Canadian Teachers Rally Against Cyberbullying
Here’s a headline from over the weekend… The Canadian Teachers’ Federation has voted unanimously to ratify their policy on cyberbullying, saying that the issue is seriously out of control.
It kind of is here in the states as well. In fact, it is the new epidemic – by far. While lots of it can be considered youthful hazing, and many kids are smart enough to just ignore it (realizing that unless you are a total loser, nothing and no one in your first 18 years of life will matter when you graduate)… but there are those extreme cases where serious emotional damage is done to victims and families.
So how would you know I your child was engaged in cyberbullying? And I don’t mean just being a victim… how would you know if they were an instigator?
As parents, one of our duties is to make sure our children know how to contribute to and participate in society, respectfully and cooperatively in a way that will move the human race forward. Picking on people, viciously and cowardly behind a screen name, does not fit into the overall plan. It’s ridiculous and unnecessary… “Treat others as you want to be treated.”
That’s why parents need to be monitoring Internet activity of their kids. Software like PC Pandora can help. If your child is a victim and not telling you, you will find out and be able to talk to them – plus you’ll have all the evidence. If your child happens to be one of the cowardly spineless bullies, you need to put a stop to it.
Here are two stories that I thought were the best (from the onslaught of coverage of the story). I pasted them below. Check ‘em out and give me your thoughts on this issue…
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation is pushing for Ottawa to make cyberbullying an offence under the Criminal Code because of its harmful and serious effects.
Text-messaging, chat rooms, email and social networking groups like Facebook are all being used by these bullies to target teachers and students.
Chris Collins, a retired super-intendent of schools, told 680News the biggest problem with cyber-bullying is the fact that it allows bullies to remain anonymous.
“They don’t have to face the person and [...] when you can hide behind anonymity it gives you a far greater scope to do things that are far more serious and far more harmful and it gives the bully protection that they don’t have when they do it face-to-face.”
One of the most high-profile incidents of online bullying happened in 2006 after a 13-year-old Missouri girl hanged herself. She was taunted by a 16-year-old boy on MySpace. The boy later turned out to be a neighbourhood mother in disguise.
Collins explained a lot of people take online bullying to heart. “It’s in black and white, [which] gives it a legitimacy [...] because it’s out there in print. People consider it to be reliable and many people will believe it.”
According to the teacher’s federation, current laws do not provide police the tools they need to investigate online harassment.
The federation is considering a draft policy that provides “explicit protection” for teachers and students against such behaviour.
This police has already been approved by the group’s board of directors and is expected to be supported by delegates at the group’s annual general meeting in Moncton Saturday.
Cyberbullying should be made a separate Criminal Code offence the Canadian Teachers’ Federation said on Saturday as they voted unanimously to ratify their policy on the issue.
“Because it’s (cyberbullying) so new . . . we haven’t caught up and we’re trying to catch up,” said Emily Noble president of the federation.
“Kids go on, say Facebook, and make harassing comments about someone . . . If I_had written you a letter I would be up before the courts for harassment,” said Noble. “People do it online and it’s anonymous.”
The CTF, which represents 220,000 teachers, held a special session on cyberbullying at its annual meeting in Moncton, N.B. The new policy aims to reflect the changing environment for today’s kids.
“It’s (cyberspace) the new playground. We’ve taught the kids in terms of the face-to-face and the physical bullying but this is in fact the new space.”
But Noble said while bullying has always gone on, it is this anonymity that differentiates the cyberbully from the traditional playground thug.
“This use of computers is a new tool . . .We are finding it is much more pervasive because there is an anonymity to it,” she said. “Kids can go online and they can pretend to be somebody else.”
A draft version of the policy said that it should be a punishable offence to use “information and communication technology to convey a message which threatens death or bodily harm or perpetuates fear and intimidation.”
The policy indicates a serious recognition of how common it is now for bullying to be carried out by text messaging, in online chat rooms, on blogs or social networking websites such as Facebook. The idea goes far beyond the expulsions and suspensions that some students have been punished with for bullying fellow students or targeting teachers.
“We will be lobbying the federal government to strengthen any gaps in the criminal code regarding misuse of the Internet,” said Noble.
A spokesperson for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said it’s too early to comment on the CTF’s Criminal Code proposal, but Noble said the federation has already started to talk to members of Parliament and have so far found a receptive audience.
“It is an issue that will resonate, we believe, with the policy-makers and the legislative makers,” she said.
But she said that it could be a challenge to get across to policy-makers the seriousness of the issue.
“One of the major difficulties in terms of the Criminal Code is that we tend to think these are just people on the Internet and it’s fun to play games,” said Noble. “We need to work with the policy-makers to say ‘”this is more than just kids playing video games.”
Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor in the faculty of education at McGill University and an author on cyberbullying, is pleased the organization has finally developed a policy on the matter, but doesn’t think making it a crime will help eliminate it.
“I understand completely their need to come up with a policy,” said Shariff. “I would advise them to please emphasize an educational response; make sure their membership understands that criminalizing this issue ought to be the very, very last resort.”
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