For the middle part of the YMLA 24-25 school year, the YMLA community was captivated by the newest and most successful in a line of Barstool instagram accounts ran by students from our school. For those who are unfamiliar with the concept of a barstool, it’s an unofficial account led typically by a student posting news about sports while also having satirical and humorous elements. Accounts like these start in good fun, but often cross the line into cyberbullying, and with this most recent incarnation of the YMLA Barstool, maybe even into illegality.
For many members of our school community, the bi-weekly almost and finally and friday were something to look forward to and enhanced the culture of YMLA, specifically high school. In the last post put on a page, a student was depicted acting inappropriately with a water bottle, and when parents were shown the imagery, the school was made aware and the owner of the barstool was tracked down and forced to delete the barstool as some photos on it veered into the realm of legal issues. After the very public end of the barstool, unlike anything our school community had seen in recent years, it was left unclear what the real origins of the account were, who ran the account, and why. So? We interviewed the owner to get a complete timeline.
To protect his privacy, we will not be using his name, nor will we reveal any identifying information.
We approached the owner as he looked over our old football field, and when asked about the barstool he was at first very defensive, assuming we were there to accuse him. After explaining our purpose and lightening the mood, he began to open up, expressing his feelings of boredom on campus before The YMLA Barstool and how he feels our school cannot have fun things.
According to him, the barstool started in November under a different name as his spam page. A spam page is a social media page where a user can post unfiltered content and thoughts, for example, funny photos. It is the very first post The Owner made, which featured a student on the toilet, that would begin the Owners journey into becoming apart of the culture, as with each post, which at first were sporadic, the account gained more and more followers. Coming off of a break up, the account was a way to keep The Owner engaged and stimulated, and as the posts kept attracting attention, he began to think of transitioning it into a barstool account. The last barstool before this was active only periodically and had a small following, so there was an open niche for a space like that. For months after the transition, which included removing most posts, save for a few that were unassociated with The Owner, the barstool would post on its story a photo to tease the upcoming post, and typically on a wednesday or thursday post an almost friday post, a usual of barstool pages. On friday the finally friday post would be uploaded. These posts would be similar in quality, allowing for a consistent stream of content. While it followed a similar format to other barstools, unlike a traditional barstool, any sports connection was purely coincidental, with most posts featuring completely random videos and photos sent in by students who wanted to see their classmates on the barstool, overlaid with a trendy song. The Owners personal favorite post featured the song “Get Jiggy” by B Jack$ and ZEDDY WILL. As it became routine to look forward to the weekly posts, The Owner had a newfound sense of community and culture, reflected in the brief interviews we did students around campus. For some who knew about it, the barstool was a pivotal part of their high school experience, with one student even saying it was the only thing that made them enjoy coming to YMLA, due to its unfiltered nature. This would come to an end in April, when the last almost friday Barstool post was published, featuring the water bottle video mentioned before. Several students, including The Owner, were pulled into the office and questioned about the video, and the school resource officer along with a few dream team members searched the entire page. Although The Owner had not produced any of the photos, the inappropriate imagery, namely the student on the toilet in the very first post, had been found to break several laws and The Owner was threatened with legal action. The fallout afterwards left our school community split, with most faculty and some students finding the account to be problematic, and the situation on campus for The Owner becoming tense. Those who liked the barstool felt that threatening the owner was unnecessary, and that the response to The Barstool was an overreaction
As we interviewed The Owner, he told us the student on the toilet and their family didn’t really care about the photo, so we sought that student out, who was able to confirm his indifference.
As our interview came to a close, The Owner expressed his disappointment that he couldn’t continue the account, as there was a post ready when he was forced to take it down. Just as the barstool ended, so too does his time at YMLA, with this 2024-2025 school year being his last year here, but he is glad that for a time, he was able to give people entertainment.
So that leaves us with the question: was his barstool the last?
Probably not.
