cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is harassment, threatening behavior and things that a student says online, in chat, in a text or otherwise using technology to inflict harm on a person. When I was working a a high school last year we had a few issues of this. One young woman would say really threatening and hurtful things to two other girls on Facebook. None of these students’ pages were on private so we could see everything. Every once in a while I would check to see if things were being said even after we talked with the perpetrator. She would continue to do it until finally I think the drama of that situation passed. Fortunately nothing extremely bad happened but I know that the girls were hurt by the words and that hurt could last a lifetime.
I find the legal issues in the cases of cyberbullying quite interesting. I can see the point that schools can’t discipline students for behavior that happens off school grounds but if it harbors learning for a student in school, I think schools should have the right to discipline the perpetrators. I guess that it’s refreshing that schools can develop their own policies and are encouraged to get police involvement if the cyberbullying is severe enough. Also, principals can point parents to contact law enforcement if their children are being harassed. I think that schools should be able to help parents and students get resources to address the issue and do what they can to help make it so that the students involved are helped or referred to help depending on what both the victim and perpetrator may need.
On the stop cyberbullying website, I liked the suggestions that they gave for teachers to help students to check in before they wrote something online that they regretted. I like the Stop! (take 5 minutes,) Block (the cyber bully,) and Tell (an adult strategy) to teach students.
I think that I would use a pre-emptive strategy as we talk about expectations for the class. I think that students often don’t realize the power of their words and by harassing on the internet or in a text, they may feel more detached thus not think about the consequences of their words. I think initially doing it as a whole group lesson and giving suggestions about how students can stop it if they are a victim or if as friend of theirs is a victim would be really helpful. This could easily complement talks about respect and how we treat others at the start of the class. Also, to dissuade students from cyberbullying, we could teach a strategy that helps students if they are victims that also would hopefully discourage a student from doing it. We used to say at the high school, “Copy, Paste.” I think if students have a feeling that if they say something bad and others can copy, paste, give it to a teacher or their parents, they might decline.
If an individual does cyberbully and I were to find out, I would talk with the school counselor to determine the best plan of action. It is only a matter of time before all schools have policies around “responsible use” regarding this issue and/or make specific rules about this… I hope. I think this should be treated the same as bullying and harassment.