“Stand Up” by Blue Kit http://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/bullying/article/454500/Stand-Up/

Stand Up

By Bluekit, Rockton, IL

Image Credit: Marina S., Vineyard Haven, MA

The author's comments:

Just a thought on bullying.

Bullying. A word almost every kid dreads. They dread being the outcast. The reject. The person everyone bullies. The loner. Not being good enough or not meeting someone’s standards. Some dread it so much, they take their own lives. A tragic way to die.

If only the teachers had seen it sooner. If only the parents knew. If only the victim spoke up.

Statistics show in 2011 that 60% of middle school students say they have been bullied. Only 16% of staff believed that students had been bullied. They also say that over 160,000 stayed home from school to avoid bullying. 20% of high school students said they had thoughts of committing suicide in the past twelve months in 2011.

In my opinion, these numbers are too high. What can we do to stop bullying? There are numerous ways to prevent bullying.

Statistics show that over 50% of bullying decreased if the school had an anti-bully program running. If every school had an anti-bully program running, it might reduce the percentage of bullying. It would show the bullies how much they hurt the person who they were bullying.

It would also be more helpful if teachers kept an eye on students at all times. Many bullying cases occur on the playground or at passing time. Only 25% of bullied students said that teachers intervened a bullying incident; while 71% of teachers said they intervened a bullying incident.

Another way is to talk to the bully or stand up to them. Tell them how much it hurts when they call you names or physically hurt you. Try to help them understand bullying isn’t cool. Most likely, they bully just to impress their friends.

Tell a teacher or trusted adult. It’s one of the most commonly known ways to stop a bully from bullying you. Don’t worry; you won’t be a snitch or tattle-tale. Tattle-telling is when someone purposely tells on someone to get them in trouble. Just telling a teacher or trusted adult the situation is perfectly fine. It will help you in the long run.

Don’t just sit on the sidelines and watch bullying. Stand up for the bullying victim and let them know they won’t be alone.

Bullying is never, nor will it ever be, a tolerable matter. Together we can stand up to bullying and make it disappear. Poof!

“Are You Being Bullied: Cyber Bullied” by Genet Berhane. Scholastic.com

By Genet Berhane

In an instant-messaging conversation, you might respond with "lol" (laugh out loud) or "brb" (be right back) . . . but what about SOS, a cry for help? Bullying is not a new problem, but what about when bullies use the Internet as a tool to hurt someone? It's called cyberbullying.

You don't have to be physically pushed around to be a victim of bullying—you could be sitting safely in front of your computer at home. Cyberbullying is when the Internet is used to harass, embarrass, or threaten someone. It's become an issue in the last few years, and many parents still aren't even aware that it goes on. Police forces are still figuring out how to deal with cyberbullying, and how to find the real identities of bullies who hide behind Internet identities.

Cyberbullying is just as painful as any other bullying. It may not leave any physical scars, but it can be emotionally damaging. There is no way to escape cyberbullying—the threat can now come into you own bedroom.

The Star Wars Kid

Last year, a teenage boy in Canada became a victim of cyberbullying in front of an audience of millions. A Star Wars fan, the heavyset teen made a home movie of himself using a golf ball retriever as a light saber. He made his own sound effects for the video, which he intended to keep private.

Some classmates got their hands on the video and posted it on an online file-sharing system, where people swap information, music, and videos. Huge numbers of people downloaded the video. Other versions were made that digitally placed the boy's figure into films like The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings. A number of television programs played the video, and the teenager had to deal with the embarrassment of having his homemade movie shared with an audience around the world.

The boy was so bothered by the situation that he has been under the care of psychiatrists. He even left his school to study at another location. His parents filed a lawsuit on his behalf.

How to Respond

Officer Dave Cavedon knows a thing or two about making a difference in his community. As a member of the Connecticut's West Hartford Police Department, one of the things he does is educate parents about cyberbullying, and how they should respond to it.

"We are finding that it is a larger problem than parents believe," says Officer Cavedon. "Parents need to be talking to their children about bullying itself, and that the Internet is another medium for people to carry it out."

One of the best precautions is for parents to monitor what their children are doing on the Internet. Any computer with an Internet connection should be in a public part of the house, where parents can keep an eye on computer use. Parents should also communicate with their kids.

