On April 11th, Ben Tracy spoke to Chester High Students about social media safety. He talked to each class individually throughout the day, and went a little deeper into each message that he gave.

Tracy discussed how he came from a small town very similar to Chester. He went through his High School career using Twitter as his main social media source. He posted content very similar to the content most Chester High School students would post. He continued on with his life and he got into politics. One day, Tracy received a phone call about a direct job with the governor. He would be the person to prep the governor before all of his speeches. This phone call came out on a Friday morning, then he had an interview for this new position on Friday afternoon. His interview went very well, and he was told to be waiting for a phone call. On Sunday he received a phone call to tell him that he got the job, and he would be starting on Monday morning. He would travel with the governor to his speeches the next day.

Tracy started the day off with the governor, his first speech went great, but when he got back into the car he received a phone call. His tweets from his high school years were given to news outlets and being shared on other social media platforms. He was informed, during this phone call, that he was fired and not allowed to get out of the car at the next speech. They arrived at the next destination, the governor gave his speech while Tracy sat in the car all by himself. He receives another phone call tell him that he is not to be seen with the governor anymore, due to finding even more inappropriate tweets. So, they stop on the highway in the middle of nowhere and Tracy has to get out of the governor’s vehicle. Now he must ride in a vehicle behind the one the governor is in.

Tracy eventually got back home, and he had to make phone calls to his loved ones and tell them what had happened: He got a job prepping the governor, within his first day was fired due to some nasty tweets, and was now going to be headlining the Chicago Sun-Times. Tracy told the students that he does these talks because he doesn’t want to see anyone end up like him. He gave some tips on how to protect yourself on social media platforms: delete the content that you don’t want your grandparents to see, delete the fake accounts, update your social media if it doesn’t reflect your character now: delete it, and be the change by not harassing and bullying people.