This story came across my inbox this morning and it struck me that in part, the entire cyber bullying phenomena has certainly grown in scope, scale and visibility and that school admins have also started to realize a few things. One of these things is that outside of the school, there isn’t much that teachers or other admin can do. From a WSJ article:
In Florida, the Pasco County school board added language about cyberbullying to its code of conduct for the current school year. Its language states that “the school board has no duty to regulate or review off-campus Internet messages, statements postings, or acts” but adds that when those acts “threaten violence against another student or otherwise disrupts the learning environment or orderly conduct of the school,” the school can take action, from conferencing in parents and students, to expulsion.
What I like about this policy is that it acknowledges that the environment outside of the school does indeed have an impact inside the the school, and there the school admin does have jurisdiction. It also reminds parents that they also have a role to play in this game. It seems to me that even though this is something that has been the norm in terms of bullying for a while (parents can be called in), that it’s not really going to make much of a difference unless there is a way to actually educate the parents about what their child is truely doing.
This of course assumes that the parents are there to be part of the child’s life, but (and I’m stereotyping here), it seems that often times one of the reasons why bullying emerges in a child is that there is a problem in the home. Until we can figure a way to get a handle on that, we are going to have to worry about this bullying and other forms as ways to communicate and project power continue to emerge.
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