Cyberbullying is anytime a child or teen is harassed, threatened, or humiliated by another person via the Internet or other digital technology. After researching cyberbullying I consider myself very lucky that sites like Myspace and Facebook were not around during my time in middle or high school. I have not been involved in any kind of cyberbullying that I’m aware of and I know that it would have damaged me greatly if I had dealt with this during school.
At the school level, cyberbullying presents an interesting dilemma. While a school can regulate some off-site behavior, such as two students getting into a physical fight on their walk home from school; it is often difficult for them to have any regulatory rights in the setting of the Internet. Stopcyberbullying.org states, “When schools try and get involved by disciplining the student for cyberbullying actions that took place off-campus and outside of school hours, they are often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right. They also, often lose.” As far as the legal issues go, it seems complicated. It’s a constitutional issue on one end but if cyberbullying is affecting a student while at school, it seems like it should then be acceptable for them to step in. Prevention is one area the schools can be effective. They can provide education on cyberethics and general character and ethics education.
My plan for dealing with cyberbullying in my classroom would be heavily focused on prevention but would also be reactionary if there was a cyberbully situation involving my students that I was aware of. Ideally, I would want it to be a school wide awareness program and could be integrated throughout different classes. Empathy and compassion, or a lack of empathy or compassion, are at the root of this issue. Kids are not going to stop participating in this type of behavior simply because of the threat of getting into trouble at school or even with the law. We need to teach them how their actions affect one another so that they can hold themselves accountable.
I think that you very clearly articulated the issue and discussed the problems facing us as future teachers. I can agree that a schools reach only goes so far but I can also understand the need to regulate bullying of any kind no matter where it takes place. The being sued for trying to protect students situation would be one that I would be more inclined to deal with as opposed to simply letting it go on and saying there is nothing I can do. I think that your plan for prevention is key in stopping these issues from blowing out of proportion. Dealing with an issue before it truly becomes one is much easier than dealing with the aftermath of a situation. Very well written piece.
ReplyDeleteWe are fotunate to have avoided cyberbullying when we were in middle and high school. I couldn't imagine dealing with it and everything with school. I feel terrible for those kids who are victims of it. Schools are put in a tough spot in trying to handle it because their reach only goes so far. Schools have endured numerous lawsuits and have lost every time. I like your idea of a school wide program to educate students about cyberbullying and its consequences. Hopefully when we become teachers it won't be a big problems in our schools.
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