"Parents should set the computer to log all IM's and chats," says Officer Cavedon, "as well as personally getting to know everyone on their child's buddy list."

So what should kids do if they find themselves a victim of cyberbullying? If a threatening message is received, and the computer has not been instructed to save all messages, do not erase the message. It can be used as evidence that cyberbullying is taking place.

Whether someone is directly being bullied, or even witnessing bullying online, the first step is to talk to an adult about it. No one deserves to be picked on, and no one should suffer silently.

"Parents and children need to remember," says Officer Cavedon, "no one wakes up in the morning and says, 'Geez, today I want to become a victim.' "

Find out what Officer Cavedon's son, Matt Cavedon, is doing to put a stop to bullying.

10 Things Parents Can Do to Help Eliminate Bullying

by Education.com

Updated on Apr 11, 2014

The latest research shows that one in three children are directly involved in bullying as a perpetrator, victim, or both. And many of those who are not directly involved witness others being bullied on a regular basis. No child is immune—kids of every race, gender, grade and socio-economic sector are affected. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Parents have the power to help. Here are Education.com’s top ten actions you can take to help address bullying:

Talk and listen to your kids every day.

Research shows that adults are often the last to know when children are bullied or bully others. You can encourage your kid to buck that trend by engaging in frequent conversations about their social lives. Spend a few minutes every day asking open ended questions about who he spends time with at school and in the neighborhood, what he does in between classes and at recess, who he has lunch with, or what happens on the way to and from school. If your child feels comfortable talking to you about his peers, he'll be much more likely to come to you when any bullying issues arise.

Spend time at school and recess.

Research shows that 67% of bullying happens when adults are not present. Schools often don’t have the resources to monitor everyone and everything all the time, and need parents’ help to prevent bullying. Whether you can volunteer once a week or once a month, you can

make a real difference just by being present and helping to organize games and activities that encourage kids to play with new friends. Be sure to coordinate your on-campus volunteer time with your child’s teacher and/or principal.

Be a good example of kindness and leadership.

Your kids learn a lot about power relationships from watching you. When you get angry at a waiter, a sales clerk, another driver on the road, or even your child, you have a great opportunity to model effective communication techniques. Don’t blow it by blowing your top! Any time you speak to another person in a mean or abusive way, you’re teaching your child that bullying is OK.

Learn the signs.

Most children don't tell anyone (especially adults) that they've been bullied, so it's important for parents and teachers to learn to recognize possible signs of being victimized. Signs might include frequent loss of personal belongings, complaints of headaches or stomachaches, avoiding recess or school activities, or want to get to school very late or very early. If you suspect that a child might be being bullied, talk with the child’s teacher or find ways to observe his peer interactions to determine whether or not your suspicions might be correct. Then have a conversation with your child about what is going on at school.

Create healthy anti-bullying habits early.

Help develop anti-bullying and anti-victimization habits early in your kid, as early as preschool. Coach him on what not to do—hitting, pushing, teasing, or being mean to others. Have him consider how such actions might feel to the person on the receiving end (e.g. “How would you feel if that happened to you?”). These strategies can nurture empathy. Then, teach your kid the do's —kindness, empathy, fair play, and turn-taking are critical skills for good peer relationships. Children also need to learn how to say "no" firmly if they experience or witness bullying behavior. Give your child guidance about what to do if other kids are mean—get an adult right away, tell the bully to "stop," walk away, ignore him and find someone else to play with. It may help to role play what to do with your child so that he's confident that he can handle the situation.

Help your child’s school address bullying effectively.

Whether your kid has been bullied or not, you should know what his school is doing to address bullying. Research shows that “zero-tolerance” policies aren’t effective. What works better are ongoing educational programs that help create a healthy social climate in the school. This means teaching kids at every grade level how to be inclusive leaders, how to be

empathic towards others, and teaching victims effective resistance techniques. If your school does not have effective bullying strategies and policies in place, talk to the principal and advocate for change.

Establish household rules about bullying.

Your child needs to hear from you explicitly that it’s not normal or tolerable for him to bully, to be bullied, or to stand by and just watch other kids be bullied. Make sure he knows that if he is bullied physically, verbally, or socially (at school, by a sibling, in your neighborhood, or online) it’s safe and important for him to tell you about it—and that you will help. He also needs to know just what bullying is, because many children may not understand that bullying is harmful. The healthy habits your practices at home will carry over to other settings.

