AUGUSTA — Cony High School officials are investigating an offensive remark posted on Twitter on Tuesday morning from an account that erroneously appears to be affiliated with the school’s athletic department.

A user with the handle name of @ConyAthletics that contains the Cony Rams logo is not run by anyone at the school nor is it affiliated in any way with the athletic program, officials said.

The controversy sprang up Tuesday morning when a Cony High School student tweeted a photo of another student carrying two iced coffee drinks, writing that she’s never seen “a guy so cute, or so thoughtful.” The “Cony Athletics” Twitter account replied to that tweet, saying: “or so fat.”

That generated a number of Twitter responses bemoaning the comment, including one user who called it cyber-bullying.

“It’s frustrating,” Cony Principal Kim Silsby said Tuesday, “and we are looking into it.”

“We don’t know who it is,” Silsby added. “It’s definitely frustrating that someone pose as someone who is not them. We don’t tolerate that behavior. When we determine who is responsible, we will hold them accountable.”

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The @ConyAthletics account, which says it’s based in Augusta, has just 31 followers and has tweeted 30 times over the last three months. The account description says, “Some of the best athletes attend at Cony High School. Following all the athletes and giving out exclusive news about stats, injuries, scores, etc.”

Previous tweets by the account seemed to imply it was affiliated with the school, with information on meetings for certain sports, while other tweets show the account user getting into arguments with others about players’ abilities.

Silsby said she reported the post as harassment to Twitter, but acknowledged there isn’t much more the school can do. Twitter can suspend or lock accounts that exhibit abusive behavior, such as harassment.

“Social media is complex,” she said. “We’ll have to wait to see what happens.”


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