Cyberbullying

**Cyber Bullying** =**Description:** = toc  Cyberbullying is anytime that a child or young adult is picked on using the internet. According to STOP Cyberbullying, it is " when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor" (2010). A key portion of this definition is the action must be by one minor against another. If an adult is involved, the term changes to cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Often, cyberbullying is not a single incident, but a pattern of behaviors and actions that are detrimental to a student.

With technology growing everyday, there are more and more venues from which students can be cyberbullied. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, AIM, e-mail, YouTube, blogs, and more new programs are being produced everyday. These interactive tools are not monitored or policed by anyone, and thus students, often with anonymity, have free reign to do as they wish. Many of these tools are now available through mobile phones now as well, and so it only gets easier to cyberbully someone. With student suicide due to harassment more prevalent than ever, the time to put an end to this is now.

=**Impact on schools, educators, and students?** =

 Cyberbullying has a huge impact on students in school. Although it is not directly educational, it does affect how a student learns. Research shows that a student's limbic system must be in a state of relaxed alertness in order to retain information (Neubert, 2004). If a student feels fear, pain, or embarassment, their limbic system shuts down access to the prefrontal cortex so that no learning can occur. This means that if a student is being bullied, in person or online, and feels uncomfortable in class, their ability to perform academically is impacted. This means stopping cyberbullying is essential to fostering high achieving students. Beyond academic impacts, many bullied students face other obstacles such as depression and even suicide.

 Another issue for the school system is the lack of control of student interactions beyond school walls. According to STOP Cyberbullying, schools who try to censor students on the internet are "often sued for exceeding their authority and violating the student's free speech right. [The schools] also often lose" (2010). If schools have no rights in this area, how do they stop cyberbullying? They can educate their students about the dangers of cyberbullying. They can also have their students sign conduct agreements so that they then have legal rights to prosecute students for actions occuring outside of the school. There is little legal precedent for this topic, and what is available is not beneficial to schools. One of the most famed cases is the United States vs. Lori Drew, in which a woman created a fake MySpace identity, and then harassed a girl named Megan Meier to the point of suicide in 2006. She was tried under the Computer Fraud and Abuse act, convicted in 2008, and then the ruling was overturned in 2009. The conviction being overturned is a huge blow to cyber law, but this case in itself is also complicated by the fact that the defendant was an adult, violating the definition of "cyberbullying" even if she was impersonating a child. Legal precedent for true student vs. student cases is even harder to find because minors can rarely prosecuted in the same way adults are. As STOP Cyberbullying points out, the worst that normally happens at this point is a student loses their ISP connection and their online identities. The Cyberbullying Research Center, based on all relevant court cases to date, must be "able to demonstrate disruption [of the school environment] and a negative impact on the target of the incident" (Hinduja, 2009). Even with these elements, however, many schools have had issues successfully prosecuting students.

For more information on Cyberbullying laws from state to state, read State Cyberbullying Laws published by the Cyberbullying Research Center. For more legal precedents, read this fact sheet created by Cyberbullying Research Center. Judge Tom Jacob's has also written a book, ** [|Teen Cyberbullying Investigated: Where Do Your Rights End and Consequences Begin?] __,__ ** which tracks the progress of cyberbullying laws from 1998 to 2008 by analyzing what he considers to be the 16 key court cases to date. These include:

Justin Boucher v. School District of Greenfield (1998) Nick Emmett v. Kent School District (2000) Zachariah Paul v. Franklin Regional School District (2001) State v. Joshua Mortimer (2001) J.S. v. Bethlehem Area School District (2002) I.M.L. v. State of Utah (2002) Jon Coy v. Canton City Schools (2002) Joshua Mahaffey v. Waterford School District (2002) Jack Flaherty Jr. v. Keystone Oaks School District (2003) Ryan Dwyer v. Oceanport School District (2005) Gregory Requa v. Kent School District (2007) Justin Layshock v. Hermitage School District (2007) Aaron Wisniewski v. Weedsport Central School District (2007) A.B. v. State of Indiana (2008) Avery Doninger v. Lewis Mills High School (2008) United States v. Lori Drew (2008)

= Integrating Into Daily Instruction =

//__Grades K-5:__//
 The best way to train this generation is to begin with teaching the proper web etiquette. If we can reach students early as they are first learning about and using technology, we can teach them to be respectful users for the rest of their lives. Teachers in these grades should try to give students as much acess to the internet and computers as possible in hopes of modeling appropriate behavior at a young age.

