Cyberbullying: Control-Alt-Delete

A number of heartbreaking and high-profile incidents have brought national attention to cyberbullying in the past few years, as administrators, teachers, parents, students and others struggle to deal with this alarming and growing trend. While bullying is not a new problem, the use of technology has extended its reach and given perpetrators the bravado of anonymity. Texts, instant messages, e-mail and social networking are as common to students as using the telephone is to most adults. And with the Internet freeway always open, these quick and easy ways to communicate have taken bullying to a whole new level.

Experts agree that successful efforts to banish bullying must be collaborative and education is key. Parents must be oriented to the important role they play, students must receive training on the proper use of technology and how to deal with bullying, and educators and administrators should be given the necessary training and tools.

Recent guidance from the U.S. Department of Education emphasizes the legal obligations of educators to protect students against harassment based on discrimination. However, circumstances often require them to act quickly and, in some cases, without state laws or school policies in place to clarify their role or the necessary training to deal with this significant responsibility. Approximately 45 states have antibullying laws that generally require schools to adopt a set of preventive policies, but according to Bully Police USA, only 26 have good, effective laws that garnered top ratings from the watchdog organization and Texas was near the bottom of the list with a C- (see bullypolice.org for more information).

“Most importantly, we must ensure that students are in a safe, secure and productive environment that protects them from all forms of bullying and harassment, so they can do their best,” says Texas principal Barbara-Jane Paris, who turned a frightening experience with cyberbullying into a personal mission. Paris’ story along with her recommendations and advice to educators on how to deal with the growing problem follow on pages 6-9. (NOTE: TCTA is pleased to announce that Paris will make a presentation on cyberbullying at our Annual Convention in Austin on Feb. 4.)

CYBERBULLYING INCIDENT LEADS TEXAS PRINCIPAL FROM FEAR AND AWARENESS TO HOPE AND EMPOWERMENT

What started out as an ordinary day for Barbara-Jane Paris five years ago took a troubling turn when she learned of a student who was suicidal after being bashed on a website. Then a high school principal in a small East Texas town, Paris knew she had to do something, but had no idea where to begin or if she even had jurisdiction to act since the Internet activity happened off-campus. But she saw that as a “poor excuse for doing nothing,” took a leap of faith and did what was right for the student, shutting down the bashing website and ensuring the students involved were better educated about the unintended consequences of their actions. “The truth is, good kids do terrible things in cyberspace. They do not see the pain they cause,” says Paris.

Bend in the road leads down new path

Finding no protocol for handling these situations and no guidance for school personnel, Paris vowed to learn everything she could about cyberbullying so that she could limit its impact on other students. She became a volunteer for Bully Police USA, a national watchdog organization that advocates for bullied children and reports on state antibullying laws, where she gained key strategies for navigating the inherent problems of cyberspace in schools. She learned to block certain web sites in her school and began looking at best practices around the country. Along the way, she found incredibly sad stories of students who had committed suicide. “Before the high profile cases like Phoebe Prince and Megan Meier, there was Ryan, Jared, Kristen, Jeff, Eric, Meredith, Zach, Jennifer – the list seemed endless,” said Paris.

She eventually turned her boxes of research into a 45-minute presentation, and for the past five years has spoken across the country about cyberbullying – not just to other principals but to superintendents, trustees, support personnel, teachers, counselors, school safety groups, parent groups, student groups and law enforcement. “What started as a message of heightened awareness built on fear, has morphed into one of hope and empowerment,” for Paris.

Keep students safe so they can learn

Last summer, Paris headed home to England for a short holiday to meet her husband who was on leave from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Within hours, she received a call from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, inviting her to testify on cyberbullying before a U.S. Congressional committee in Washington, D.C. (she serves on the board of directors for NASSP and was 2008-09 TASSP president). Her husband urged her to “Go,” and she took off on what she calls her “transatlantic day trip.” While Paris brought written testimony to the hearing, she found herself speaking from the heart in an effort “to be a voice for all those students who had lost their lives or who suffer daily due to cyberbullying.” Her overarching message for the committee was the importance of keeping students safe so they can learn. To help in this effort, Paris wants to see federal dollars directed to schools for the development of effective protocols to manage bullying and cyberbullying.

