T*W*I*S: Malicious Facebook Prank Backfires on High School Girls

There are downsides to social media and this fact became evident recently.  We have learned that this past week four girls from Stillwater (MN) High’s hockey team were handed one-game suspensions for posting on Facebook a hanged teddy bear wearing jersey number 34 with the caption, “Another successful bear hunt.”  In their subsequent game against White Bear Lake (MN) High, the opposing player wearing number 34, senior forward Crysta Lowell(shown here), suffered a season-ending left knee injury in a collision.   Lowell, who had previous knee injuries, will miss the postseason for the Bears, who are seeded No. 1 in Section 4AA.  “It looked like a freak accident,” White Bear Lake coach Jerry Kwapick said Wednesday.  “I don’t think there was any malicious intent at all.”  In the game, a 3-2 victory by the Stillwater Ponies, Chuck Lowell, Crysta’s father, recalled the moment when his daughter was injured. He said she was skating hard for a loose puck in the Bears’ offensive zone. As she leaned forward to shoot, she and two Stillwater defenders collided.  The collision tore the anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus in her left knee.  The Facebook snapshot may have been meant as a lighthearted prank by the girls to goad their rivals, but Stillwater AD, Rickey Michel, didn’t see it that way.  Upon announcing the suspensions, Michel said, “We don’t want our kids to be involved with this stuff.”  An unnamed Stillwater school official called it a “stupid prank done in poor taste.”    Editor’s Note: Source for this article, Tim Leighton, tleighton@pioneerpress.com.