Sunday, September 18, 2005
Workshop topics include cyberbullying
Shanna Flowers
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The schoolyard ritual of the thugs or the catty clique preying on the weak or different has gone high-tech, with the torture of taunts, insults, vicious rumors and embarrassing photographs delivered not in person but through cyberspace. Cyberbullying has emerged with the proliferation of instant messaging, e-mail and cellphones with cameras and other wireless devices. Using the cover of anonymity, young cyberbullies land damaging blows to the psyche of their victims.
"If kids are scared, they're not going to learn," said Michele Dowdy, coordinator of guidance services for Roanoke County schools.
And the wide reach of technology ensures that the bullying extends beyond the school playground.
"Most people don't realize how big this is and how important an issue it is that we have to address," said Kaile France, a senior at Northside High School and a member of the Roanoke County Student Advisory Committee, which formulated the school district's policy on bullying, along with school administrators.
"It's basically behind closed doors - behind your child's door," added Kaile, 17, who endured physical bullying for two years in elementary school.
Bullying, including cyberbullying, is gaining welcome emphasis in Virginia. The General Assembly passed laws earlier this year requiring school divisions to develop local policies to address bullying.
Additionally, the Department of Education, in conjunction with Virginia Commonwealth University, has implemented a new statewide anti-bullying effort that employs a holistic approach - administrators, staff and students - to combat bullying.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Roanoke County Prevention Council will sponsor a youth conference at the Hotel Roanoke. Tuesday's agenda includes sessions on bullying, including cyberbullying.
"It's bad enough to be bullied," said Caroline Overfelt, e-learning coordinator in Roanoke County schools who will lead the cyberbullying presentation Tuesday. "At the same time, we could walk away from it."
"It's so different now. With the technology, cellphones, these kids are having a difficult time walking away from it."
The confluence of technology and errant teen behavior were sadly apparent last year after two Northside High School girls took nude pictures of themselves and e-mailed them to their boyfriends, who apparently e-mailed them to other people.
The photos spread to schools throughout the Roanoke Valley and were posted on Internet sites.
According to the online safety group Wiredsafety.org, half of 3,000 U.S. students polled over a six-month period last year had either been a cyberbully or the victim of one.
In Roanoke County, a 2004 survey found that 48 percent of high school students and 53 percent of middle school youngsters had been bullied.
Many young people suffer in silence rather than tell their parents, because they don't want their parents to pull the plug on their access to technology. Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org and an Internet lawyer, said cyberbullying is more of a problem in suburbs where youngsters have more access to high-tech gadgets.
Nationally, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 87 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 use the Internet; 75 percent use instant messaging.
"Stuff is happening, bad stuff is happening in the environments some kids are participating in," said Nancy Willard of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use. Yet cyberbullying victims keep mum "because the consequence is being excluded from that environment."
Kaile said she immediately encourages victims to tell an adult. Depending on the circumstances, she also encourages the victim to firmly ask the cyberbully to stop. That strategy usually works, she said.
Roanoke County began seriously confronting bullying of all types about two years ago when the Student Advisory Committee conducted a poll, and students said that it was an issue.
For more than a year, the committee created a definition of bullying and hashed out ways to identify it and recommended that each school establish a bullying prevention panel. The plan was finalized in June.
"It's starting to change," said Kaile, who wants to pursue a career in forensic science. "It's not going to be done overnight. It may not be fixed next year.
"I've seen a lot more bystanders trying to help the victim. I've seen a lot more students stepping up to try to be friends with people who may be alienated."
Aftab said cyberbullying holds a lesson for parents: "Before we put powerful tools into our kids' hands, we'd better make sure they know how to use them."
Shanna Flowers' column appears
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