Friday, Nov. 21, 2008

District Responds to Electronic Bullying

Administrators: Program to Start in Early Years, Add Consistency

By Nicholas Sakelaris

Staff Writer

Cell phones and social networking sites have created a new form of bullying, in which threats and rumors can spread at the speed of electrons. These new techno bullies can damage a child’s reputation in minutes, Carroll administrators say.

More than ever, school districts, including Carroll, are looking for proactive programs to stop bullying on and off campus, said Becci Rollins, coordinator of counseling for the Carroll school district.

"Cyberspace is lethal," she said. "It’s so instant and so pervasive."

School shootings and other acts of violence around the country have also heightened awareness on the effects of bullying on victims, said Ryan Wilson, principal at Dawson Middle School. Sometimes, he said, victims are "mad at the world," which can escalate the violence.

"The stakes are higher for how kids will respond to bullying," Wilson said.

Carroll is assembling a task force of counselors, administrators and parents to look at more than 100 different anti-bullying programs. Rollins said the goal is to pick one and have trustees vote on it early next year. If approved, Rollins would like to have it implemented district-wide by the second semester, which she admits is ambitious.

The goal to "instill in our culture our belief that everyone will be treated with respect," she said.

The task force plans to visit other districts that have launched similar programs.

In addition to the usual name-calling and physical bullying, Carroll administrators hear reports of threats being posted to social networking sites or chain text messages spreading rumors about another student.

Wilson said one child can send a chain text message to everyone in their phonebook, who can then send it to everyone in theirs. Very quickly, the message has reached hundreds of recipients, Wilson said. Common rumors include attacking a child’s sexual preference and derogatory comments from ex-girlfriends or boyfriends.

The number of anti-bullying programs has exploded in recent years as awareness of the effects and seriousness of bullying has increased, Wilson said.

Individual Carroll campuses already take a proactive approach to the problem, for which the district has a no-tolerance policy. This new comprehensive program will provide the same consistent message from kindergarten through senior year, Rollins said.

The program would be similar to anti-smoking and anti-drug campaigns, she said. The message will be age-appropriate and will expand to include more topics as children enter their teenage years in middle school and high school. The majority of students don’t actually take part in bullying, but they see it happen, Rollins said. She hopes the program will reach the bystanders too, so they won’t validate the behavior.

"We have a large number of bystanders," she said. "They know it’s not right, but don’t know what to do."

Carroll trustees and administrators have expressed support for an anti-bullying campaign, especially at the middle school level.

Middle school is often the period of the most intense bullying, she said, even if it’s just small things that add up over time. While boys tend to be more physical in their bullying, girls are more social, making other girls feel like outcasts if they can’t be part of a group, said Matt Miller, Carroll Middle School principal.

"They don’t understand that the other kids take that to heart," Miller said, noting that "sixth and seventh [grades] are the hardest years in a kids’ life."