I was featured on *Audio Ed* to discuss in detail how administrators, teachers, and staff can prevent and respond to cyberbullying among school students. Please click here to download and listen (8 minutes, MP3 file). Justin and I are passionate about training and working with public districts as well as private schools to meaningfully inform and educate youth, parents, and educators on this topic. Please let me know if you have any specific questions about what I shared in this interview – I would be more than happy to flesh out my thoughts further. Also, please check out our Top Ten Prevention Tips and Top Ten Response Tips for Educators for a quick and concise summary of what I discussed.
I really liked the lists of response and prevention ideas. The numbers of cases reported in surveys is definitely on the rise. I was wondering if there was any breakdown in the demographic of the perpetrators of cyberbullying. I looked quickly but didn't find anything. My thoughts were if traditional playground bullies were getting more sophisticated or if technology is creating a new class of bullies. My intuition is that cyberbullying may become more prevelant with teenage girls since the threats would not be physical but rather emotional. I have personally as a coach been shown pretty graphic text message threats from one girl to another that I could not imagine would happen face to face. From girls that I have had in class and I could not imagine them saying these things. I guess that is one of my biggest concerns about cyberbullying.
I also liked the one page tips on prevention of cyberbullying and the response tips for educators. However, each school should have a set of procedures of how they will handle this situation. Each school has established their set of rules, and they have also established what will happen if those rules are broken. Each school will need to establish what constitutes cyberbullying and then what will the consequences be when/if cyberbullying occurs.
In my opinion this isn’t anything but bad behavior, because a student can be in real danger and nothing really can be done. I feel school districts shouldn’t have to be afraid to take action due to being sued. Bullies take advantage of situations like these, because they know nothing can be done. They would purposely say something or do something just to be a smart a** or funny. In my words that is kind of my way of describing it. Many children don’t have home training, so it’s kind of hard to expect that when they arrive to school. It’s basically saying teachers expect them to cuss their parents out, but come to school with an apple and smile. I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but kids are so different along with raising and teaching themselves that they don’t know right from wrong. A Florida principle stated the knowing of students using the internet to deface teachers with pictures and obnoxious writings. Students also are bullying others and causing them to take their own lives without any resource to stop these off-campus behaviors. I feel if any person whom it doesn’t matter sees something isn’t right or going wrong, should be told in order to later stop. Teachers not being able to say anything, because of becoming sued of some sort may and can result in a tragedy. So hopefully things take a drastic turn, because things will not get better without one.
It’s pretty difficult for administrators to figure out what to do in cases that involved cyber bullying because the law seems so complex. Well, some states court rulings have provided some direction to school districts in terms of when they can discipline students for their behavior or speech’’.
Cyberbullying has become a huge problem in today’s society. We see that it not only affects the perpetrator and the victim, but multiple other parties as well. It’s a problem that can occur through various forms of technology and has long lasting effects. In an effort to help victims cope with their pain, I think our adults need to better understand how to respond to cyberbullying cases. I think the most important person involved in a child’s life is their educator. Through their educator, students can learn what is appropriate and inappropriate, and also learn the consequences of their actions. Once educators have effectively communicated this information it is up to the other adults in the child’s life, such as the parents, to reinforce it.
ive been cyber bullied by a teacher/ coach. whats weird about this is i never met the man, nor have i ever been one of his pupils… ive called his place of employment, they said they would look into it but because he did it on his own time and not the schools time they may not be able to stop him from either continuing or may not be able to force him to remove the blog. please help