Cyberbullying and our middle school girls.

Cyberbullying and our middle school girls. Recent research has targeted a new segment of our schoolpopulation--not for commendation, but rather for condemnation. Whilemany of our past columns have been written primarily to assist earlychildhood teachers and children, we would like to focus this column onour middle school girls. Cyberbullying has emerged as a new, insidious,and harmful way of getting back at an individual girl who may be"different" or disliked for a physical or social trait. Cyberbullying has been described as "willful and repeated harminflicted through the medium of electronic text" (Burgess-Proctoret al., 2006). It is carried out through a wide variety of methods,using cell phones, E-mail, and Internet instant messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or in suchlocations as MySpace and other Web-based sites. Parents and teachers areoften unsuspecting. Online harassment Ask a Lawyer QuestionCountry: United States of AmericaState: NevadaI recently moved to nev.from abut have been going back to ca. every 2 to 3 weeks for med. , mean messages, derogatoryname-calling, and threats have been doled out Adj. 1. doled out - given out in portionsapportioned, dealt out, meted out, parceled outdistributed - spread out or scattered about or divided up without fear or remorsebecause the victim and the perpetrator A term commonly used by law enforcement officers to designate a person who actually commits a crime. are hidden, linked in a facelesscrime. For this reason, serious threats and goading a victim to inflictpersonal harm or even commit suicide Verb 1. commit suicide - kill oneself; "the terminally ill patient committed suicide"kill - cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly; "This man killed several people when he tried to rob a bank"; "The farmer killed a pig for the holidays" have been reported as successfulbecause of the lack of interpersonal contact. Reports of suicide havebeen recorded in an ABC News This article is about the American news organization. See also ABC News (disambiguation)ABC News is a division of American television and radio network ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin. report, with a total of 38 childrencommitting suicide because they could not take the harassment any longer(ABC ABCin full American Broadcasting Co.Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. 15.com, 2006). School personnel and parents have been largely uninformed about theseriousness of these threats and the damage to fragile, pre-teen egos.The popular profiles and personal Web sites, such as are available onmyspace.com, studentcenter.org, livejournal.com, and bolt. corn, confirmthat vicious and harmful speech was directed toward individual girls(Willard, 2005). Various Forms of Cyberbullying Cyberstalking Cyberstalking is use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk someone. This term is used interchangeably with online harassment and online abuse. Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as is a form of cyberbullying that centers on: 1)posting harmful, mean, or cruel messages on the Internet or a cellphone; 2) repeatedly sending rude E-mails; and 3) frequent promises ofharm that threaten the personal safety of a girl. Impersonation ImpersonationPatrocluswore the armor of Achilles against the Trojans to encourage the disheartened Greeks. [Gk. Lit.: Iliad]Prisoner of Zenda, The , an evenmore sinister variation, takes the form of entering another'sE-mail account e-mail accountn → cuenta de correoand pretending to be that person, usually sending harmfulmessages that could ruin relationships with others. Fortunately, the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use hascompiled a comprehensive guide to help with these problems. The guidedescribes and discusses problem areas and addresses such topics as"Liability Issues for a School" (Willard, 2005). Roles for Parents and Teachers: At home, many parents believe that filtering software has providedsecurity for their children. Today's students, however, may havesophisticated technology skills by middle school that surpass those oftheir parents and teachers. It is a simple matter to accessoften-prohibited material. In addition, they can still issue damagingthreats through ordinary means ordinary meansMedical ethics The measures that a person, as the 'steward' of his/her own life, is required to use to ensure health and self-preservation. See Reasonable person. Cf Extraordinary means. through their home and school computers.Many schools have lap-top programs, thus adding an additional concernfor liability when students use school computers for vicious onlinethreats to others. On the other hand, middle school teachers often report thatpre-teens can exhibit prosocial and caring behaviors when interactingwith others. Throughout America, many school systems have re-figuredtheir concept of middle school and paired it on site with an elementaryschool elementary school:see school. , as was done in Jacksonville, Florida “Jacksonville” redirects here. For other uses, see Jacksonville (disambiguation).Jacksonville is the largest city in the state of Florida and the county seat of Duval County. . Middle school children actas mentors and tutors for the younger children, usually forming caring,emotional ties. This had been considered the norm in most communitiesuntil the emergence of cyberbullying. A Psychological Base The psychological theories we have been teaching in our schools ofeducation confirm that our middle school student is usually conformingto Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Reasoning Moral reasoning is a study in psychology that overlaps with moral philosophy. It is also called Moral development. Prominent contributors to theory include Lawrence Kohlberg and Elliot Turiel. at the earliest stages,such as Stage 1: Obedience to authority and Stage 2: Nice behavior inexchange for future favors (Kail kail:see kale. & Cavanaugh, 2007). Cyberbullyingforces parents and educators to contemplate this apparent disconnectbetween theory and behavior. Many serious questions are raised: Are ourparents and schools doing