Bullying in the News

By Daniel Martin -- Daily Mail Online

December 10, 2012

Boys and girls as young as 13 routinely swap explicit pictures of themselves, a disturbing investigation reveals today.

Children are now so sexualised the practice has become 'mundane and mainstream'. One girl told researchers: 'I get asked for naked pictures at least two or three times a week.'

A boy said: 'You would have seen a girl's breasts before you've seen their face' while another youngster referred to so-called sexting as 'the new flirting'.

Yesterday censors were forced to announce a crackdown on depraved films amid fears they distort the way teenage boys view women. 

The British Board of Film Classification will ban movies or cut scenes to protect the vulnerable.

Pupils aged from 13 to 16 admitted to Channel 4 News that intimate photos helped them decide who to date.

Read more at Daily Mail Online.

November 5, 2012 -- News Channel 34

From Vestal Central School District:

Binghamton University athletes have been demonstrating winning behavior off the field and online to fifth-grade students at Vestal Hills Elementary with a "No Bystander" program to combat cyberbullying. They came to Vestal Hills on November 5 and will return 9 - 10:30 a.m. on November 7 to continue to present information on cyber-bullying resistance training.

Role models in more than athletics, the Binghamton University students are doing a large-group presentation, then working with the fifth-graders in small groups. The program employs three key principles that impact the development of students - courage, emerging leadership and virtues in action. The goals of No Bystanders are:

- To create a principles-based cyber-bullying program, promoting positive youth development for fifth- and sixth-grade students.

- Promote the student as a leader within the community.

- Develop a relationship of trust among the student body.

- Create an environment of positive peer pressure through courage, empathy, leadership and humility by emphasizing Virtues in Action.

- Increase the principles and awareness of what cyber-bullying is and how it affects people within our society as a whole.

- Establish an efficient process to combat cyber-bullying.

- Provide students with the necessary resources to combat cyber-bullying.

- Create empathy in students so bystanders speak out against cyber-bullying.

- Remove the false sense of power felt in cyberspace.

No Bystanders is a student leadership program that is evidence-based and was researched and developed by the State University of New York Youth Sports Institute located at SUNY Cortland.

By 13 Wham News 

Greece, N.Y. - Greece Police are deciding if a group of Greece Athena Middle school students will be charged after cell phone video shows a group of kids on a school bus bullying and threatening a school bus monitor.

You can see some students on camera and hear others off camera taunting the woman about her weight.

The students also talk about threatening to go over to the bus monitor's house and steal from her.

Greece Central School District has asked YouTube to take down the video.

Spokeswoman Laurel Heiden said their bullying response and prevention team was activated and all students involved will face disciplinary action.

Read more at 13 Wham News

By Jessica Layton- WNYT.com

EAST GREENBUSH - She was the girl who seemed to have it all. A freshman on the varsity lacrosse team - an accomplished equestrian, with a personality, eyes and a smile that sparkled. 

"She was the always the center of attention, the life of the party. I don't think anyone knew she was in pain," said close friend Rob Ferson.

Very few people knew the depth of how badly Grace Maney was hurting after a break up - and being bullied over social media.

"She had tweeted the day before, God hates me - somebody tweeted back God does had you and so does everybody else," said Grace's mom Chris Maney.

Grace's parents had seen the signs. They knew their daughter needed help to get better. In fact, they had decided to go to Four Winds, a local mental health hospital. Gracie had agreed. But then the Columbia High School freshman took her own life before they could leave, leaving behind a world of hurt for everyone who knew and loved her.

"This has trickled down, it's been far reaching. Grace was well known in the community," said Middle School Science Teacher Tom Brownell.

Please read more at WNYT.com

Michelle R. Davis - Education Week 

Principal Lynmarie Hilt has found that Facebook is the most efficient way of communicating with parents at her K-6 Denver elementary school.

But the news last week that Facebook is considering opening its site to preteen users has spurred her to think also about its potential educational value for her students.

With the revelation by The Wall Street Journal that Facebook may be looking to expand its reported 900 million users worldwide by reaching out to younger children, a flurry of both interest and concern has ensued among educators.

Please read more at Education Week

By Nirvi Shah- Education Week 

Court rulings have provided precedent about how K-12 students may express their opinions--even potentially offensive ones--on campus, but a new set of guidelines attempts to provide further clarity for school administrators under pressure to curb bullying and harassment.

The new guidelines shared today were produced by the American Jewish Committee and the Religious Freedom Education Project/First Amendment Center, both based in Washington, and they say that schools must not censor students' speech purely out of the fear of potential bullying.

Too often, "anytime anyone says something that makes anyone uncomfortable, it's bullying," said Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center and director of the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum, in Washington.

Read more at Education Week

By Katherine Rosman-The Wall Street Journal 

Celina McPhail's mom wouldn't let her have a Facebook account. The 12-year-old is on Instagram instead.

Her mother, Maria McPhail, agreed to let her download the app onto her iPod Touch, because she thought she was fostering an interest in photography. But Ms. McPhail, of Austin, Texas, has learned that Celina and her friends mostly use the service to post and "like" Photoshopped photo-jokes and text messages they create on another free app called Versagram. When kids can't get on Facebook, "they're good at finding ways around that," she says.

Read More at The Wall Street Journal

By Doug Feinberg-Chicago Sun Times 

DENVER -- Baylor coach Kim Mulkey says she's disgusted by taunting and insults directed at star player Brittney Griner on social media.

The 6-foot-8 AP player of the year is the subject of constant criticism on Twitter and other sites and Mulkey said at a news conference that she's had enough of it.

"I don't want to see any of that garbage. I don't want to hear about it, because it's just not right. It's not healthy," Mulkey said. "This is someone's child. This is a human being. She didn't wake up and say make me look like this, make me 6-foot-8 and have the ability to dunk. This child is as precious as they come. . . . The stuff she's had to read about, the stuff she's had to hear, the stuff people say about her, the stuff people write about her, it's got to stop."

Read More at Chicago Sun Times

By Yamiche Alcindor USA Today 

The states -- Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine and New York-- want to put penalties on the books for the types of digital bullying that led students in several states to commit suicide. Among the victims was Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who jumped to his death in 2010 after his roommate used a webcam to spy on his gay encounter. The roommate, Dharun Ravi, was convicted Friday on 15 counts in a case that drew national attention.

North Carolina passed a law in 2009 to criminalize cyberbullying, making it a misdemeanor for youths under 18.

Read More at USA Today

By Michelle R. Davis-  Education Week

Attention focused on cyberbullying and its impact on students has prompted many states to pass statutes intended to prevent or address online harassment. But those state laws are varied, and experts say they run the gamut from effective to window dressing--or possibly unconstitutional. 

At least 44 states have anti-bullying laws on the books. Six of those include language that specifically mentions "cyberbullying," and 31 states have anti-bullying laws that specifically mention "electronic harassment," according to the Cyberbullying Research Center, which tracks such legislation. 

But the laws differ widely in their scope. 

Read more at Education Week