The school's role in dealing with cyber bullying

boogle

Very sensitive topic. I'm a member of my school's (small) anti-bullying committee and cyber bullying has played some role in almost every bullying case we dealt with last year. Text messages, BBM messages, FB, ask.fm, you name it.

Some of these cases also presented further problems for us in dealing with them. A lot of the offensive messages/posts were made outside of school hours, and in one case a parent entered the fray by sending threatening messages to a student who was supposedly interfering in her daughter's private affairs. For our part, a lot of time and effort went into dealing with the problems, and to our knowledge the issues have been resolved but we cannot know for sure because the school has no presence on these online platforms and has no contact with students through their mobiles.

Incidents like these have made our committee question the school's responsibility and ability to tackle cyber bullying. We hear media reports and parent's associations talking about the school as the first in line to defend kids from cyber bullies. If the attacks are happening outside school time, is the school responsible?

I definitely think we have a responsibility, but I think we have reached a crisis point where unlimited and unmonitored web access for children is something that their parents need to take a responsibility for. If schools are to be held responsible for combating cyber bullying, even if is happening outside school hours, then should schools not be engaging with social media? Whose job is it to monitor that? Our anti-bullying committee is voluntary and we spend an average of 90 mins per week each during free classes dealing with bullying.

Any thoughts or experiences?

Kettleson

Where does one begin on this one?

Schools have a responsibility to educate and where possible have parent involvement. It sounds to me, from your post, that your group is trying to take on way too much.

90 minutes a week sounds as much as one can be expected to offer. You will never change the world as it changes. Chill out on this one.

teacherhead

I have dealt with this a bit and found it cannot become very convoluted also.

Basically I would advise that you have clear boundaries for what is and what's not in your remit.

I would only get heavy into issues that are presenting problems in school.as they are affecting learning. I have advised parents in the past of situations I became aware of but have not gotten involved.

Solve what you can, leave what you can't, put responsibility on parents. No harm to send a letter to all in September and outline strategies that may help - no phones in the bedroom on Facebook at 3 am is one.

Fear_an_tarbh

I think schools need to make it very very clear to parents that they are in the primary position to control/prevent cyberbullying.

Almost every student in some of my classes are allowed 100% unrestricted access to the internet every night.

A good analogy I have heard is to.imagine dropping your kids off at a huge, totally unsupervised disco/event where people of all ages will be mingling with your kid and ANYTHING can happen, be it sexual/aggressive/religious/illegal etc.

You wouldn't dream of letting your 13 year old kid inside such a place.
Yet, they'll let the kid spend hours unsupervised in pretty much the same situation open to the same interactions in their bedroom. And I don't see why the school would be responsible for what a parent lets a kid do in their own bedroom.
It's parenting.

RealJohn

To echo the others, the schools should be reminding the parents that it's their responsibility to monitor what their children get up to or are subjected to online, not the schools'. Obviously the schools should help in any way that's practical and reasonable but monitoring students' online activities outside of school time is neither the concern nor is it the place of a school unless the school is being involved specifically (talking about incidents that took place at school, targeting students based on school activities etc.). Otherwise it's the parents' business to deal with them.

If the principal called to the door and said he/she was there to confiscate a student's laptop/phone, how would they be greeted? If the answer isn't "with complete cooperation" then how is it the school's fault if that student uses that laptop to abuse someone else?
(And frankly, even if there was that level of cooperation, it's still outside of the schools' remit.)

boogle

Kettleson wrote: »

Where does one begin on this one?

Schools have a responsibility to educate and where possible have parent involvement. It sounds to me, from your post, that your group is trying to take on way too much.

90 minutes a week sounds as much as one can be expected to offer. You will never change the world as it changes. Chill out on this one.

I agree with you but it is difficult to tell a child that a problem they have come to us with is not something we can tackle. I suppose that's the empathy we have with kids as their teachers. There is an expectation from parents and students that we should take on the problem, even if it has happened outside of school time.

If something then happens where the child gets hurt, the first question is often "What was the school doing about all this?"

boogle

RealJohn wrote: »

To echo the others, the schools should be reminding the parents that it's their responsibility to monitor what their children get up to or are subjected to online, not the schools'. )

I agree with this, but I wonder are any schools actually doing it? I know mine doesn't.

