
Status update comment on Facebook gets student suspended for cyberbullying
Just wanted to point out this new article sharing the story of a high-schooler who responded to a friend’s status update on Facebook, and consequently received a ridiculous sanction from his school for it. He basically stated “you’re not going to bust a grape” – indicating to his friend (who posted about fighting another girl […]

Felony harassment charges stemming from Craiglist posting
Recently, a case came up before the Missouri court involving a 40-year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl, with the former having been charged with felony harassment as she posted the girl’s personal contact information and photo on Craigslist in their subsection for individuals seeking “Casual Encounters” (you can imagine what that means). To note, this […]

Cyberbullying is the Future of School Violence
I was in Colorado Springs earlier this week meeting with the Futures Working Group, which is a consortium of folks interested in exploring the future of law enforcement. The group is an eclectic mix of law enforcement administrators, military intelligence officers, federal agents, and academics established through a memorandum of understanding between the Federal Bureau […]

Lori Drew Officially Acquitted
Well, it’s official. On Sunday, U.S. District Judge George Wu acquitted Lori Drew of all federal criminal charges for her involvement in the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier. As you may recall, back in November a jury initially found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor charges of illegally accessing a protected computer (in essence, she was […]

Facebook, Cyberbullying, Death Threats, Jail Time
We’ve been discussing the recent case in Britain involving 18-year-old Keeley Houghton, who posted a death threat on Facebook and was subsequently incarcerated. Specifically, the aggressor wrote the following on her own profile page, “Keeley is going to murder the bitch. She is an actress. What a ******* liberty. Emily ****head Moore.” Those with whom […]

Revealing the identity of cyberbullies by schools….
Following up from my last blog post, and after talking to a number of individuals working in various school districts, this is what we know: 1) FERPA allows schools who learn the identity of a cyberbully upon investigation of an incident that affects the climate or environment or values of the school to protect that […]

Revealing the identity of cyberbullies by schools….
Following up from my last blog post, and after talking to a number of individuals working in various school districts, this is what we know: 1) FERPA allows schools who learn the identity of a cyberbully upon investigation of an incident that affects the climate or environment or values of the school to protect that […]

FERPA and the identity of students who cyberbully others…
I was talking to a school administrator yesterday…and she posed a question that I couldn’t clearly answer because it doesn’t seem there is a clear answer. So I wanted to see if any of our readers had some thoughts about it. If a parent comes to you (you as an educator in the school system) […]

Cell Phones at School and Student Expectation of Privacy
We’ve covered this issue a couple of times before on this blog, but given the interest I thought I would respond to some of the comments that have been posted and provide some insight gained from discussions I have had with folks over the past few months. Some people have suggested that students have effectively […]

Do We Need Cyberbullying Legislation?
I had a recent exchange with several colleagues about whether or not we need cyberbullying legislation, and if so, what that legislation should look like. I thought perhaps others would be interested in my perspective so I am posting my thoughts here. As always, you are welcome to provide your thoughts… My experience working with […]