Publication Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Editorial: 'Cyberbullying' must not be tolerated
Editorial: 'Cyberbullying' must not be tolerated
(March 23, 2005) Increased anonymity from electronic technologies offers a screen for the cowardly and makes harassment easier, but school officials and police need to pay heed
Bullying and harassment in schools and among children and young adults is as old as humanity.
In some cultures, light teasing can release tensions and lighten natural hostilities. In others, or at other times, teasing can become cruel, malicious and deeply hurtful - damaging the targeted person for years. The fact is that teasing and its sharp-edged defensive cousin, sarcasm, are almost always rooted in unexpressed anger or resentment.
It's a recognized sign of maturity when people are able to grow beyond such devices and learn to express themselves openly and directly - the first step toward resolving issues between people, or clarifying misunderstandings.
In prior generations, targets of severe teasing or bullying at least knew, for the most part, who their tormentors were: often someone lacking fully developed social skills, or sometimes a "popular" student who resorted to put-downs as a way to shore up their own social position or ego.
But times change, even if human nature doesn't -- as outlined in this week's lead Upfront story by Alexandria Rocha (page 3).
Today's universal use of high-technology communications devices and systems has created an entirely new medium where some students can unleash their cruelty on others without anyone knowing the perpetrator.
Even when the originator is known, malicious messages can be spread instantly to dozens, even hundreds or thousands of others without the victim's awareness or ability to do anything to defend himself or herself.
And students aren't the only ones victimized, as in the case of a Gunn High School teacher who last year was targeted by an anonymous person -- presumably a disgruntled student -- and received thousands of automated e-mails all with the same racist subject line.
"I am confident that a situation such as happened last summer would not have occurred if the person writing were not behind a computer," Gunn Principal Noreen Likins said of the electronic assault, initiated just after school was out from a computer in the school's science lab. Neither school officials nor police were able to trace the person responsible, although the investigation remains open, theoretically.
JLS Middle School Principal Joe DiSalvo called electronics-enhanced harassment "a new form of bullying that could grow," adding that "most parents would be surprised at what their children are saying and doing electronically."
In addition to text messaging on cell phones, omnipresent e-mail messages, and the easy ability to create "screen names" or "spoof" e-mail addresses, there are online forums where young persons communicate with each other: real-time chat rooms, blogs (short for Web logs, often openly shared online), instant messaging and other forms that would boggle the minds of prior generations.
Finding a technological solution to anonymous bullying is probably not feasible at this time -- and may not even be needed or desirable.
But such "cyberbullying" is no more acceptable in a school or community today than any form of bullying or cruelty ever was -- even though schools historically have had a spotty record of handling such matters effectively.
Yet while it may never be eliminated entirely, bully behavior can be severely curtailed and in many ways mitigated or neutralized by bringing it out into the open and discussing it in the context of basic human and social values. Victims of such attacks can be counseled and taught ways of responding that depersonalizes the assault, soothing the hurt.
Just as in other forms of behavior, parents, teachers and school officials need to recognize that children can be mean to each other -- a situation that requires guidance and, when necessary, discipline.
There have been many studies of the root causes of such behavior, and just sharing the results of such studies can have both a protective and a healing effect.
But it's time for all involved -- from students themselves to parents, teachers, school officials and police -- to recognize the importance of this new form of bullying and find ways to respond quickly and effectively, not brush it off as a "kids will be kids" kind of phenomenon.
The real danger of using hurtful words without consequence when young is that words too often become actions as one grows older. Unless a strong values-based response is made when teasing is at the kids'-stuff level, there will be no foundation for adult values later.
E-mail a friend a link to this story. | 