Teach your child how to be a good witness or positive bystander.

Research shows that kids who witness bullying feel powerless and seldom intervene. However, kids who take action can have a powerful and positive effect on the situation. Although it’s never a child’s responsibility to put him or herself in danger, kids can often effectively diffuse a bullying situation by yelling “Stop! You’re bullying,” or “Hey, that’s not cool.” Kids can also help each other by providing support to the victim, not giving extra attention to the bully, and/or reporting what they witnessed to an adult.

Teach your child about cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying includes sending mean, vulgar, or threatening messages or images online, posting private information about another person, pretending to be someone else in order to make that person look bad, and intentionally excluding someone from an online group. We know from research that the more time a kid spends online, the more likely he is to be cyberbullied—so limit online time. There’s a simple litmus test you can teach your child about online posting: if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face or you would not feel comfortable having your parents see it—don’t post it (or take it down immediately).

Spread the word that bullying should not be a normal part of childhood.

Some adults hesitate to act when they observe or hear about bullying because they think of bullying as a typical phase of childhood that must be endured or that it can help children “toughen up.” It is important for all adults to understand that bullying does not have to be a normal part of childhood. All forms of bullying are harmful to the perpetrator, the victim, and to witnesses and the effects last well into adulthood (and can include depression, anxiety, substance abuse, family violence and criminal behavior). Efforts to effectively

address bullying require the collaboration of school, home, and community. Forward this list and articles you’ve read to all the parents, teachers, administrators, after-school care programs, camp counselors, and spiritual leaders you know. Bullying is a serious problem, but if we all work together, it’s one we can change.

The 3-Minute Interview: Lee Hirsch, anti-bullying activist

By SUSAN FERRECHIO (@SUSANFERRECHIO) • 6/4/13 12:00 AM

Hirsch created of the film "Bully" and The Bully Project, a social action campaign aimed at

ending bullying in schools across America. He will speak Wednesday at the National Press

Club in downtown D.C.

Why did you create this project?

I was bullied as a kid. And I became a filmmaker. Making the film "Bully" was something I

had looked at many times. I was probably scared to make the film. After we produced it,

we saw the film was really moving people and that is where the secondary tier of work

began. I wanted to harness the moment and create the best tools we possibly could to

allow people to use the film as a motivator and actually create safety in our schools.

What is the project about?

It's is very much like an experiment. It's about how we can leverage the power of a film

that has traction, that brings people to a place where they want to raise their hand and

say, "What can I do?"

How do you create that kind of leverage?

It's interesting because what we are celebrating in part on Capitol Hill on Wednesday is

that we met and surpassed our goal of getting a million kids to see the film.

Beyond the film, how does the project work?

We have created a set of tools that go with it -- lessons that are created for the student

that sees the film. It's using the film as a tool for educators, the people who are reaching

out for it and saying we want to do that in our community and bring it to our school.

Also from the Washington Examiner

By Alex Pappa 12/29/16 6:05 PM

What do you believe is behind the uptick in bullying?

It has a lot to do with the broader question of school climate and school culture... Schools

have gotten very focused on results and numerical evaluation based on testing. And what I

see has gotten lost is increasing the social and emotional connections between students

and staff. Schools need to teach kids empathy and how to process relationships.

What can a school do to reduce bullying?

The Bully Project includes a toolbox that is a roadmap for creating change. The first thing

we encourage people to do is survey the school climate and school culture and really

determine how many students feel connected to the school. They should determine what

are the areas in student daily life that feel safe and unsafe.

Cyberbullying: What Teachers and Schools Can Do

By Caralee Adams

They may not call it cyberbullying. Students may say they got "dissed" on Facebook or that

someone flooded their phone with mean texts. Even little kids have been known to hack into Club Penguin to sabotage each other's games.

While most of these incidents occur at home, the problems spill over to the classroom, making cyberbullying an issue teachers can't ignore.

The answer isn't forbidding technology, say experts, so much as teaching kids right from wrong. As a teacher, you can be a powerful force in promoting a climate of respect. Educate yourself and be on the lookout for signs that cyberbullying is taking place, because you may be the trusted adult a student turns to for help.

