High-Tech Torment
Meg Shepro, Staff Writer
December 19, 2011
Filed under Features, Top Stories
“No one likes you.”
“Get a life.”
“You’re such a poser.”
Cyberbullying poses challenges for students and administrators
Bullying no longer just accounts for name-calling in the hallways, or pinning a freshman up against his locker.
The cruelty has taken on a new face in an era where a large percentage of communication and interaction takes place on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Formspring.
Few teens are strangers to being either victims or perpetrators of such harmful comments. Whether on the giving or receiving end of such insults, the hurtful effects of demeaning words have either been experienced or witnessed by most adolescents.
When students were picked at random and asked to define bullying by MavLife, most recognized it as an act of aggression by people who were insecure themselves.
“Bullying is when people think they have a higher status over someone else and they take out aggressive feelings towards [them] because they think they can make themselves feel better by putting someone else down,” senior Bronson Young said.
Freshman Pierce Harrington believes that bullying is “wrong and mean” and there is simply “no need.” Similarly, Senior Luke Ashworth defined bullying as “degrading one’s self worth.”
However in this day, Cyberbullies have emerged. They maintain the advantage of being anonymous, a quality that can give some the power to hide and be reassured that they will not be punished for their actions.
“When it’s not to your face, I think people can be more mean to you because they are not as intimidated,” freshman Samantha Archinal said.
“Being anonymous gives the bully power,” junior Allison Zimmerman said.
The effects of bullying have made headlines nationally with stories of depression and even suicides. Some students, like senior Julian Todd-Borden, believe that the act of bullying breeds new bullies.
“People lose friends or end up drinking or doing drugs to cope with the loss of self-esteem or they become bullies themselves,” Todd-Borden said.
Principal Kyle Ruggles recognizes cyberbullying as a serious issue but explains that he has limited control over students’ online activity.
“There are millions of things going on in cyberspace that I can’t have full authority over,” Dr. Ruggles said. “If the conflict that begins in cyberspace comes onto school grounds, I have full control and can deal with the disciplinary actions for those students.”
Dr. Ruggles has been faced with a district that does not have formal guidelines dealing with bullying via the Internet. The district has, however, put in place new policies that address how teachers use social media for instructional purposes and there is some language that addresses cyberbullying within that limited context. For example, in the policy for social media for both teachers and students it states, “District staff does not regularly monitor postings made by students” and that “parents and students are responsible for all content shared.”
However, Dr. Ruggles is trying to put in place new policies that do address the problem.
“There is no reason that any student should ever be bullied for any reason, either in cyberspace or in person,” Dr. Ruggles said.
Parents and schools as well as the media are drawing attention to incidents of bullying in cyberspace. With cyberbullying out in the open and now recognized as a form of cowardise, its impact can be lessened.
As Young states, “bullying is cowardly in the first place, but cyberbullying is just ridiculous.”