Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is the use of any technology source in an effore to put down or harm someone else emotionally. It is something that is problematice. I have been a part of it to a certain extent without knowing it. I have taken part in sports forums talking trash to other people. Some people take it too far though.

Schools face this growing problem because students are more and more technology savvy. It is a lot easier to put down someone using technology and not face any of the consuequences you would face if you did it in person. It is really hard to regulate legally also. The question is when do you regulate it? The only thing you can do is start having regulation for websites and have them closely monitored to kick people off who break the rules. Since it is hard to do this we need to try and do something in the schools about this. You can't really punish students for what takes place out of class but we need to try and identify any cyberbullying as it occurs and talk to the students to try and squash it. Also we need to educate students starting when they're young about cyberbullying and let them know its not accepted.

In my classroom I will have an open door policy. I will tell any student to come talk to me about any issues regarding cyberbullying or bullying in any form. First step would be to talk to the students who are at fault. If it continues my next step would be to talk to the parents. Also during all of this I would let the principle be aware of what is going on. If this is something that continues then disciplinary action would have to follow. If the issue really becomes a problem I would run an entire class on cyberbullying getting every student aware of it. I could use any of the stories I read to even scare the students a little. Awareness will be the best way to take on cyberbullying and hopefully minimize its occurance.