How to Recognize It

A lot of innocent teasing happens on Facebook and via text message. So when does a good joke go bad? When someone "repeatedly harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another person," say Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, co-directors of the Cyberbullying Research Center.

In their research, the two academics found that approximately 20 percent of students admitted to having cyberbullied. However, many more students reported incidents that fall under its

definition. Posting mean or hurtful comments and spreading rumors online was the most common complaint in their random survey of 4,400 students ages 10 to 18 in February 2010.

Not surprisingly, it is most prevalent among middle schoolers, and adolescent girls are more likely to have experienced cyberbullying than boys — 25.8 percent versus 16 percent. Girls are more likely to spread rumors, while boys are more likely to post hurtful pictures or videos.

"Cyberbullying is tailor-made for the relational aggression and rumors that girls typically engage in," says Patchin, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and co-author with Hinduja of Bullying Beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying .

While research shows that cyberbullying makes both boys and girls feel angry, sad, and embarrassed, girls are more likely to react with frustration — "Why doesn't anyone like me?" — while boys are more often scared, perhaps of back alley retribution. And as we all know from recent headlines, in the most extreme cases, cyberbullying can trigger violence or suicide.

It's also different from traditional bullying in challenging ways. The bully can remain anonymous and unaware of the pain inflicted on the target. Middle school kids who are just learning to navigate the social scene may not realize how hurtful online comments can be.

"It emboldens some kids to bully who wouldn't otherwise, because they can hide behind a computer screen," says Patchin. Most disturbing is the lasting impact of cyberbullying. Once something goes viral, the harassment is continuous because it is shared, repeated, and nearly impossible to erase.

Schools Stepping Up

School is the center of kids' lives. Online harassment may take place on nights and at home, but the fallout is often seen at school and can interfere with the educational environment. In the worst case, students are so worried about cyberbullying that they can't focus on their studies or are afraid to come to school. It has become a school climate and safety issue.

"Monday is the new Friday," says Nancy Willard, director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use in Eugene, Oregon. "It used to be that hurtful interactions built up over the week and would blow up on Friday. Now when kids go back to school on Monday, they are upset because of what happened online over the weekend. There's no longer time to calm down."

There is a flurry of activity in states to make tougher cyberbullying laws, but, "It's not something you can legislate or arrest your way out of," cautions Stephen Balkam, chief executive officer of the Family Online Safety Institute in Washington, D.C. "It's always going to be a combination of tools, rules, and schools. The emphasis needs to be on creating a culture of responsibility online. Kids need to think about the content they create and post."

Schools are struggling to create policies that deal with cyberbullying and the use of cell phones at schools. Experts say banning technology is not the answer, but rather teaching kids to be good digital citizens. When schools adopt codes of conduct, they should apply to activity in or out of school and set the consequences up front. The notion that home and school are two separate spaces no longer exists in the minds of digital kids.

If schools are using technology to deliver education and instruction, they have a responsibility to educate students so they use it correctly, says Hinduja. "Schools believe the Internet and computers are part of kids' lives when honestly, it is their life," he says.

"Teachers should not limit the discussion to computer class or Internet safety day.... You should bring it up in any capacity, in any instance, in any classroom, whether algebra or social studies or the hard sciences."

First Step: Take It Seriously

The first step is to take it seriously, says Michelle Boykins, director of communications and marketing for the National Crime Prevention Council. "It's not just kids being kids. We have to make sure cyberbullying is not a rite of passage. If we don't change the culture then we are helping young people be victimized."

Go online, get familiar with the social networking sites, slang, and terms, says Vicki Davis, a teacher and IT director at Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia. "This is a world where they are and we aren't," she says. It's important to emphasize a positive environment and explain what won't be tolerated.

You have an ally in the school counselor, suggests Rosemary Kelly, director of guidance and counseling at Round Rock Independent District Schools in Texas. Counselors have experience teaching kids what it means to be kind, responsible, and respectful, and that translates to their behavior online. They may need to hear the message that if you aren't going to say it to someone's face, don't do it online, adds Linda Criddle, president of LookBothWays, a nonprofit that provides information on Internet safety.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is give kids ways to avoid victimization. Remind them to "never put anything sensitive into an electronic format and send it to someone," says Willard. "The more embarrassing or damaging the material you send electronically, the more likely it will become public."

