Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is the just like regular bullying in that kids or even adults alinate, discriminate against, or harass another person because they are different and unaccepted by the group. The difference is that the bullying takes place over the internet or in some technological way. I don’t personally have an experience with cyberbullying, but my good friend does. She was part of a group of girls in high school, who then turned on her by creating a website where they posted defamatory statements and talking about her in harassing ways, spreading lies about her personal life. It made going to high school very difficult for her.
Schools have a tough road ahead of them when it comes to cyberbullying because the bullying happens at home, off school property, or not during school hours. Because of this factor, schools have little or no actions they can take to stop the harassment. Also, many argue that this form of bullying is free speech, which I completely disagree with. Any speech that harms another person is not free speech; it is harassment. If student are coming to class, disrupting class because of harassment that is happening over the internet, we as teachers must step in and mediate the situation. I don’t think we want to take on another responsibility of trying to regulate the home lives of our students, we have no control of what happens to our students between 3pm and 8am.
I really think this, just like normal bullying, can be stopped or lessened with community education. I will strive to create a classroom community, which in turn should invest the students in each other and help to curb all forms of bullying. I think I would do both a preventative action like a community meeting within my classroom and then individual mediations between feuding students. I also think that including the larger community and parents in an involved active discussion about cyberbullying will make a big difference in the way my students are treated.