Cyberbullying, a New Expression of Hatred

Cyberbullying, a New Expression of Hatred

   I guess everyone experienced, at some time in school, victimizing or being the victim of various levels of bullying. In schools, all over the world, we see how some students bully others on the basis of race, gender, physical appearance, and lately, in an increasing number of cases, on sexual orientation and sexual harassment. Kids can be extremely cruel,  I said so as a normal human being , and also as a regular classroom teacher ( Stop Cyberbullying.org ). Some strong students ( physically or psycologically) would drive their personal difficulties and frustrations, or family unhappiness, into rampant hate acts against chosen peers. They would target students who look different, think different, "act" different or are considered "weak" or "retarded". Bullies would eventually use snares, jokes, voices, names, and physical assult to intimidate their victims. Bullies enjoy making their victims suffer psychological distress, shame, and if not stopped in time, severe physical pain. 

Here is an example of traditional bullying: Violent attacks on helpless victims:

   Today, another danger about bullying is that it can be impersonal. Consequently, it can, at times, be hard to counteract it when the bully is "virtual" and it is hard to tell who it is. Frequently, some victims do not even know the source of the bullying attacks. Very often the "who" is bullying is not clearly known. In a recent survey 32% teenagers said they had experienced cyberbullying ( Cyberbullying by Amanda Lenhart, Jun 27, 2007 ) In this new bullying scenario, schoolgirls, specially, are the victims of the spread of vicious, false rumors in social networks ( Pew Research Center, Survey 2010) .Facebook and Myspace are the preferred ones. Cyberbullying is generally intended to destroy the reputation of a victim, and it undermines their good relationships with others. Cyberbullying, additionally, is highly impersonal because  the bully, sometimes,  can even be a parent of a friend of the victim, and the victim would never ever know! Like in the case of a teenage girl that commited suicide after being attacked online.  See the video about this case on the news!

 

      Now, what should be the role of teachers in school cases of cyberbullying? In my opinion, if the attack is planned and executed by using school equipment, I would make sure the bully-student gets referred to counseling and is also punished with 10 days of out of school suspension. I would also talk to his/her parents to make sure they understand the seriousness of their fault. Parents need to get involved in the education of their kids and must help reinforce the proper use of technology at home and anywhere their children are.

    In a school where I worked in Bogota, there was a case of cyberbullying. The victim was in sixth grade, he was a normal sixth grader, a normal, good hearted boy, a happy boy. His only problem was that his parents had divorced and he lived with his monther and stepfather. Suddenly, he became the target of cyberbullying ttacks that made fun of his "intellingence". Things escaleted to the point when threats started to scare the boy to death. He did not want to come back to school. Parents told the school authorities about the situation and they also decided to remove their child from the school. The bullies used Facebook, where they created a page intitled "DOE is a Penis". The page contained pictures of the student, and even pictures of his family members.Members of the page, even people the kid did not know, were  absolutelly driven to insult and threat the safety of the child and his family. Parents demanded the page creators to remove the page with its incendiary content and degrading intent. They were furious and wanted to take their case to court against the school. They could not do so, because, the students who started the site used their own technology equipment at home. The parents of the child demanded to talk to the parents and the children who created the page in a private conference at the school. This was a most unfortunate experience for the students and the parents of this group.

 Now, how about the parents of the cyberbullying victims? How should they react? What should they do? A furious father made it to the National News when defending his child from the abusers who were inflicting denigrating attacks on her.

  

   Though the abuse was being commited on school property: "The school bus", this can be the perfect example of the anxiety and concerns thousands of parents across America experience when their children express they are being victimized by bullies at school. Many people supported his act, others critisized him. Now, how about the parents of victims of cyberbullying? I do believe parents can help protect their children by educating them on principles like respect, tolerance and good manners. Internet safety talks will benefit kids as well. However, some kids lack this sort of family support and education and they act as if there were no consequences for their acts, good or bad. When this is the case, I believe parents need to address other parents and students as well, to discuss this issue and discuss the students' need to be taught at home and at school to know what is wrong and learn how to do always the right thing.