Finally, let kids know you care and want to help. If there is a problem, you will advocate for them, not just punish them and take away technology. Experts suggest having an anonymous way to report, such as a drop box, hotline, or e-mail, and tell students that reporting a cyberbullying incident isn't squealing. "It's a misperception that wimps tattle," says Criddle. "Actually, kids who come forward and tell are kids who said, ‘I can't solve the problem myself but I deserve better.' "

Recognizing the Signs

Keep your finger on the emotional state of students. Does a student seem depressed? Withdrawn? Are his grades suddenly dropping? Hang out in the hallways and lunchroom to look for changes in relationships, such as a student cast out from her usual lunch table. With younger kids, it may be that they have a stomachache or want to stay home.

In middle school, teachers may witness a spat erupting in the back of class. Once you ask the students what happened, you may learn that the aggression started the night before online.

Know how to intervene when kids make social mistakes, says Kimberly Mazauskas, bullying prevention coordinator for the School District of Palm Beach County (FL). Listen to them and validate their feelings. Then, let the student know what's not right and guide to another alternative.

Ask Students to Report It

Bullying stops when the bystanders speak up. Encourage bystanders to refuse to pass along cyberbullying messages. Or they could add to a wall post "This is not cool" when they see something inappropriate, says Davis.

Lori Devon Shapiro, special project assistant with the bullying violence prevention program in the School District of Philadelphia, worries that schools are not being proactive enough. "The one you miss could be fatal; that's the scariest part," she says. "If you continue to be reactive, you're going to end up reacting to a situation that nobody wants to see themselves in."

Responding to an Incident

If you find out about cyberbullying incidents, pay close attention right after it happens. "That's the only time to really get to the truth," says Davis. Later, everyone may get on the same page and the target pressured to change the story.

Encourage the target of cyberbullying not to erase the evidence by immediately deleting the hurtful message from her wall or phone. Tell the student to take a screen shot to save it, and then share the information with an adult.

Break the myth that the bully is the cool one and it's the victim's fault, says Criddle. Ask students why they were bullied and you'll hear them say they are too fat or too tall. Rather, it's the bully who is hurting and wants to lash out and be mean, says Criddle.

Finding the Right Response

Although there should be consequences for cyberbullying, many experts say it should not be all about punishment. Those who bully need to understand the impact of their actions, and they can often benefit from counseling.

Listen to the students and let the target be part of the solution, suggests Willard. Often, restorative justice techniques — where students talk with each other to understand the impact of the incident — are effective.

Separate the behavior from the student, says Shapiro. "We try to take the criminalization out of it," she says. "It's a matter of teaching right from wrong and teaching them proper behavior, rather than branding them a criminal forever."

Many states are attempting to pass laws that dictate punishment for cyberbullying, but Balkam urges caution. "State legislatures have to be careful not to criminalize what is a form of playground misbehavior," he says. "Do we really want our kids to do time for stuff we did as kids but we put on notes and passed around the classroom?"

Getting Parents Involved

Schools are an important place to connect with parents and disseminate information about online safety. Invite parents to workshops about cyberbullying and share the school's policy.

"Teachers have to encourage parents to be involved in their kids' online lives," says Hinduja. "They're already involved in cheerleading or football. We have to be similarly passionate about what kids are doing online."

Just as parents wouldn't let their kids run around an amusement park, they shouldn't let kids surf online unsupervised, says Kelly. "I hear parents say, ‘I don't know how to do this on the computer, but my child knows everything.' That's dangerous territory."

Balkam adds, "It's a work of a generation; it will take our kids from now until they are parents and teachers themselves to overcome this divide."

Cyberbullying What schools can do to stop it. By Emily Richmond

Helpful Resources

Cyberbullying Research Center. This comprehensive site provides fact sheets, cases, research, resources, stories, strategies, and solutions to help schools stop online cruelty.

Teaching Tolerance. Resources for schools, including a DVD o

When Elizabeth Englander planned a workshop to help educators prepare for Massachusetts' new anti-bullying law, she expected a good turnout—but not the overwhelming response she got from districts around the state.

"We thought we'd get perhaps 100 schools and districts sending people," the head of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center (MARC) says. "Instead, we ended up with more than 800. We added two more sessions, and even that wasn't enough."

Since the January suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of South Hadley, Massachusetts, the Bay State has become ground zero for the debate over bullying and schools' responsibilities to monitor, report, and intervene in cyberbullying situations.

