Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is defined as when a child or teen uses the Internet (facebook, Myspace, Blogs and other internet sites) or portable communication device to embarrass, harass, threaten, torment, or put down other students. Cyberbullying does not refer to adults only children and teens.

Working in a high school I have seen firsthand students using the internet and cell phones to cyberbully each other. On more than one occasion I have had students in my office complaining with this issue. Usually it has to do with Facebook and Myspace or text messaging. Usually this will end in some sort of mediation between myself the Vice Principal and the students. I personally have never had to deal with any type of cyberbullying or cyber harassment.

In today’s schools I do feel that this is a problem and needs to be dealt with. Since a chunk of the cyberbullying is going on, on school grounds the school for sure should step in and deal with it. Even if these acts of harassment are going on off campus, they are still causing on campus problems. Thus I feel that even if these acts of cyberbullying are happen away from school, the school still needs to deal with them since it being brought to the school.

It is hard for the schools to deal with the cyberbullying that is going on off campus, since there is a big gray area on when a school has the authority to punish a student for stuff that happens off school grounds or times. I know that if a student gets in a fight on the way home on the bus, the school still can punish that student. This could apply to if a student is at lunch sending text messages to another student, or if they are on their way home harassing another student. However I do feel that if the problem is being brought into the school it should not matter when the occurrence took place. The school should still have the right to punish the students involved.

I think in my class I am going to want to be preemptive on any issue that may come up. I have always been taught that it is better to be preemptive than reactive. That way you are nipping anything in the butt from the start. The students will know what your class rules and expectations are. At this point I am not sure how I would let the students know what is expected.