OKEECHOBEE- Weeks before the new school year was set to begin, the Yearling Middle School Facebook page was hacked, forcing the school to create a new page. 

The middle school’s new Facebook page posted a call to action asking parents to like and share their new page and unfollow the old page. 

“Our other YMS page got hacked,” read the post. “We will be sharing this new page as often as we can! Please delete/unfollow/block the other YMS FB page. If we are ever able to get in contact with FB to retrieve our access, we will update you all.” 

As the first day of school approaches it’ll be important to get the word out to all the parents of returning seventh and eighth graders as well as incoming sixth graders to follow the correct page to keep up with their child’s school.  

The school says it's attempting to contact Facebook to get access to its old page. But what’s happening to that page in the meantime is one of the most bizarre aspects of the story. 

On June 29 at 3:08 a.m. the YMS Facebook page posted a reel featuring a clip from the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. Over the next day and a half, the hackers would post 13 more clips from The Big Bang Theory. In July both the school’s profile picture and cover photo were changed to reflect the new Big Bang Theory theme of the page. 

The new cover photo on the hacked YMS page.

The page has gone on to post hundreds of memes and reels from The Big Bang Theory.  

Why? 

It’s unclear at the moment. Recently the page began promoting a “Sitcom Superfans” Facebook Group in the comments of posts. The group only has 92 members. Far below the over 2,000 people who like Yearling’s page. Perhaps the hackers were looking to boost their group? 

Another possibility is the hackers hoping to be able to monetize the reels being posted. To make money from Facebook posts, a page needs to have at least 10,000 followers, and generate 30,000  views on videos in the past 60 days. Taking over an established page gives hackers a head start on hitting those numbers. 

For now, the best thing to do would be to make the page a total loss for the hackers. If you’ve previously liked YMS on Facebook, unlike the page and like the school’s new official page. If you’d like, consider reporting the page to Facebook. 

The official new YMS Facebook page is located at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561314226436 
 
The hacked YMS page located at: https://www.facebook.com/YearlingMiddle