From Fairfield County & Beyond: Tolerance Goes Viral

After an offensive and homophobic Twitter account took aim at individual students Monday, hundreds of students and alumni quickly gathered a cohort from Ridgefield and several other towns in Fairfield County -- including students from Weston and Joel Barlow, and others as far away as western Massachussetts -- to show the bullies who's boss.

And quick it was: With over 500 members just six hours after its inception, membership to the Facebook group "Southern Connecticut High Schools: An End To High School Bullying" steadily rose even after midnight. By 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, the group had 1,052 members.

Ridgefield High School senior Sophie Needleman and alumnae Holly Walker (Wellesley College) and Kiera Bloch (Clark University) kickstarted the Facebook page Monday afternoon to combat a sudden onslaught of cyber-bullying behavior from within the Ridgefield community Monday that stemmed from various Twitter accounts.

Walker wrote in the first post on the page:

"It has come to our attention that several twitter accounts have been created in order to single out and bully individuals who are a part of the RHS community. Certainly the most disturbing of these was '@RHSfagoftheday.' Needless to say this is absolutely uncalled for and cannot and will not be tolerated.

Often times Ridgefield doesn’t respond to cyber bullying with the strength and provocation needed to bring down this hurtful and dangerous behavior. Please help us send a message to the Ridgefield High School administration voicing our concern and demanding a strong reaction from the school."

After Walker's initial plea for support, she didn't wait long -- students and alumni from RHS, and soon from other nearby and not-so-nearby schools, began adding their names to be signed to a letter to school officials and administration.

Needleman hoped to incorporate students in Wilton, New Canaan, Darien and the rest of the FCIAC schools.

"We're hoping to get every school in the FCIAC involved," Needleman said. "We've gotten the message out there, and now we just need to keep up the momentum."

Needleman posted earlier on:

"In January 2012, a revolution was started. A revolution of caring, of speaking out and standing up against bullying in all its forms, but especially in those forms which take place over the internet and the social networking websites which make it so easy for us to lose sight of who we are and what we believe in. Help us to continue the spread of strength. Add your friends to the group and do everything you can to stop the hate."