Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is the use of the internet, or cell phones, to bully another person. The Cyberbullying can range from mild to severe and is a growing problem with students. I personally have never been involved in any cyberbullying, either as a victim or as a perpetrator. When I was in school, the only real online communication we had was AOL Instant Messenger. With Instant Messenger, you have to choose to accept messages from people you don't know or who aren't on your "friends" list. I only ever communicated with people I was friends with, and did not accept messages from people I didn't know. I also never even thought of using the internet to bully other people. I didn't bully in person either.

Schools face a lot of problems in dealing with cyberbullying. For one, the majority of this type of bullying does not occur on school grounds. This forces people to wonder if the school really has any right to police student activities when they are not at school. I also think that some parents probably believe that they can handle their own child's behaviors when they are not at school. In class, we discussed the fact that Oregon recently added cyberbullying to its laws against harrassment and bullying. While it is now legally recognized, many schools are still left without cyberbullying policies, and don't know exactly what to do about it.

There is also the problem that schools often are not aware that cyberbullying is taking place. Since it happens off site, the only way for teachers/administrators to know about it is if a students tells them what's going on. I would imagine that students rarely want to confess to either being bullied or being the bully. For those that are cyberbullied, there could be repercussions for telling. If schools do not know that it is taking place, they cannot do anything to stop it. And, while they may be able to occasionally police student behaviors when they receive a tip off that this is taking place, there is no way to do it all the time. Many bullying cases are never reported.

I think that when teachers receive information about cyberbullying, it has to be dealt with. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to speak to all children involved, and their parents, to work out a solution. Getting the parents involved is an absolutely crucial part to dealing with this problem because they are the ones at home who can truly institute the change. While I believe it must be dealt with, I do not believe that schools have the right to punish students for what they do outside of school. I believe that this is the parents' responsibility, and their right. Bullying that happens at schools is a totally different issue, but outside of school, student disipline has to be left to their parents, and law enforcement if necessary.

In my classroom, I hope to institute a pre-emptive policy to dealing with cyberbullying. I think the best way to deal with it is to have an honest discussion with students towards the beginning of the school year about the repercussions of cyberbullying and the expectations I have for them about being respectful to their classmates. Those expectations do not lift once they exit the school building. I also hope to show my students that even if you don't like somebody, it is possible, and necessary, to be respectful to them. I would share with them some of the sad stories about student lives that ended due to cyberbullying. For many kids, it doesn't seem like a big deal, but showing them how serious it can be may allow them to see how much damage it can do, in addition to getting them into a lot of trouble. Hopefully establishing expectations and giving them all the information I can will help them to make good choices about their internet use.