 Starting in fourth and fifth grades, teachers should move away from mere ettiquete and directly adress the issue of bullying. Students are hitting a very turbulent time in their lives, and as they prepare to enter middle school bullying will develop into a bigger problem than ever before. This is the point where students should take the rules of etiquette they learned in early grades and begin to apply it to their lives, both on and offline.

 Lesson Integration Ideas:
 * Togetherville: Togetherville is essentially facebook for kids under the age of 13. It's designer, Mandeep Singh Dhillon, writes, "We’re giving kids access to some of the best content for kids on the web while reinforcing positive online behavior, helping parents raise a generation of good digital citizens." As mentioned earlier, as kids are learning to develop relationships in elementary school, it is also important for them to learn how to do it appropriately online. This social networking platform is an ultra secure and controlled forum within which they can learn that. Connected assignment from this could be as simple as posting pictures from a field trip. There are educational games that could be assigned for review. It could be used to teach students letter writing skills to send back and forth to classmates. Many educational goals could be met while at the same time teaching students how to be responsible digital citizens.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Integrate lessons on bullying with literature and topics being taught in the classroom. For example, civil rights are often touched on in the 5th grade classroom. Take Rosa Parks as a prime candidate for this kind of lesson. What did Rosa Parks experience? How was she bullied? How did it make her feel? If that same incident happened today, what form would that bullying take now? Help kids to make the transition from what happened to her to what is happening to them through the internet today. This helps them to better understand the oppression of pre-civil rights, and also helps them learn about cyberbullying.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Cyberbullying Specific Lessons:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Everyone wants friends (2-3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Is That fair?] (2-3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Power of Words] (4-5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Group Think] (4-5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Be Comfortable] (4-5)

//__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Grades 6-8: __//
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> In Middle school, the issue of bullying, on and offline, is a huge issue. It is also at this point that a student's limbic system, which controls <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">compulsivity and risk-taking, is fully developed, while the prefrontal cortex, which considers consequences and responsibility, is just starting to develop (Neubert, 2006). We can help students by giving them critical thinking activities which help them to prune their prefrontal cortex and enhance connections that strengthen this part of the brain. A great way to do this is by opening the year by talking about cyber bullying, and then putting the students in charge of creating a classroom policy on internet use. Students are much more likely to follows rules that they develop rather than rules that are forced upon them. This helps them to take ownership of their actions.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Middle school would also be a good time to institute a peer mentoring system. The transition from elementary school to middle is a huge one, and students need as much support as possible. By pairing 6th grade students with 7th and 8th grade students, they can talk to someone about their problems who has already been through the same experiences. This not only models appropriate behavior for the 6th grader, but also helps teach responsibility to the older students. Creating this type of community within a school fosters a sense of respect and enhances the learning experience of all students.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Integrated Lesson Plans:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">E-mail - Simple, but effective. E-mail can be used to practice letter writing skills. If you are studying civil rights, it could be used to have students write letters to a local politician addressing a concern that they have. In science, you could have students write e-mails with various questions in them to send to research facilities across the country. In the past ten years, there has been a definite transition from paper and pen to the internet, so it is time for lessons to make the change as well. Student's using e-mail in this fashion review what they've learned in school, can enact social change, but most importantly in this case, they are learning to appropriately communicate online.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Blogs - Instead of reading journals, integrate blogs into your lessons. Give students a topic to write about, and then have them post it to their blog. Assign each student a blog partner who will comment on their blog. This helps to train students in giving appropriate online feedback to each other. Using blogs also helps students to better understand that when they write something online, it is published for everyone to see - their partner, teacher, parents, and anyone else. This will make them take the assignment more seriously because any can view the quality of their work. At the same time, however, they will be reviewing what they have learned in class and making new connections. This is another simple but effective way to teach appropriate online communication without disrupting the curriculum.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Sample Lessons:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cyberbullying: Not a Pretty Picture <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Cyberbullying: Who, Me? Why Should I Care? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Cyberbullying: Crossing the Line] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Dealing with Cyberbullies]

