According to Wikpedia , bullying is a form of abuse.
Cyber bullying is bullying through email, instant messaging (IMing), chat room exchanges, Web site posts, or digital messages or images send to a cellular phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Similar to traditional bullying, involves an imbalance of power, aggression, and a negative action that is often repeated.
Statistics show that 23 percent of students in grades 4-6 had been bullied "several times" or more; 20 percent had bullied others (1998 study of 6,500 students in rural South Carolina and more recent was an incident in Item dated October 17,2010 involving my school district where one family has filed a lawsuit against Sumter School District 2, saying the school officials failed to protect their child. The recently filed lawsuit against Sumter 2 lists some harassment on Facebook, Superintendent Frank Baker and other school officials said they have yet to see a lot of cyber bullying in the area. It is covered in most of the schools' policies, though.
If there is nothing in place then,
- The school develops an environment of fear and disrespect
- Students have difficulty learning
- Students feel insecure
- Students dislike school
- Students perceive that teachers and staff have little control and don't care about them
There is nothing in the sumter 2 internet agreement that speaks directly to cyberbullying.School's internet policy . As for my school, cyberbullying would be an act of improper use of internet which is a category 2 offense, which there are consequences.
The South carolina code speaks to bullying and cyber bullying
SECTION 59‑63‑120. Definitions.
As used in this article:
(1) “Harassment, intimidation, or bullying” means a gesture, an electronic communication, or a written, verbal, physical, or sexual act that is reasonably perceived to have the effect of:
(a) harming a student physically or emotionally or damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of personal harm or property damage; or .......
and
Section59-63-140 requires that schools have a policy in place to deal with this.
What the reports say?
What the reports say?
What can we do ??
Educate children
Teach them to tell a trusted adult when this happen
Provide support
Have consequences for the bully so that it is clear this wil not be tolorated
Good points K, The District Two's definition of bullying includes cyberbullying (check my blog). The internet policy as you stated does not but is more geared toward the filtering of sites. As our Superintendent stated in last weekend's Item, there have not been many incidents of cyberbullying in our system so far. Hope it stays that way. Thank you for that wordle definition - power really stands out. Kool!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about power. They do things just to feel powerful. I hope it stays that way too. At least some areas are still pure. Technology is rising and the more it becomes prevalent the more things like these will rise. We just have to continue to educate our kids and try to keep bullying as minimal as possible. Technology, so good and yet persons use it as a dangerous tool. Great post
ReplyDeletePower, I looked at your Wordle cloud and as you said this is one of the main things that bullies are tying to get why they engage in the different forms of asault.
ReplyDeleteYour outline of what the school is culpable of if they do not have systems in place to curtail or stop bullying is very astute. They do need to have them available and implemented for them to be effective. In Janet's blog, she stated that her school has character counselling which I think is very very essential as an integral part on a child's education.
Again, it brings me back to my point that we have to look at the individual student who engages in this form of bullying.
Unfortunately human beings are the only ones who are intelligent and want to destroy their fellowmen.
ReplyDeleteIf we look at the ants, we are flabbergasted of their industriousness and the desire of annihilating the other ants does not even exist.
The most important aspect in the school system is to keep children safe, no matter in what country we are. Can you imagine?, they come to school to be educated but instead most of our energy is focused on protecting them all from "Bullying". Then, they go home and many of them begin to free their hearts and minds against whoever they want to. "Your Post" is excellent.
Now; Let's think about how to stop the slander through electromagnetic waves; not the Internet.
As teachers what we need to do is work on preventing actions before things get too far. Everybody in the building needs to be working together making kids aware of being responsible and report if they are being attacked or hurt in any way.
ReplyDeleteYou gave a very important suggestion “Have consequences for the bully so that it is clear this will not be tolerated “. The problem is that because cyber bullies can create fictitious profiles it’s sometimes hard to punish them if you don’t know who they are. That’s the great difference between traditional bullying where you actually knew who the bullies were.
ReplyDeleteA "Power"-ful post! Very innovative to use Wordle as you did...and the result was amazing.
ReplyDeleteI am also worried that parents are more into law suits than proactive parenting up front in addressing this issue, whether that law suit be to blame others or to protect their guilty kids who caused the pain in the first place. We will see this theme continue next week.
Thank you for all the positive comments.
ReplyDeleteit is interesting to see how your wordle turned out to point at one of the main reason why some students become bullies: They want to show they have power. From a personal experience I can tell you it is so right. Some kids hurt others when they are being hurt at home and want to show the world they can hurt as well and that they have the power to do so. Being mean gurantees they will not be abused at school just as they are abused at home.
ReplyDelete