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Opp City Schools Superintendent Michael Smithart said Tuesday that school officials received a notification that someone had utilized a website to create false messages concerning students in the school system.

“We received notification today that someone has utilized a website on at least two occasions to create false messages concerning students at Opp High School,” he said. “This website allows a person to create messages that appear as news headlines and post them as actual news articles. Such irresponsible behavior perpetuates a misconception of our school and cannot be tolerated.”

Smithart encouraged parents to discuss with their children the impact of false postings.

“Furthermore, we sincerely ask that as a public, we all take time and gather information before commenting,” he said.

The false messages or fake news items came from the website www.channel45news.com. The website is designed to create fictitious “jokes” that look like breaking news.