Centennial subdivision of Peachtree City. Johnston brought the gun to the party and testified that he was too drunk to drive, so Crenshaw drove him to the party. Police testified that a witness saw Johnston “waving” the gun around moments before the deadly shot was fired. Now, 16 months later, MySpace pages can still be found with dedications to Dallas Crenshaw. But if the recently-discovered gunplay photos are any indication, some students at McIntosh are making questionable choices with guns despite Crenshaw’s tragic death. Johnston was ultimately sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in the incident. Some may question the wisdom of using the World Wide Web to boast of drug and alcohol use in the public eye. But even users who opt for the strictest privacy settings, however, cannot hide everything from view on MySpace.com. Their site handle, profile picture, age, location, the date of their last login, their mood and their MySpace URL are always exposed to public view. Additionally, any comments they post on their friends’ public pages are viewable by the public. login to post comments
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