A Perrysburg High School student was arrested this week in connection to a Twitter account that contained disparaging comments about his female peers.
The student, 18-year-old Mehros Nassersharifi, was charged with telecommunications harassment for a Twitter account he started called “Perrysburg Girls Ranked.” All of the tweets have since been deleted, except for one.
“We are going to start releasing the first wave. 64 hottest girls at Perrysburg will be ranked from worst to first. Personality, face, and body have all been accounted for and a description for their ranking is also provided. If you didn’t make the list, you’re just fat and fried,” the tweet states.
Nassersharifi was charged Wednesday by Perrysburg Police Department, according to a press release from the school.
“We are pleased to share that more than 100 students reported this Twitter account to teachers and administrators last week, which enabled us to quickly respond and begin our investigation in partnership with Perrysburg Police Department,” the school said.
“Our disciplinary process has been initiated. In a serious situation like this, discipline may include expulsion,” the statement continued. “School districts are very limited with what we may share with the public in these situations.”
According to The Toledo Blade, Nassersharifi has been issued a summons to appear in Perrysburg Municipal Court. Prior to his arrest, Perrysburg Superintendent Tom Hosler explained the school’s disciplinary process.
“It depends on how much disruption it creates during the school day, the impact, the ripple that it has in your school community. Those are the kind of factors that drive how the school can respond to those things,” Hosler told The Blade, noting that “the user would receive due process in a school investigation.”
University of Toledo law professor Rob Salem explained that the school “would have to link the tweet to disruption in the school’s learning environment.”
“Students may have free speech rights off campus,” he added, though that was before Nassersharifi was charged with harassment.
The school said it is unable to comment any further because of the ongoing police investigation.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Perrysburg Highschool” by Perrysburg Highschool.
