Bullying policies need statewide harmony News Journal May 15, 2012
What good does it do to have varying laws defining and governing the appropriate response to cyberbullying?
This could happen as the Capital School District board considers a policy to punish “teasing, laughing at someone’s mistakes, using unwelcome nicknames, mimicking, name calling and using offensive language.”
Delaware’s Americans for Civil Liberties Union chapter has legitimate First Amendment concerns that Capital should hold off, but not for the most important reason. If, as the ACLU claims, courts have established that students cannot be punished for speech that merely causes hurt feelings, then the proposal before the school board tonight appears anti-bullying lite. Kathleen MacRae, ACLU of Delaware executive director, describes a more menacing harm that courts prefer that “interferes with a student’s physical well-being, is threatening or seriously intimidating,” so much so that it affects a student’s ability to learn or participate in school activities.
Where is the limit for school officals when it comes to cyber-bullying? If the actual event is taking place during school time via cell phone or computer the school would be in the right to intervene. After school hours where is the schools jurisdiction and authority?
Remember this saying many of us had to live by; “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. Still true to this day but for sure words have become more hurtful by use of media like Facebook and Twitter.
A common language of precise standards for guaranteeing safety from bullying on or off the Internet is paramount. Capital would not be shirking its responsibility by tailoring any new policy to the final outcome of these existing bills.
A common language / definition in describing a bully sets the stage for zero tolerance and we know where that road takes us.
Delaware’s attempt to make cyber-bullying involving children a school problem is wrongheaded. If we’re going criminalize cyber-bullying there comes a point where the school hands the responsibility over to the police department and that point is when the school bell rings at the end of the day or negative social media activities didn’t take place on school time. Schools cannot dedicate personnel to act as cyber-police increasing the school’s liability. We can’t have school personnel stalking students on their social media sites which could open up another new can of worms. Parents must play an active role in cyber-bullying and be the ones to file complaints with the police and inform the school. If we are going to create all these so-called wraparound services in our schools why not just build dormitories and just give parents visitation rights! State legislators best add a fiscal note stating that DE DOE will be responsible for all legal fees associated with lawsuits by parents of accusers because for sure they’ll come back and say the child was retaliating for something the other student did to them.
If we’re going to classify cyber-bullying as some-kind of criminal offense then let’s leave the investigative work to the police. Also, you can bet school districts and Delaware Department of Education will create new management jobs overseeing bully prevention and intervention. Let’s add more police instead as they are and always will be more qualified.
Something must be done but its obvious schools are struggling to what they should be doing, educating children to meet standards. Why add another brick on the mule’s back! The AG’s office should have a cyber-bullying hotline and they can coordinate investigations with police and schools.
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Amen brother. “… But words will never hurt me”.
The spirit of this effort is directionally correct, but the school should support and facilitate efforts by parents and authorities with respect to activities that occur off school property or buses like cyber bullying. Cyber bullying that happens within school limits is fair game.
a policy to punish “teasing, laughing at someone’s mistakes, using unwelcome nicknames, mimicking, name calling and using offensive language.”
But that’s why I read this blog!
Seriously – they are making this a statutory offense, meaning something that is 100% legal and protected will be punishable for students inside the school system. The only rational argument is that although it is legal, it is disruptive to the schools. That is a thin argument and a very slippery slope.
I am outraged that the first thing we always think of is ways to circumvent the First Amendment and apply punishments for protected activities. We are supposed to be better than that. And most of all, I don’t want my child brought up to think that’s the way America works.
Cyber-bullying is a social offense and should be fought with social tools – tools of persuasion and peer pressure, not iffy legal workarounds.
Start by identifying and cataloguing the cyberbullies. AG Biden apparently has tons of people with these high-tech skills, judging by the rates of computer porn arrests.
Send a sternly worded letter to the parents – anybody tried that yet?
Hire a social media expert to go online and start campaigns to defriend the cyberbullies.
Teachers – before you write a teacher recommendation for a student, check the AG’s list of cyberbullies which he will surely publish.
Publish the names of the cyberbullies. No crime has been committed so it’s OK to publish the names of minors. If it’s OK to publish photos of people merely charged but not convicted of sex offenses, surely it is OK to publish the names of cyberbullies.
Administrators – before granting any privileges or awards to a student, check the AG list of cyberbullies.
But here’s one of the things that’s occurring now: as more and more schools are involved in programs that make laptops available for students to take home, or more teachers assign projects that are to be collaboratively handled via GoogleDocs, school districts are asserting the power to intervene in disciplinary terms for misuse of computers or cyberspace when the student is at home.
Patriot: I’m not quite sure that cyber-bullying necessarily has a “location” in the ordinary legal sense. What counts? Where the snotty little perp typed it, or where the victim (and others) read it? And if a student comes in, tells an administrator about it, and that administrator then accesses it on a school computer has it occurred on school grounds?
Curiously, a number of school districts are starting to answer “yes” to that question.
My thought… no matter where it happens if it involves students at the school and impacts the child while they are at school the school should deal with it. I don’t know how helpful or involved the school/district should get it if the incident involves students from different schools and/or districts.
