The topic of cyber bullying is an obsolete idea. It seems to me to be a sign of the lack of awareness by principles and teachers that there students are living and communicating on a whole other level than they are. As I read the articles about the topic it was making me laugh the way they talked about new technology and what to do about the bullying that may be happening in a realm that they are not involved in. The truth is that the kids in school today don’t think of it as “cyber bullying”, any more than we thought of our bullying situations as “face to face bullying”, or “Snail mail/land line bullying”. It was just bullying. Humans operate, communicate, and manipulate in the culture, context, and language of there time. The law and liberty for students has not changed just because communication technology has.
A school can not punish a student that ran in to another student on a Sunday afternoon far away from campus and got into a fight, It is a mater for the police to handle, and only if the other student wishes to pres charges. In the same way a school should not be able to punish a student for merely saying some thing on line to another out side of school locations and hours. While I condemn all bullying on or off of school property, it worries’s me considerably that the first amendment rights of young Americans would be tossed aside for the sake of hurt feelings. I get hurt feeling and quite upset by some of the political rhetoric and down right bullying that goes on in our country, but that’s America. Discomfort is one of the prices we must pay for liberty. It can be hard to swallow some times, but we must always remember that free speech can not be limited to only positive speech.
The laws already in place can sufficiently handle any problems happening in the cyber world. As long as the language of the laws concerning harassment, liable, and threat/fight speech, include digital communication, than no further action needs to be taken. Good intentions are most certainly what drives parents, teachers, and school administrators to reach out of the bounds of jurisdiction in an attempt to make things better, but as the saying goes “the road to Hell is paved with good intentions”. I do not mean to say that what they are doing is worthy of damnation. It only serves to illustrate that good intentions do not necessarily come from sound reasoning or produce good results.
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Hey Joe. I enjoyed reading your post about cyberbullying. I agree with your view about the issue of freedom of speech. It is not something to be taken lightly, especially since it it is one of the rights of every US citizen. However, I do believe that there must be some actions taken by administrators when such occurrences happen on school grounds or with school property. As with old school bullying, administrators must take a stance on the problem and curtail it right away.
ReplyDeleteAs far as teachers monitoring what is being said by students while away from school on social networking sites and blogs, I do not feel it is the duty of the administration to hand down penalties to the child. If it is causing a disturbance while at school, perhaps the teacher or administration could talk with the student's parents and let them take charge of any action against their family member. However, if the threat is one that is of causing danger to another student such as threats of life, then perhaps law enforcement should be talked with as well. We are not here to be Big Brother...we are here to tech and have kids feel as if school is a safe place to be. Thanks for the blog posting. I enjoyed your take on the topic.
Very insiteful Joe. I agree with you 100%. It's just a different medium for bullies to operate.
ReplyDeleteI agree that cyber bullying is just another form of bullying, but again agreed with Jason when said if it happens on school grounds, it is a different story. I agree whole heartily that administrators shouldn't get involved when a incident happens off campus, but let me tell you this it can happen, I see it happens and it is wrong. But I do believe we as teachers need to be a stern guide, especially when matters happen at school. Your reflection was very well written and a couple of the articles got me a laughing so I do know what you mean. Well done Joe!
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