 |
|
Arroyo High School counselor Diana Thompson springs to action as soon as she's alerted to a hostile behavior online. |
It started with photos distorted on MySpace to make a student look ugly, recalls Diana Thompson, a counselor at Arroyo High School in El Monte. Soon there were slurs on that student’s reputation. And then it escalated.
“The student was trying to ignore it, but it just kept getting worse,” recalls Thompson, a member of the El Monte Union Education Association. When the comments became “more mean-spirited” and the threats started, the victim’s parent brought it to the school’s attention.
The school’s response was to offer counseling to the traumatized student and conflict intervention for all students involved. “As soon as we become aware of it, we do mediation,” says Thompson. “And it’s a lot of work.”
The student was a victim of “cyberbullying,” a growing problem throughout California and the rest of the country. Websites like MySpace and Facebook are being used to harass and humiliate students, but e-mails, cell phone text messages, instant messaging and chat rooms like www.schoolscandals.com are also outlets for hostile behavior.
While bullying is nothing new, cyberbullying provides a means to harass students anonymously in front of a wide audience. And it’s often under the radar of parents and school employees, since students often don’t report it out of fear that adults will overreact or cut off their Internet access.
Nationwide, an estimated 4 in 10 teens have been the victims of cyberbullying, according to a study by the National Crime Prevention Council. A report by www.wiredsafety.org says 90 percent of middle school students have had their feelings hurt online and 75 percent have visited a website bashing another student.
The impact can be devastating. It can inflict serious emotional damage to teenagers, according to the National Association of School Psychologists. Some victims have even committed suicide.
Many schools — including Arroyo High School — have blocked access to sites such as MySpace on school computers, but students are constantly finding ways to circumvent the blocking mechanism. And most postings occur at home, which raises the issue of whether such activity is protected by freedom of speech. But while it may occur off campus, the impact carries over into the school day and has detrimental effects on the school environment and student learning.
CTA is taking the position that school officials can discipline students for off-campus activity when that activity substantially interferes with the education process, says CTA Chief Counsel Beverly Tucker. Some states are pushing for laws to curb online bullying. Assembly Member Guy Houston (R-San Ramon) says he plans to propose a law against online harassment in California.
Later this year the Supreme Court will hear a case concerning whether public school officials can suppress student speech off campus, which legal experts think may impact how schools discipline students for cyberbullying.
While some schools have taken a tough stand against cyberbullying and suspended students, other schools contend they can’t discipline students for behavior that occurs off campus.
At George Shirakawa School in San Jose, “we can’t do anything about it if it’s not done on a school computer,” says Jade Lee, a seventh-grade teacher and a member of the Franklin McKinley Education Association. “All we can do is talk to the parents. But teachers feel there should be some law enforcement involved. If you are bullied online, how can you come to school and be mentally healthy?”
Cyberbullying has led to traumatized students and destruction of property in the Humboldt County area, says Jill Kimura, a member of the Eureka Teachers Association. “The schools are appalled by it and trying their best to do something about it, because it affects all of the kids at school.”
On one campus, says Kimura, a schoolwide event was nearly canceled over the issue. “Sometimes I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Because parents are often clueless about the problem, she believes schools should take the step of educating parents about cyberbullying. That way parents can monitor their children’s behavior online.
“Public education has done a good job of monitoring the Internet,” she says. It would help if parents were able to help.
Other steps schools could take include:
- Educating administration and staff on cyberbullying.
- Developing a plan to educate students, parents and the community about cyberbullying.
- Developing Internet use policies that students and parents must sign at the start of the school year and including cyberbullying as a punishable offense.
- Developing discipline policies and procedures for cyberbullying.
- Establishing a threat assessment procedure that includes contacting the police if threats occur.
- Establishing a counseling program for victims and perpetrators.
- Holding assemblies where victims of cyberbullying can discuss their experiences to help other students understand how devastating such incidents can be.
At Arroyo High School, parents are usually shocked but grateful when informed by school staff about their child’s inappropriate use of the Internet. In most cases, they have no inkling about what’s going on, says Thompson, but once they find out, they say “thank you” and put a stop to such activity.
“It’s an ugly issue,” she says. “Part of growing up is learning the difference between maturity and immaturity. And the difference between the two is learning not to say everything that comes to mind.”