Earlier this fall, an Instagram account under the username @blakebearsbarstool emerged. The content it posted differed greatly from the sports scores and memes about rival teams seen on a typical Barstool account like @barstoolgophers. Instead, the account featured photos of students usually in a compromising or embarrassing position.
“I have sympathy for the people who were posted on that, like unsolicited photos that are just blatantly making fun of them,” said Vivien Pihlstrom ‘25. I don’t feel like they did anything wrong in order to be posted.”
“I think it was downright disrespectful, I think it violated people’s privacy,” Ryan Lee ‘26 added.
When the account was brought to his attention, Sophomore Grade Dean Mike Canfield shared these concerns and decided to hold a grade meeting on Thursday Oct. 12 to disscuss the account. “A lot of the people pictured on the site were sophomores,” Canfield said. “What I felt was really important, just at the base level, [was] that we would just say, ‘here are the things that are concerning,’ and that they are violations of our rules.” Canfield added that the activity on the account was “not okay in our community. [It’s] hurtful to people and [it does] damage.”
During the grade meeting, Canfield projected different parts of the school handbook to demonstrate how exactly the account was in violation of school policies. One example was the account’s use of sexualized language. “[The person running the account] made clear that if you asked them to take [a photo] down, you would get this award, which was using sexualized language,” Canfield explained. “That fit a pattern of harassment [and] bullying. That just wasn’t okay.” Canfield added that regarding the photos themselves, it is harder to point to a specific violation. “It seemed like people were taking photos as kind of an ongoing way of embarrassing people and sending them in,” he said. “To execute on that, I think we would have to have more conversations, and those may still happen.”
During his tenure as a dean, Canfield explains he’s dealt with many similar situations. “I think what was different [in this case] was that you’ve got a person or people who are doing this secretively, behind a mask, and then the outcome is totally public,” he said. “As a community, how you address [these situations] and what the remedies are seem to be not always the same.” In this case, Canfield explained, “I think you can rest assured that we’re doing everything in our power to find out what happened. If we find out more, we’ll address [it].”
Canfield’s hope is that students will continue to come to him or others with issues concerning the community. “It’s important for students when they see things that they feel like are wrong, that they talk to people about it, he said. “That’s a good way for people to imagine themselves as leaders. Philosophically, the hope for Blake students is that you’ll grow into a leader in your community wherever you go.”
