Ballarat school bashing: accused boasts on Facebook

THE 14-year-old boy accused of bashing a Ballarat High School teacher boasted of his exploits on Facebook just hours after the alleged attack, claiming it was “... the best day yet”.The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wrote about the attack on the night before the incident and posted a number of Facebook statements after he was released from police custody yesterday.At about 10pm on Tuesday night he posted a comment saying he had “never felt better”, just hours after being charged with affray and recklessly causing serious injury.A number of his friends also congratulated him on Facebook, with some calling him “the man” and others praising him for making the news.In the early hours of the morning before the alleged attack he posted “off to bed big day tomorrow”.The Facebook posts of the accused accompany another Facebook group that was created just hours after the alleged attack.The group, named “I survived the day westies invaded Ballarat High, June 2011”, attracted more than 700 fans in the 24 hours since it had been created yesterday.Social media expert Susan McLean said young people often did not consider consequences when posting things on Facebook. She said many people were not fully aware that everything they posted became “public property”.“A lot of them (adolescents and teenagers) have a misconception that there is privacy online but there isn’t,” she said.Fellow social media expert and University of Ballarat lecturer Dr Elisa Backer said there was often a fear of missing out that resulted in young Facebook users signing up for things they didn’t necessarily believe in, such as the group about the incident.It is alleged that the 14-year-old and a group of youths went to Ballarat High School on Tuesday and started a fight with a group of students. Two teachers tried to intervene and were subsequently assaulted themselves, with one taken to hospital.