Paris is also an advocate at the state level, testifying before the Texas Legislature in 2009 in support of legislation that would empower campus leaders to develop systems for dealing with cyberbullying and to provide professional development for all educators. She is currently working with the Texas Safe Schools Coalition and Mark Strama (D-Austin) on a bill that would expand the current law to cover bullying by electronic means and to allow schools to move the bully to another class or school rather than the victim.

Paris serves as principal of Canyon Vista Middle School in the Round Rock ISD, where she oversees more than 1,200 students, 78 teachers and other school personnel at her exemplary campus. She has been in public education for 30 years, serving as a teacher at all levels and for the past 10 years as a secondary school principal. She serves on the Texas Safe Schools Coalition and was recently invited by the Deputy Secretary of Education to serve on a White House panel on Safe Schools.

Recently, Paris took time from her busy schedule to answer a few questions about the cyberbullying crisis and discuss possible solutions, which we share with you here.

Why do you think bullying has gone electronic and what are the most commonly used modes of cyberbullying?

“Pretty much anyone over 30 is a technology immigrant. Bullying has gone electronic because that’s where kids have gone. Their innate teenage ‘need to belong to something’ means that they will do so indiscriminately - using anything that plugs in or sends a signal. They are not so much concerned with adult approval as they are with peer recognition. The ‘need’ is not new to this generation, just the way it manifests itself.

“Social networking sites are commonly used to denigrate people but more deliberate than that are websites built to destroy someone – that takes an individual with intent. The things sent out in angry text or instant messages are generally more spontaneous, but a website is created with purpose.

It is possible to shut them down but it is time-consuming and you have to be tenacious – if they are determined, they simply move to another Internet service provider. You have to wear them out and get help.”

How does cyberbullying usually come to light?

“Sometimes bullying is uncovered when it becomes the topic of gossip around the school or the bully brags about the incident; other times, the child being bullied makes an outcry. But most times, sadly – it doesn’t become known until it reaches a critical point. Teens hesitate to report it for fear we will take away their technology, their lifeline in this generation. As adults, we tend to have that knee-jerk reaction, so students don’t tell us until they have nowhere else to go. We have to break that code of silence.

What are the best practices for schools in terms of acknowledging the problem and encouraging kids to come forward?

“First and foremost – it is about education. Students need to know what the boundaries are and be made aware of the facts – that it is a felony to pose as someone else on the Internet with the intent to do harm, and that no one is really anonymous since every keystroke leaves a discoverable footprint. Then those same messages need to be shared with parents and staff – it has to be systemic. It doesn’t change behavior if only one of these groups ‘gets it.’

“Students need to know that if they go out on a limb and tell an adult - something good will come of it. Not only will it be resolved but every effort will be made to protect the privacy of those involved.

“Also, we have done a lot of damage over the years in the name of ‘conflict mediation.’ In bullying cases, it is a load of old rubbish and does more harm than good to put the victim in a room and make him or her suffer all over again by being subject to lies from the bully.”

What do you have in place on your campus to avert, watch out for, or deal with cyberbullying?

“We use AnCom, an anonymous reporting system, which allows students to send electronic messages or text messages to administrators or teachers about areas of concern without fear of retribution. We also conduct parent, student and teacher seminars and require ALL of our students to take a course called CyberSmart that teaches online netiquette.”

What do you think is an appropriate punishment for cyberbullying?

“Punishment is retroactive and I am not convinced it changes behavior as effectively as clear expectations. However, students need to know which actions invoke penal code, civil prosecution and school consequences. Either way the message must be clear: ‘If you interfere with the rights of your peers to learn, there are consequences.’ For the majority of students, the certainty of consequences is more powerful than the severity.”

What can teachers do?