enough to encourage the prosocial behaviorsand overt social skills? Are our teachers using every opportunity tomodel empathy and caring for others, with unconditional acceptance ofall? Were these life-enhancing skills shoved aside to make room for therigid, increasingly narrow confines of testing, meeting standards, andother time-consuming tasks that leave social skills behind in the dust?Let's consider some alternatives. The Peaceable peace��a��ble?adj.1. Inclined or disposed to peace; promoting calm: They met in a peaceable spirit.2. Peaceful; undisturbed. School and Classroom Models For several decades now, appropriate models of the Peaceable Schoolhave been recommended and tried, and they have succeeded in changing thewhole culture of an entire school. Several models have a successfultrack record, such as The Children's Creative Response to Conflict,Institute for Peace and Justice, the Responsive Classroom, ResolvingConflict Creatively, Second Step, and Teaching Students To BePeacemakers This article is about the pacifist organization. For other meanings, see Peacemaker (disambiguation). Peacemakers was an American pacifist organization. (see Resources). Within the school, conflict resolutiontechniques should be taught through a school counselor A school counselor is a counselor and educator who works in schools, and have historically been referred to as "guidance counselors" or "educational counselors," although "Professional School Counselor" is now the preferred term. to the entireschool community: administrators, teachers, students, office personnel,maintenance, and support staff. An online mini-course, "ConflictResolution Techniques for School Counselors," is available (seeResources). Teachers wisely could integrate principles of conflictresolution within their own classrooms, model techniques for theirstudents, and provide a small segment of the school day to practice theskills to resolve conflict. A Pledge of Nonviolence is also availableonline (Institute for Peace and Justice, 2007). Models of teachers who exemplify these essential qualities havebeen the focus for several articles in Childhood Education in recentyears. Katherine T. Bucher and M. Lee Manning outlined appropriatestudent behavior to be expected of middle school students and the choiceof theories that should be the foundation for middle school education(Bucher & Manning, 2001/02). Jan Richards identified"enchanting teachers," especially a middle school Englishteacher who "cares and loves us and everyone of her students anddoesn't want anyone to ever get hurt" (Richards, 2004). An ongoing discussion should take place about how cyberbullyingviolates all the principles of the Peaceable School and Classroom,causing great emotional damage. Consequences for incidents ofcyberbullying should be set and acted on by the school administrators.At an appropriate time, a Peer Mediation model should be initiated tosettle the more difficult student conflicts. Hopefully, teachers, parents, and students will be able to initiatechanges in the school culture--moving from meanness and harming othersto caring and concern, especially for our middle school girls. Resources for the Peaceable School Model Children's Creative Response to Conflict, P.O. Box 271, 521North Broadway, Nyack, NY 10960; 914-353-1796 Institute for Peace and Justice, 475 East Lockwood Ave., St. Louis,MO 63119; 314-915-2630, www.ipj.org Resolving Conflict Creatively Program National Center, Educatorsfor Social Responsibility, 163 Third Ave., #103, New York New York, state, United StatesNew York,Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY 10003;212-387-0225, www.esrnational.org Responsive Classroom, Northeast Foundation for Children, 85 AvenueA, Suite 204, P.O. Box 718, Turners Falls, MA 01376-0718; 800-360-6322,www.responsiveclassroom.org Second Step, Committee for Children, 2203 Airport Way South, Suite500, Seattle, WA 98134-2027; 206-343-1223, www.cfc.children.org Teaching Students to be Peacemakers. (David & Roger Johnson Roger Johnson can refer to: Roger Johnson (California), American businessman Roger Johnson (North Dakota), American politician Roger Johnson, English football (soccer) player ),Interaction Books, 7208 Cornelia Dr., Edina, MN 55435; 612-831-9500,www.co-operation.org Online Resources Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, www.csriu.org/contactus.htl Community School Becomes a Peaceable School, www.communityschool.net/peaceableschool.htm Conflict Resolution Techniques for School Counselors,http:/counselingceusonline.com/conflict_resolution. htm ED 398086 Creating the Peaceable School. A Comprehensive Programfor Teaching Conflict Resolution. Program Guide--ERIC Digest,http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_page Girls Bullying Girls (National Association of SchoolPsychologists The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is the first and largest national professional organization created for the purpose of serving school psychologists. ), www.teachersand families.com/open/ parent/ra6.cfm Ten Tips for Creating a Caring School, www.edutopia.org/php/id=Art.1025&key=020 References ABC15.com Phoenix and Arizona News. Available online atwww.abc15.com/news/investigators/index_ story.asp?did=31334. Bucher, K. T., & Manning, M. L. (2001/02). Exploring thefoundations of middle school classroom management. Childhood Education,78, 83-90. Burgess-Proctor, A., Patcin, J. W., & Hindja, S. (October,2006). Cyberbullying: The victimization victimizationSocial medicine The abuse of the disenfranchised–eg, those underage, elderly, ♀, mentally retarded, illegal aliens, or other, by coercing them into illegal activities–eg, drug trade, pornography, prostitution. of adolescent girls. Availableonline at www.cyberbullying.us. Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2007). Human development: Alife-span view (4th ed.). Behnont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Richards, J. (2004). Enchanting teachers among us. ChildhoodEducation, 80, 128-133. Willard, N. (2005). Cyberbullying and cyberthreats, part I: A guidefor counselors, teachers and parent educators. Eugene, OR: Center forSafe and Responsible Internet Use.