What to do with a Cyber-bully

The news stories of mothers impersonating young boys on the Internet to get back at a daughter's classmate, which ultimately leads to the classmate killing herself, or a teen murdering another teen over an Internet fight, are becoming sadly, far too common. School districts have applied their muscle, in a legal sense, with only limited success. There seems to be a grey and fuzzy line where school related bullying and off campus, non-school related cyber-bullying exist as far as the courts are concerned. Districts enact anti-harassment policies in their schools, and can discourage this sort of behavior with strict consequences, but as the student leaves the school, the difficulties of enforcement become evident.

As Lynn Wietecha discusses in the point-counterpoint article "Should Schools Regulate Off site Online Behavior?", the notion of what is reasonable for a school to do is at the heart of the issue. I tend to agree with her side of the debate. I feel that while schools must encourage a moral climate and hold students to treating each other with respect and decency, they cannot police the student's activities outside of the school walls. This seems to be a job for the actual police. Just as a teacher or staff member must report physical abuse of a student to the authorities, so too, must they report any suspected cyber abuse to the same authorities. The law enforcement agencies have the resources, staff, and permission to investigate the abusive bullying. We, as teachers, do not need to be responsible for what people do outside the walls of the school. That is the job of many other people. Our job is to ensure the students have a safe learning environment, and that each and every student be educated about respect, and citizenship while they are within the walls of the school. If a student is bullying another student in any fashion outside of school and it is affecting that student in a negative way, or if an adult is doing the same, we must report what we see as soon as possible. But, we should not be held responsible for all that takes place beyond our school that we are not aware of. Our job as teachers is to teach, not to be law enforcement.

Having said this, I want to stress that bullying is often done in a covert manner. Those that bully and those that are the victims of this, are motivated, for different reasons, to keep the silence. Fear and intimidation are the principles of this interaction. Keeping out of the bright lights of observant adults, or in some cases, law enforcement, is the key to this disturbing relationship's success. How, then, can we as teachers, help those caught in this web, both as aggressors and as victims? Teaching respectful behavior, tolerance, and the consequences of disregarding these, will go a long way to stemming the behavior. Thomas Lickona is right in his assertion that building moral character and values is the ingredient needed in schools to stem cyber-bullying as well as other forms of disrespectful behavior. But schools cannot be the scapegoat for any one's behavior outside of school. If we do not recognize this, we might as well accept that if someone steals our car, and is subsequently caught, that a reasonable defense for this violation is that the thief is just a hapless victim of society. Does this really address any of the issues?

Cyber-bullying is a real threat to everyone. It can happen to adults, children, even those who have passed away. Schools have an obligation to address the issue with policies that parallel those of any other abusive situation. But schools should not be inserted into the position of law enforcement, and must not be held accountable for things that occur within the realm of private individual technology use. If it turns out that this is an unfortunate aspect of our culture, perhaps then, it is time to create a governing body that is charged with addressing the issue head on. That body is not our public school system.