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">//__Grades 9-12:__//
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> By the time students reach 9th grade, many are the masters of technology. It is integrated into their lives - computers, phones, social networking -- these students are pros. This also means, however, that they are more skilled at abusing these systems than ever before. That means we need to bring this technology into our classroom, and educate appropriate ways to use them, as well as the dangers associated with them. Sites that allow you to make fake social networking profiles, like [|My Fake Wall], are great tools for doing this. Even better, integrate it into a lesson. Studying World War II? Demonstrate bullying by having Hitler, Roosevelt, Churchill and Mussolini to demonstrate what cyberbullying is. A lesson like this is engaging, relevant, and informational. Additionally, students should be taught how can the technology be abused. They know how to use it, but are they aware of all the ways that other students might try to use the technology against them? What can I do if I am a victim? Many students don't even realize that sometimes a solution is as simple as a blocking option that they didn't know was there.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Lesson Integration:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; cursor: pointer; padding-right: 10px;">[[image:screen-shot-2011-02-01-at-11-02-07-am.png width="290" height="192" align="left" caption="(Wiebe, 2011) " link="http://cybersmartcurriculum.org/cyberbullying/lessons/9-12/connected_247/"]][|My Fake Wall] : My Fake Wall is a great website where you can createfake profiles and walls for anyone that you want, with an interface that looks exactly like Facebook. As mentioned above, this can be used to teach about cyberbullying in lessons about people who have feuds with other. What was Hitler's beef that made him start WWII? Have students create a profile for him and document his interactions with other key players. Show how Hitler, as a bully, would have treated others, explain how inappropriate it is, and how it led to a World War. This allows you to explore the origins of WWII while talking about cyberbullying at the same time.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Write It!]: Write It! is owned and operated by Scholastic Books. It is designed to help students write in different genres such as poetry, journalism, short fiction, and much more. This is a great tool for an English class. Scholastic not only walks students through the writing process and gives tips about effective practice, but also allows students to publish their work and to interact with other student writers. Using this in class is great, because it can help teach students how to appropriately respond to others using the internet. They will be able to practice responding to other people's writing in a professional and respectful fashion, and others will do the same for their pieces. This not only teaches them web etiquette, but it also helps them to experience how it feels when people comment on their own works. If they receive negative feedback, it may help put them in other people's shoes and realize how that makes others feel.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Cyberbullying Specific Lessons:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Acceptable Social Networking <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Connected 24/7]

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Additional Links:** = <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|STOP Cyberbullying] <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Cyberbullying Research Center] <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|ADL Curriculum Connections - Cyberbullying] <span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">** [|Teen Cyberbullying Investigated: Where Do Your Rights End and Consequences Begin?] ** <span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">** __<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #000000; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; padding-right: 10px;"> State Cyberbullying Laws __ ** <span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px;">** __<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;"> Cyberbullying Fact Sheet __ **

=<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**References:** =

Hinduja, S., Ph. D., & Patchin, J. W., Ph. D. (2009). Cyberbullying fact sheet [Brochure]. Retrieved from http://www.cyberbullying.us/cyberbullying_legal_issues.pdf

Longo, & Neary. (2011). Class rules and procedures. Retrieved April 22, 2011, from Tangient LLC website: http://longoneary2010.wikispaces.com/A.+Class+Rules+and+Procedures

Megan Meier Foundation. (2011). Megan Meier's Story. Retrieved April 22, 2011, from Charlotte's Web Studios, L.L.C. website: http://meganmeierfoundation.cwsit.org/megansStory.php

Neubert, G. A., & Wilkins, E. A. (2004). Putting it all together (A. M. Ramos & E. Beatty, Eds.). New York: Pearson Education.

Ortutay, B. (2010, May 19). ‘Togetherville’ aims to be Facebook for kids. MSNBC. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37231922/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Wiebe, G. (2011, April 22). Tip of the week – My fake Facebook, twitter and text [Web log post]. Retrieved from History Tech: http://historytech.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/ tip-of-the-week-my-fake-facebook-twitter-and-text/

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">WiredKids, Inc. (2010). STOP Cyberbullying. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html