Kettleson

[QUO]I agree with you but it is difficult to tell a child that a problem they have come to us with is not something we can tackle. I suppose that's the empathy we have with kids as their teachers. There is an expectation from parents and students that we should take on the problem, even if it has happened outside of school time.

If something then happens where the child gets hurt, the first question is often "What was the school doing about all this?"[/

Yes indeed, that's the blame game and schools and teachers are an unfair target of that. It's getting the balance right and accepting that the school has done as much as they can.

I would just be concerned that teachers are getting needlessly stressed and schools feel that they are not doing enough when they actually are, if they are.

Boogles school sounds like they are doing plenty with the resources they have available to them, and I sensed an anxiety in Boogles post.

Schools should be protecting and informing their teachers as much as their pupils. Lobbying for more resources to tackle the problem correctly. And defending the schools position that they are already doing all they can, and if needs be pointing the finger of responsibility where it should be most appropriately directed, including parents.

mick kk

http://www.antibullyingcampaign.ie/

This website is our guidebook. We follow this. There is the no blame approach. A bully who is identified must agree and stop the bullying and must also go to the counsellor. If he or she continues to bully then their parents are bought in for a meeting and students is punished. All students in our school have about 4/5 classes per year that deal with bullying. We do bullying surveys twice a year so that students can identify bullies and victims.
If students are bullied on facebook outside school hours then we deal with it as the effects of this bullying are felt by the victiom during the school day. Students who are identified bullying others on facebook must open up their facebook in the principal's office and remove the offensive material. Parents are informed. We have a bullying awareness week and a "be yourself" today.

Facebook themselves are very slow to remove offensive material and are of no help.

It needs an enthusiastic coordinator for it to work.

boogle

mick kk wrote: »

http://www.antibullyingcampaign.ie/

This website is our guidebook. We follow this. There is the no blame approach. A bully who is identified must agree and stop the bullying and must also go to the counsellor. If he or she continues to bully then their parents are bought in for a meeting and students is punished. All students in our school have about 4/5 classes per year that deal with bullying. We do bullying surveys twice a year so that students can identify bullies and victims.
If students are bullied on facebook outside school hours then we deal with it as the effects of this bullying are felt by the victiom during the school day. Students who are identified bullying others on facebook must open up their facebook in the principal's office and remove the offensive material. Parents are informed. We have a bullying awareness week and a "be yourself" today.

Facebook themselves are very slow to remove offensive material and are of no help.

It needs an enthusiastic coordinator for it to work.

We've been using a similar approach. We also refer bullies and victims of bullying to our care team (we have a part-time counselor) for a talk after issues have been dealt with. Seems to help. I find that students are not using Facebook so much for posting things designed to upset or belittle. They realise that it's too easy to trace to them. Many of them are using sites where they are able to pose anonymously. Anyone else experienced this?

byhookorbycrook

We have had a number of guest speakers on this at school. (Primary)Facebook is for 13+ Many of the problem sites are blocked at school through the NCTE. Children, if they must bring in mobiles have to leave them in the office. is there much more you can do at primary?

boogle

No that seems like you are tacking the issue head-on, but I think at secondary it's harder to limit their phone usage. Even some parents insist that students have access to their phones "at break time" in case they need to contact them.

byhookorbycrook

For primary, I think if a chid HAS to have a mobile(how did we ever manage??) something like the Firefly phone is the way to go.

Kettleson

boogle wrote: »

No that seems like you are tacking the issue head-on, but I think at secondary it's harder to limit their phone usage. Even some parents insist that students have access to their phones "at break time" in case they need to contact them.

Has the school a clear policy on phone use? It sounds as if it doesn't.

Either the school allows the pupils to have phone access at break time, or it doesn't allow them to. What is it?

You sound as if the parents insistence on break time phone use is an unwelcome pressure put on the school. Any practice allowed within school grounds has to be in the best interest of all parties, and not at the expense, danger or inconvenience of a few.

Has the school a clear policy? Has it been implemented, reviewed and adhered to?

boogle

Yeah, there's a very clear policy in place. No phone usage allowed in class but students can use phones outside of the classroom (breaktimes etc.)

The rules are enforced, and generally adhered to by students.