I think they should be able to be involved the same as if they were in the same district, or at the very least be able to let the kids know that they see it and that the police could be involved if continued, or something like that. Don’t forget the teen who fatally shot another teen recently over a fight that started on facebook. They were from two different school districts in our state
Pmom, I missed that story. Link?
I don’t know how to do that. I am a computer dummy. I just went to Delaware Online, you can search it on there. There were a few articles about it. The boy who was killed was a classmate of my son. Some of the commenters in some of the articles said that it started over facebook. Some kids from Pencader Charter confirmed that. The title of one of the articles on Delawareonline is: “Bear teen identified as victim in city shooting”. It happened in January of this year.
Maybe Kilroy wrote about it? I wasn’t coming on here in January so I don’t know.
Just wonderin’…will there be an AYP cell for bullying?
Fine w/ me if it crosses over to school tensions and the school has to deal with it. However, no school should have to deal with it first, unless a parent is hit w/ charges of either permitting or not permitting their child to have the social media accounts that are supposed to be age qualifying. If my child busted out the windows in a school, I’d be the one assigned restitution. So if your kid is communicating on those sites, with or without your permission–be prepared to take some kind of responsibility–whether criminal or civil when the little darling is discovered to be the core of the problem. And get back to us on just how cool it is to be a friend to your kid instead of a parent. Write grandma a letter instead. (The biggest “excuse” I hear from parents whose kids have underage social media accounts).
I have pretty strong beliefs about individual rights; however, unless you have followed Twitter, Instagram or other new social medias recently, you may be speaking “old school.” I absolutely prefer for this to remain in the jurisdiction in which it is written. Unfortunately, “bullying” is a childish word. “Bullying” today refers to what many adults understand as slander, physical threats and harassment. Once parents actually catch on to the digital world the young people spend in hours and bring to school the next day, they will catch up. I am not sure this means the school SHOULD have the jurisdiction to intervene; however, we are already there as it is brought into the building multiple times a day. I am not a teacher who “stalks” students. I am a teacher who learned long ago that I can inspire a standard of ethics but what you do at home with your kid is your business (except for abuse.) As a parent, I am responsible for my own teenager who I must guide on appropriate social media behavior and interaction. THAT is my responsibility. The irony is that you are arguing about students but in the cooperate world, human resources have been using companies that compile digital imprints of applicants. This is completely legal since your personal information you post on social networks is property of the social network – in which you agreed at the onset of your account. These companies like Lexus Nexus compile this for the employer. Most of this hasn’t funneled down to the blue collar world. Universities and districts across the nation purchase software “watch” in case of some type of attack or threat so that an investigation can be instantaneous. The courts will have to decide if an individual student’s right to tweet, “f@ck the world, kill people, bomb school” is free speech of popular song lyrics or there is need to restrict “at the school’s gate.” On one side, if the school is too cautious, they are violating a student’s right by stalking. On the other hand, if a tragedy occurs, then the school should have intervened to investigate any concerns. Either way, the digital world provides new challenges.
“The courts will have to decide if an individual student’s right to tweet, “f@ck the world, kill people, bomb school” is free speech of popular song lyrics or there is need to restrict “at the school’s gate.” On one side, if the school is too cautious, they are violating a student’s right by stalking. On the other hand, if a tragedy occurs, then the school should have intervened to investigate any concerns. Either way, the digital world provides new challenges.”
Though name calling via social media sights are emotionally hurtful they don’t cause alarm for physical concern. Unless they are direct and would make the terroristic-threatening. So now we have emotional bullying and physical bullying. Our schools struggle to maintain physical safety for teachers and students.Somewhere is addressing physical bullying is the answer to emotional bullying or it could be the other way around. The real breakdown starts at home whereas many children aren’t taught about physical and verbal boundaries. The ones who are taught certainly make up the most victims.
I keep harping on crisis interventionist in our public schools. Today’s school guidance counselors who have degrees in psychology ( I assume) are being used as career counselors. We talk about all these so-called wraparound services in our schools but yet we’re not acting fast enough to address real intervention needs.
The outcry in the need to address cyber-bullying seems to suggest students are victims of criminals. Therefore, though schools can help identify the “criminals” I think it’s up to the AG / police to address those behaviors, Zero tolerance seemed to fail in our schools and without zero tolerance on cyber-bullying it too shall fail.
Having schools patrolling cyberspace after school hours and outside the school building even on school supplied computer is dangerous and a lawsuit waiting to happen. If a student cyber-bully is identified it’s up to the AG office to warn the parent and student then of no response take legal actions to terminate social media account! Than its see you in the supreme court. It’s going to be a no-win and take more resources from our schools.
A counselor’s job is psychological, career, academic path guide and so much more. There is simply not enough support for the issues kids bring to school today. I would love for those issues to be addressed at home. I wish the RTTT $ and PTA would have hosted multiple workshops on most current social media and long term employment impact, career guidance, college financing, guiding your student through testing. It is really a needed area. I like and prefer the direct contact to AG. It sends the issue where it belongs and allows those with expert knowlede to handle.