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Cyber class
Schools and parents battle high-tech bullying with
old-fashioned lessons and common sense.
BY KAREN HOUPPERT
|
PHOTOS LEVI
BROWN
“ M ost of the time, cyberbullying happens
off school property on students' own time,
so schools don’t have the legal authority to
do anything about it,” says Parry Aftab, a
security, privacy, and cyberspace lawyer who
is also executive director of the advocacy site
StopGyberbullying.org.
But doing nothing is obviously not an
option. A few recent high-profile cases in
which teens have com m itted suicide in the
wake o f cyberbullying have shown the most
dire consequences o f a problem that’s now
commonplace. Approximately 20 percent of
students between ages 12 and 18 have experi-
enced attacks via e-mail, text messages, and
Facebook, according to a February 2010 study
by Dr. Justin Patchin and Dr. Sameer Hinduja,
authors of
B u lly in g B ey on d th e Schoolyard:
P re v e n tin g a n d R esp o n d in g to C yberbullyin g.
Those stats spell big trouble for schools,
but some educators have found effective
methods in the fight against cyberbullies.
M
ary Ellen had just started
ninth grade. New school,
new boyfriend, all good.
Then the instant messages
started. “ I hate you.
Everyone hates you. Go back to your school.”
“ M ary Ellen’s grades went from A’s to C ’s,”
says her mom, M ary Lou Handy. “ She cried
and begged to switch to another school.
“At first I told her to just shake it off. But
she was so stressed out— she got to the point
of developing acid reflux and ulcers. Finally, I
turned to the school for help.”
M ary Ellen’s problems surfaced five years
ago, when, M ary Lou says, “ cyberbullying
was new and they didn’t think it was a school
matter.” Today, schools are all too familiar
with it— and dealing with it can be difficult.
PUT IT IN WRITING
One approach is to have families sign an
anti-cyberbullying contract. “ By signing,
students are forewarned that there will be
consequences, and parents cede the school
permission to act on cyberbullying between
students,” Aftab says. This shifts the legal
issue from a constitutional debate about free
speech to a contractual agreement.
Baltimore County Public Schools
adopted the contract strategy 13
years ago, and “ we find it’s been
very effective,” says Dale Rauenzahn,
executive director o f Student Support
Services. “ But it’s an educational process,
too.” The district has also put lessons on
Internet use into the curriculum. “ Starting in
pre-K we talk about Internet dos and don’ts
and are constantly updating,” he says.
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