Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is much like bullying someone in rl (real life). It would include being insulting, mean, making fun of someone, being racist, or making threats. The autonomy that the internet seemingly provides has emboldened many people, mostly young people, to invent more creative and hurtful ways of bullying than ever before. The same kid that would never dream of saying something mean to someone’s face doesn’t hesitate to send emails or IM’s that can be categorized as cyberbullying.
I hadn’t really thought that I had ever been cyberbullied until I read these articles and considered the definition. I have received numerous emails over the years from my boss that might be considered cyberbullying. At the very least, they were rude and inappropriate. I used to keep them in a folder so I could occasionally remind myself of who I was dealing with and as a reminder to be cautious with e-communications that I send. Once you click, there’s no taking it back. I suppose on occasion I wrote emails in anger but I tried to be very careful and would save the email until later or the next day and then reconsider, is this message something I was proud of. If not, I hit the delete button.
Cyberbulling in schools appears to be a growing problem. I haven’t had any experience with this form of harassment yet but as I become aware of incidents, I hope I can make them teachable moments. Reading the point, counterpoint article by Nancy E Willard and Lynn Wietecha, I didn’t think they were really in disagreement. Both felt that as a professional educator, once you become aware of a problem, you have a legal and moral obligation to take some action. What you do is relative to the extent of the problem. Just as educators are required to report physical abuse, we are obligated to report threatening cyber communications. I don’t believe anyone realistically believes schools have the ability to monitor all student internet activities but once we become aware of problems, we must react appropriately. I would imagine the most common way we would become aware of a problem is because someone reported it or we overheard some conversation about it.I think cyberbullying need to be dealt with in much the same manner we go about teaching children other character building lessons. We should never overlook an opportunity to teach morality in our classrooms. As with everything else we do, as role models we should never partake in inappropriate language, whether via the internet or otherwise. This is apparently a growing problem and should I be employed somewhere that doesn’t seem to have developed a policy or strategy for dealing with cyberbullying, I would be obligated to make sure other teachers and administrators become aware of the issues and help with creating a culture of respect and responsibility in and out of the classroom.