SHERBURNE – In response to a Twitter page created to bully her peers, Sherburne Earlville Central School student created a Facebook account to “spread love” by writing positive messages about her classmates in order to combat the negativity.

16-year-old sophomore, Colleen Eggers, never actually visited the infamous Twitter page that was a hot topic of conversation at her school, but she overheard conversations about it and saw Facebook statuses and tweets that egged the anonymous account on.

According the Eggers, the account was fortunately taken down, but she heard the page was “absolutely awful” in every way.

“The name was even ridiculous ... Not only was the person behind it cruel, but they were also extremely childish. It really frustrated me that someone would do such a thing,” said Eggers.

Eggers said classmates laughed about the bully account because they thought it was funny people were being “exposed” online “for no good reason.” Students were getting hurt whether they wanted to admit it or not, she said.

“At this point, [some students in] our school practically lost hope for some of our classmates,” said Eggers. “Students like to say bullying rarely happens, but that's only because we never really hear about it going on.”

The high school sophomore said bullying should be called “harassment” at this point, because students ages 13 to 19 are old enough to know better and that it is not “okay to be malicious.”

“The students who are harassed tend to keep to themselves. They're quiet and tend to try and stay out of the spotlight,” said Eggers.

“I see some people walk around with scars on their arms or legs. It makes you think about what drove them to do that. Was it their home life? Or was it someone's cruel words or actions? You never know who's getting hurt, and you never know what they're thinking,” she added.

Eggers said although minorities or students who do not fit into a “stereotypical clique” get bullied the most, you do not have to be “different” to get bullied. She said you can be “completely average” and still get picked on.

“The usual targets though are honestly some of the sweetest people. It just doesn't make any sense,” said Eggers.

Bullying does not only hurt the targets of the bullying, according to Eggers, it can also hurt the bully. She said it can hurt their future by parents pressing charges or their social life because “who honestly wants to be with someone who gets a kick out of calling someone ugly?”

After Eggers saw how students were negatively affected by the Twitter account and bullying in general, she became frustrated and decided to do something about it. She said she wanted to help people and make things better. Eggers also related to her peers who were being bullied, because she had her own experience with bullying after a fall-out with one of her friends.