Massachusetts isn't alone. Following Prince's sad death and several other high-profile cases, states and school districts are frantically reassessing their anti-bullying initiatives and codifying expectations into new laws and policies.

Current data are still being gathered, but 2007 statistics by the National Crime Prevention Council showed that 43 percent of surveyed middle and high school students said they had experienced some form of cyberbullying in the prior 12 months. The prevalence was highest among students ages 15 and 16—more than half of those teens said that in the prior year they had experienced at least one cyberbullying incident.

While the response has been energetic and there are anecdotal reports of success, it's not yet clear whether educators and lawmakers have found a clear and appropriate role for schools to take on—and whether new policies will result in any widespread lessening of this destructive behavior.

How Cyberbullying Is Different

There's nothing new about bullying in schools. Students aren't necessarily any "meaner" today than in years past. But the popularity and prevalence of cyber-communication among younger students is expanding their opportunities to insult or intimidate one another, says Katherine Cowan, communications director for the National Association of School Psychologists.

"One of the capacities of cyberbullying is that it goes from zero to 60 rapidly—it can go viral very quickly and can live permanently online," Cowan says. "School administrators face the challenge of having to wrap their arms around a dynamic and incredibly complex social system with the students they serve. The Internet makes it that much more complicated."

There are some other differences. Traditional school bullying usually takes place in lightly supervised locations like school hallways and recess areas. Conducted without conversation or physical proximity,

cyberbullying takes place outside the field of awareness of many adults, whether it happens during school hours or afternoons and weekends.

In the highly publicized South Hadley case, Prince's family says she was the target of intensive harassment via text messaging and social media websites, as well as face-to-face confrontations on school property. The state district attorney assigned to investigate the case in the wake of Prince's suicide publicly criticized school officials for a lack of responsiveness, while administrators say they learned of the bullying only a week prior to Prince's suicide.

What We Know

As school communities grapple with shaping new laws and regulations designed to curb cyberbullying, education and policy experts do have some concrete recommendations for schools. First, define cyberbullying clearly, and incorporate expectations into Internet and electronic communications for students and staff.

Involve parents and the wider community as early as possible, whether it's through a task force to review policy, or via workshops to help families understand and respond to how their children are using the Internet and electronic communications.

Teach students to be cyber-savvy. In addition to understanding the risks involved in sharing personal information online, students need to understand how the "tone" of their communications can be perceived much differently than they might have intended.

Finally, report suspected cases of bullying to the supervisors, the parents of all involved students, and, when necessary, law enforcement. While the steps may seem simple, the reality is invariably complicated and changes from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

State Laws Vary Widely

While more than 40 states have bullying statutes, the Anti-Defamation League reports that fewer than half of those include provisions for when schools should get involved in so-called electronic communication, which includes text messaging and social websites—all fertile territory for cyberbullying.

But because most of those electronic interactions take place outside the academic day, the role—and responsibilities—of schools is less clear, according to the ADL. And there's little uniformity in the tack taken by the few states that do address cyberbullying, with some excluding schools from the chain of authority, even as others mandate it.

More states are responding with laws that give schools authority to take action against students even when harassment doesn't originate on campus. Idaho and New Jersey are among the states that allow schools to suspend students for electronic harassment. Oregon recently expanded its definition of cyberbullying to include actions that "substantially interfere" with a student's education.

Some states—including Vermont and New York—have gone so far as to criminalize cyberbullying, with enhanced expectations for schools to track, report, and investigate allegations. Following the widely reported suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, the victim of an Internet hoax in which she was bullied and harassed by both her peers and at least one adult, her home state of Missouri upgraded cyberbullying to a felony.

And in Nevada, a new law took effect July 1 that allows criminal charges to be filed against students who are cyberbullies, with the possibility of jail time. The law protects students and school employees

from harassment, threats, emotional distress, and harm caused by electronic communications. (A few other states, such as North Carolina, Florida, and Utah, include school employees with students in their cyberbullying policies.)

The new Massachusetts law, approved by the state's legislature in April, mandates that individual school districts have a written plan for dealing with bullying. It also requires school staff to report all suspected incidents, and for principals to follow up with an investigation.

