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Principal resigns amid accusations of Facebook spying

A Missouri high school principal is allegedly behind a Facebook profile of a girl named Suzy who "friended" many students.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read
Louise Losos. Who may or may not be Suzy Harriston. KDSK TV Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

School principals seem to be struggling with their Facebook principles.

Only last week, a British school principal threatened to report parents of underage Facebookers to child protective services.

And now a story emerges from Missouri of a high school head who is accused of creating a fake Facebook profile in order "friend" her students.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the profile in question -- of a girl called "Suzy Harriston" -- is now gone. However, so is Clayton High School Principal Louise Losos.

The Post-Dispatch says that a former school quarterback accused Losos publicly of being behind this profile. "Whoever is friends with Suzy Harriston on Facebook needs to drop them. It is the Clayton Principal," Chase Haslett reportedly stated.

Some may already be putting two with two and gaining an even number when they hear that the school district issued a statement, declaring that the district and Losos "had a fundamental dispute concerning the appropriate use of social media."

No one from the high school is prepared to comment on whether the Suzy Harriston profile and Losos' departure are actually related. However, the Post-Dispatch says that there is no one with that name currently residing in the whole of Missouri.

KDSK TV went out and interviewed students who say they received friend requests from the mysterious Suzy.

"A group of penguins trying to add me and I denied the friend request," said Jonah Lindblad, a Clayton High junior. Suzy Harriston's profile picture was, indeed, a group of penguins. Everyone loves penguins, don't they? (Indeed, Harriston reportedly had more than 300 Facebook friends.)

It would have been something of a giveaway at least if the profile picture had been of a salmon, as "losos" is actually Polish for salmon.

If it does finally emerge that Losos was, indeed, behind this Facebook profile, some may wonder what she felt it might accomplish, what she felt she might learn, and what she might say if she were caught.

School principals should really pay very close attention to Mark Zuckerberg's IPO roadshow. For he keeps insisting that the idealistic goals of Facebook are to make the world "more open and connected" -- not more open to the shenanigans of the devious.

KDSK TV Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET