You can't bully me!

Cyberbullying is the act of using technology, in almost any form, by someone younger than 18 to demean, harass, intimidate, belittle, or just plain bully another person younger than the age of 18. I believe that I am too old to have been involved in any forms of cyberbullying. Before I turned 18, there were no widespread cell phones, no forms of text messaging or paging, and the internet was in its infancy. The closest I have ever really came to being involved in anything similar to cyberbullying was responding to someone who anonymously insulted my game playing ability in different online games. I just laughed at their insults.

The biggest problems face regarding cyberbullying is just finding out. Most schools do not have the resources or the time to monitor any possible internet involvement related to students from their school district. Finding out about any bullying, whether it be cyberbullying or in real life, involves someone spilling the beans. Either the victim themselves or someone else who knows telling someone of authority in the school. Legally, as supported by many different cases, schools have limited rights to inhibit or punish students for speech expressed outside of school. And cyberbullying falls under that limitation relative to school imposed punishments. Yet, it is my opinion that schools should not turn a blind eye to the activity of cyberbullying, just as they cannot turn a blind eye to physical or sexual abuse of students. If evidence is believed to exist that a student is cyberbullying or being cyberbullyed, than that information should be reported to the local authorities and/or the parents of the students. Schools need to deal with behaviors with the legal scope of their own authority.

I intend to have a somewhat preemptive plan for dealing with cyberbullying within my classroom. This preemptive plan is to have an all encompassing acceptable behavior policy stated within each syllabus for each class. This policy will state that inappropriate behavior in any form or media will not be tolerated. I legally cannot outline what, if any, punishment will be vetted out, but it will be a requirement of all my students that they have their parent or legal guardian recognize through signature that they understand their child is aware of this acceptable behavior policy. I am not the ultimate caretaker of these students, but I will be a defining influence in their behavior as my students.