“Never, ever tolerate acts of bullying. Tell students that it is not a rite of passage and that in the workplace, people are not sent to the principal or to D hall, they are sent home – they are fired.

“Also – model. We all take our emotional cues from the top, and in the students’ world their teachers and coaches and school personnel are ‘top’ – so the administrators need to ensure that the adults are not the bullies!”

What should parents do?

“Recognize our role. When our children are babies, we protect them with child locks and bike helmets and safety belts. Yet we throw them a laptop and tell them to ‘have at it.’ It is like throwing a 16-year-old the car keys with no education and saying – ‘have at it.’ Of course they will resist – just as they did over the bike helmets – but it is our job to protect our children and that includes knowing where they are going in cyberspace just as we expect to know where they are going in the community. Cyberspace IS their community.”

STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES

While technology is a wonderful educational tool, students need to be taught about the risks involved, the seriousness and consequences of cyberbullying or cyberstalking, and how to recognize and report when cyberbullying occurs.

Students should also be reminded that once they press “send,” there may be no turning back. The reality is that anything posted may be tracked or viewed by anyone, and is difficult or impossible to delete.

It is also important that students be made aware of the legal consequences of sexting. In most states, teenagers who send or receive sexually explicit photographs by cell phone or computer are at risk of being charged with distribution of child pornography or obscene materials, which is a felony requiring registration as a sex offender. But several states, including Texas, are looking at softening sexting laws, originally intended primarily to crack down on child pornography in the possession of adults. Under current Texas law, transmitting an explicit image of a teen can result in felony charges of possessing or trafficking child pornography. But if attempts to change current law are successful, teen sexting could become a misdemeanor offense punishable by probation and restricted cell phone usage, with an emphasis on educating teens about the long-term harmful consequences of sexting. Tragic and often unintended consequences can occur if images make their way into wide publication on the Internet and into the hands of sexual predators, or are shared with other students, leading to harassment of the victim and even suicide.

WHEN THE TEACHER IS THE VICTIM

Teachers may also find themselves the object of bullying, pranks or disparagement online. Posting on websites where teachers are rated (allowing anyone to say anything, whether true or not), sharing of video or photos surreptitiously filmed during class, and creating chat rooms and fake websites are a few of the ways in which, fairly or not, students can make their feelings about teachers known. Other forms of bullying include false reports about teachers by students to the school or the school board, and comments about teachers posted by disgruntled parents in online status updates or “tweets.” TCTA members dealing with these or similar issues are encouraged to call the Legal Department at (888) 879-8282.

CYBERBULLYING STATISTICS

According to recent studies conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center:

• Approximately 20% of 11- to 18-year-old students indicate they have been a victim of cyberbullying at some point in their lifetimes, and about the same percentage admit to cyberbullying at some time. Approximately 10% of kids say they have been both a victim and an offender.
• The most commonly reported forms of cyberbullying include online posting of mean or hurtful comments (13.7%) and rumors (12.9%).
• All forms of bullying are associated with increases in suicidal thoughts, with cyberbullying victims almost twice as likely to have attempted suicide as students who have not been cyberbullied.

RESOURCES

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
http://www.morethansad.org
The More Than Sad program provides information and resources for educators and students, including DVDs on teen depression and suicide prevention.

National Alliance on Mental Illness Texas
http://www.viahope.org
At-Risk, a game-based training program (free to Texas high school educators) designed to help educators recognize students in emotional distress.

Operation Respect: “Don’t Laugh at Me” project
http://operationrespect.org
Information and resources for students, parents and educators.

Stopcyberbullying.org and WiredSafety.org
Resources for parents, students and educators on cyberbullying prevention and online safety.

Texas Safe Schools Coalition
http://www.equalitytexas.org/content.aspx?id=439
The Safe Schools Initiative is focused on the adoption of model policies in Texas schools to address the prevention, intervention and elimination of bullying and harassment.

U.S. Department of Education
http://www.bullyinginfo.org
National database of effective antibullying programs.