In a school, there are hundreds of classes with the same standard desks and plastic chairs, plain off-white walls, and of course, sleeping students. If you got caught napping and drooling on your desk while in class, your classmates and teacher would be the only ones to know. But how can a singular social media account change that to the whole school?

“People in my class started telling me to not sleep in class or I’d get caught,” SBHS Senior David Lugo said. “That’s when the Instagram page came up on my recommendation.” 

   A new Instagram account, “SB Caught You Sleeping”, started to make South Broward pupils think twice before napping in class. The page started to become well-known around school as students buzzed about it on campus. People would recognize a friend or someone they know on a post and share it, increasing the account’s popularity. The account went viral with over 1,000 followers in two single days. Many students thought the pictures of their sleeping classmates were funny and worth a good laugh.

“I’ve been on the sleeping page twice,” Lugo said. “I was only trying to nap, but it’s pretty funny.”

   A lot of the time the photos pictured on the page are taken by a friend, so it wasn’t too bothersome. But other times, students submitted photos of random people they don’t know to the page’s DMs. Some individuals found it a bit invading of privacy, and requested the photos to be taken down from the account.

“I thought it was slightly intrusive but just about harmless enough to be entertaining,” Sophomore Elias Hurtago said.

   Then appeared the most frequently asked question on campus— who is in charge of this intriguing account? At first, rumors started to spread and students would gossip about who could possibly be running the account. However after just a few days, speculations that the creator might in fact go to a different school started to be made. People started to comment and directly message the creator of the page, imploring for an answer about this mysterious mastermind. The following week, a statement on their story was made. 

“I actually attend McArthur,” said the creator 

  Along with that message, they declared that they would like to keep their identity anonymous for personal and safety reasons. Despite that being announced, the creator nonetheless revealed some answers to satisfy the public’s queries. It was revealed in their Insta-story that they are in fact a male that attends high school as a Junior, less than 20 minutes from South Broward. After talking to him privately to collect answers, he explains what led him to create this account, especially for a school he does not even attend. Simple answer: 

“Because I knew that I’d get clout,” he said. “McArthur’s [Instagram] sleeping account gave me a little bit of inspo (inspiration). People DM me photos of people sleeping and I would screenshot them and post them, sometimes with a funny caption.”

   Because of the popularity of the account, others became inspired to create their own ideas and make more similar accounts. Accounts for couples, students eating, “hotties”, and even an eerie one of students’ feet under the bathroom stalls— “SBHS Bathroom Cam” were created.

   However after a few weeks came winter break, where the Instagram sleeping page became more inactive, considering that students weren’t in school to take and send in more photos. After New Year, the creator started posting more and more again as students returned to school. But even so, after about a week, people started to slowly forget about the account again. 

“I used to get like 30 photos a day; now it’s calmed down since the break, so I’ll get like 10 to 20 [photos].” said the anonymous user.

Photography Legal Rights

   The safe option before publicizing randomly taken photos of unconscious students is to—well— ask permission. It’s not necessarily illegal to photograph people in public spaces, and even post them, considering its appropriate (meaning no representation of nudity), not invading privacy (meaning located in places such as a public restroom or private property), or not copyrighted and profited off. However, if a school prohibits photography that they have not authorized, it is possible you can get in trouble for infringement. The creator of the account thought in advance. In his Instagram bio he notes: “If you want an image removed, DM me and I’ll delete it.”

“It’s not very often, but every once in a while someone will request to have a photo taken down,” he said.

Private and Authority Conflicts

   Most students weren’t too problematic with the content. There were very few people who complained to him directly, seeing that he was respectful with removing unapproved images. Instead, many students walked around laughing at school about the silly photos that were posted daily. Even some of the teachers and staff found it funny. But of course, there were others who did not agree. Some of the teachers complained about it, saying that they didn’t want to see any of their students caught on the page, and that it was a disruption in class. However, the creator never actually got into trouble with any admin.

“I thought I would get in trouble but I never did surprisingly,” he said.