Texting, Cyberbullying and Schools...

The New York Times published an interesting article on June 27, 2010. The title of the article is "Online Bullies Pull Schools Into the Fray." The article can be found at:

www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/style/28bully.html?hp

Schools have many tasks and goals to accomplish throughout the school year. The tests must be graded, and the homework must be assigned, but should cyber bullying be addressed? This is a debatable topic that is becoming increasingly popular as younger children log onto many different social networking sites such as Facebook or Myspace. When well known social websites such as Facebook were founded, they were intended to be used by only one specific group and/or age of people. For Facebook, the only people that were expected to log on were college students. Today, Facebook is used by millions, ranging from kids just entering middle school to adults way past college.



Due to the number of students that are logging on to these websites, Cyber bullying is growing rapidly and is spreading into schools across the nation. A long time ago, if you had something mean to say to someone, you would have to go up right to their face and say it. Not only is face to face conversation more emotional because you are in front of the other person, it is also more dangerous, because the person starts a physical fight with you. Now, bullying someone is as easy as hitting the send button. Cyber bullying is fast, efficient, and safe for the attacker because he or she is hidden behind a computer screen. Even though the victim is not being physically harmed, the potential to cause devastation and suffering is just as likely to occur in person compared to online.



Even though internet bullying takes place in cyberspace, that does not stop the carnage to continue in schools. Many fights that are held on websites like Facebook, Myspace, and Formspring, end at school in a nasty face to face confrontation. So the question is, do schools have the right to mediate fights that occur on the internet? Do they have the right to punish the attackers, or defend the victims? This heated debate is growing in numbers as more and more students log on after school. What do you think about this issue? Feel free to leave a question, comment, or concern below.