Stairway of the Stars comes to the SM Civic Auditorium
First it was stealing lunch money and calling out playground foes for an afternoon brawl in front of the swings. Now schoolyard bullying has turned to the Web, antagonizing classmates at the click of a mouse.
It’s “Mean Girls” — and boys — meets the Web.
In the next few months, officials in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) are expected to tackle the issue of “cyber bullying” that has affected a number of students at both Santa Monica and Malibu high schools in the past few years, reviewing suggested policies on how such incidences could be regulated without overstepping their legal jurisdictions.
Just last week, a mother of a Samohi student posted a message on mailing list Samohi-PALS, notifying parents of an e-mail circulating that specifically named several Samohi students and referred to them using vulgar and offensive language. The concerned parent asked for suggestions as to how she should proceed.
The parent, who asked she remain anonymous, said during an interview on Tuesday that the e-mail was forwarded last week to her daughter and that the letter contained what seemed like every vulgar and sexually-explicit term in existence. The e-mail did not specifically name the daughter, she said.
The mother said she didn’t feel like there was enough discourse teaching children about the repercussions of making defamatory statements through the Internet.
“I just think these kids aren’t aware,” she said.
While educators have embraced technology and have incorporated it in the classroom to enhance the learning experience, they have been met with a number of challenges as a result of emerging new media.
When it comes to schools taking disciplinary action with cyber bullying the trick seems to be determining whether the conflict originated from a school computer or a private one.
The California School Boards Association (CSBA) last summer sent out a newsletter to its member organizations, which includes the SMMUSD, about cyber bullying and possible policies that boards of education could adopt. SMMUSD Superintendent Dianne Talarico said on Wednesday that she intends to distribute the newsletter to members of the school board on Friday.
The CSBA suggests that policy regarding cyber bullying should clearly distinguish between conflict that was initiated on and off campus since the latter would raise first amendment issues. Civil liberties could also be at stake if the district chooses to monitor students’ online activity and filtering access to certain sites from school activities, the CSBA states.
But even if the conflict started off campus, the district could have some regulatory power if those issues spill over into the classroom.
“We are learning by experience in this age of technology because as these issues arrive, districts are working diligently to find a response that protects the civil rights and civil liberties of individuals, but also make sure all kids feel safe in their learning environment,” Talarico said.
Candice Kelsey, a Venice resident and author of “Generation MySpace” said that administrators need to formulate a very specific and clear code of conduct that every student matriculating through the district understands. The code needs to include a statement that anything disruptive to learning would not be tolerated, even if the conflict didn’t originate on school grounds, Kelsey said. Within those policies needs to be a clear definition that harassment is anything that is inflammatory, derogatory and humiliating, she added.
“If it affects the learning environment, it’s the school’s right to address it,” Kelsey said.
The responsibility also falls on the parent to take some initiative and understand their children’s world, learning about the trends in which adolescents are interested, Kelsey added.
“It’s no longer cute for parents to laugh and giggle about how tech savvy their kids are,” Kelsey said. “It’s affecting kids as they’re growing up and they need to know they can go to their parents about something as serious as cyber bullying.”
Comfort from behind the computer
In January of last year, Malibu High School made headlines after administrators discovered that several videos poking fun at teachers and students were posted on YouTube. Among the videos were some that questioned the sexuality of several students. Both videos were subsequently removed by YouTube at the request of the school.
771,“I think that we continue to face the challenges of what is going on the Internet,” Malibu Principal Mark Kelly said on Tuesday.
But aside from the e-mail and video Web sites, bullying has also made its way into the social networking realm, finding a venue through sites like Facebook and MySpace where antagonism can come in the form of comments being posted on a student’s personal page.
There are numerous factors going into the shift in bullying from the real world to the cyber world, most notably the instantaneous nature of the Internet.
“Before, when you get into a fight with someone at school, you went home, festered about it... slept on it and maybe weren’t so pent up [the next day],” Vanessa Van Petten, a family manager and author of book “You’re Grounded.”
“The problem is now when they get home, they can instantly post a mean thing on someone’s (Facebook) wall, can slander them through an IM,” she added.
Van Petten, who was expected to conduct a workshop on social networking for Samohi parents on Wednesday night, added that the Internet and cyber bullying has eliminated that tense and nervous feeling that some students might have in face-to-face confrontations, making online bullying an even more attractive alternative.
“It’s hard to walk up to someone in their face and say to them that I hate you,” she said. “It’s much easier to write in a message and send it to a few friends so you don’t see the repercussion.”
Jump hedline: Samohi parents concerned about cyber bullying
Suggested pullquote: “We are learning by experience in this age of technology because as these issues arrive, districts are working diligently to find a response that protects the civil rights and civil liberties of individuals, but also make sure all kids feel safe in their learning environment.”
Dianne Talarico
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 6, 2008. Read the original PDF.