The Mecklenberg Model

Barbara Pellin, assistant superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, says administrators there used a public health model to craft its anti-bullying initiative in 2008, considered one of the more comprehensive in the nation.

Workshops were woven into training for everyone from teachers to cafeteria workers to bus drivers. The latter turned out to be particularly important, after a survey of local students showed the bus ride to and from school was a hot spot for bullying activity. The district added bullying workshops and online awareness to its classes for parents, which have been well attended, Pellin reports. There's also an anonymous tip line that anyone can use to report suspected bullying.

The Mecklenberg policy includes clear language that cyberbullying is unacceptable in all forms, including harassment that targets staff, as well as students. The district has even brought criminal charges against a student who used a website to defame a teacher.

So far, it seems to be working. The district has partnered with state university researchers to help measure the program's effectiveness and guide the necessary adjustments. Since the 2007-08 academic year, there's been a 30 percent decline in bullying incidents, says Pellin.

An Effective Prevention

A successful anti-bullying strategy would be to integrate it into the district's overall Internet usage policy, Cowan believes. And it should include expectations of how students treat faculty and staff, as well as one another.

"There should be a process of holding kids accountable, and reinforcing positive behavior should be consistent whether you're talking about cyberspace, the playground, or the lunchroom," Cowan says. "We need to be teaching kids that the cyberworld is not an alternative reality. It's as real as their regular classrooms. Schools can play a critical role, in partnership with parents, in teaching kids good Internet skills. Helping them understand the consequences of being hurtful to anybody is part of that process."

While districts deserve credit for addressing the issue with comprehensive written plans on addressing bullying, "policies tend to be disciplinary in nature," Cowan notes. "If you don't balance that with skill and character development that need to go along with it, all you have is a piece of paper."

In addition to keeping watch for the kind of high-profile bullying cases that have recently seized the national spotlight, Cowan urges educators to be attuned to the "low-level hum of harassment" that permeates too many school environments. "Targeting the hum helps to identify a crisis in the making," she insists. "It still boggles my mind that anyone thinks bullying is just kids being kids, and they'll grow out it."

Establishing a clear process for passing along information is essential when it comes to bullying, says MARC's Englander—one that requires informing parents, and contacting law enforcement when it's believed a crime has occurred. Even on a small campus, it's conceivable that a student might tell one

teacher about a problem, and that teacher may not share it with other adults who have been told about prior incidents involving the same individuals.

"You can't rely on students to walk up and say, ‘I'm identifying a pattern of behavior for you'—it's too much of a burden to put on children," Englander says. "You don't want to be in a situation where parents and kids are going to different people in the school building and there's no central person in charge."

Englander also believes bullying needs to be treated like a health crisis. She wants a public education campaign akin to the efforts used to reduce teen drunken driving.

"Let's saturate the airwaves," Englander says. "We're training pediatricians to talk to parents about online behavior and bullying, and almost every parent visits a pediatrician with their child every year. But we're not going to solve this one pediatrician at a time."

Englander also believes administrators need more awareness of the issues—she's heard from some local school officials who believe the new law puts unreasonable expectations on educators to keep tabs on student behavior. "I wouldn't say this law is a huge new burden," insists Englander. "But children are dying because of these issues. If we have to put in a little more work, so be it."

What's Next For South Hadley

In the wake of Prince's suicide, the South Hadley district formed an anti-bullying task force. More than 100 people—staff, students, parents, and members of the wider community—participated, says South Hadley superintendent Guy Sayer. While the district already had policies prohibiting bullying, the

international spotlight that shone on South Hadley in the wake of Prince's suicide prompted closer scrutiny.

South Hadley now has a more comprehensive policy that complies with the new state law, Sayer says. But he emphasized that while language can be strengthened, "the real difference we can make is how we interact with kids, and whether we can persuade them to alter their behavior."

Sayer says he's heard from staff members who have mixed feelings about the new policy. "Everybody is glad that we're making a stronger statement about this. But there is apprehension about whether we can respond in ways that will effectively decrease and eliminate bullying. Responsibilities that had traditionally been in the parents' domain—to raise children to act appropriately in school—are being cast onto our shoulders. We're going to do our best, but we really cannot substitute for the role parents play in shaping their children's behavior."

In the meantime, six former students at South Hadley High School have pleaded not guilty to felony charges in connection with Phoebe Prince's death.