Just plain stupid…

January 27, 2012
Secret Service probes bullet-ridden Obama image on Facebook
By David Schwartz, Reuters

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The U.S. Secret Service is investigating the origins of a photo on an Arizona police officer’s Facebook page that shows a group of armed youths posing in the desert with what appears to be a bullet-ridden image of President Barack Obama on a T-shirt.

Max Milien, a Secret Service spokesman, said on Friday that the agency was looking into the picture taken of seven youths, four of them toting guns, that turned up on the Facebook page of Sergeant Pat Shearer of the Peoria, Arizona, police department. Read more ›

Seriously?

January 30, 2012
Brooklyn mom’s Facebook page updated with picture of someone hoisting champagne just hours after her toddlers were dumped on streetcorner
By Rocco Parascandola, Barry Paddock, and Tracy Connor, New York Daily News

A Brooklyn mom’s Facebook page was updated with a photograph of someone hoisting a bottle of champagne – hours after her toddlers were dumped on a streetcorner.

Cops were still canvassing Canarsie looking for the mom about 6:15 p.m. on Sunday when the photo of the pink bubbly popped up. It was an odd time for a celebration.

Two-year-old Dominae and Diani, 3, were found in front of the Bay View Houses about 2:40 p.m. Police say their mother, Dalisha Adams, abandoned them. The single mom was busted about 11 p.m. – more than four hours after the head-scratching Facebook post.

Adams, 26, was awaiting arraignment late Monday on two counts of child endangerment. Read more ›

More on the NJ teacher who made anti-gay comments on Facebook…

January 29, 2012
Teacher’s alleged anti-gay Facebook comments criticized by school district in court papers
By Jessica Calefati, The Star-Ledger

UNION TOWNSHIP — Facebook comments posted by Union Township English teacher Viki Knox were “hateful, bigoted and discriminatory,” the district school superintendent says in a court document that provides a detailed account of Knox’s alleged anti-gay conduct.

The document describes the results of a school district investigation and has been filed with the state Office of Administrative Law.

The case, in which the school board is attempting to fire Knox, is expected to be argued before an administrative law judge in May. In December, Union’s school board received the document and voted to suspend Knox without pay after voting to certify tenure charges brought against her. She had been on leave with pay. Read more ›

January 31, 2012
Facebook Can Get You Fired: UC Research Reveals the Perils of Social Networking for School Employees
Source: University of Cincinnati

Newswise — School administrators are facing a growing dilemma resulting from social networking that goes beyond preventing cyber-bullying among students. They’re also faced with balancing the rights of privacy and free speech of educators with what should be the appropriate behavior of teachers as role models.

Janet Decker, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor in UC’s Educational Leadership Program, reveals more on the dilemma in an article published in the January issue of Principal Navigator, a professional magazine by the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators.

Decker explains that a large number of educators have been fired for Internet activity. She says that some teachers have been dismissed for behavior such as posting a picture of themselves holding a glass of wine. Read more ›

Unfortunately it misses the mark in the main question: we need to stop asking ourselves and worrying that our child may be the victim. Most of the time, parents are aware when their child is the victim… but what parents never know, and what they really need to be asking themselves, is: is my child an online bully?

Until parents are as concerned with that prospect as they are with their child being a victim, this problem is going nowhere. PC Pandora computer monitoring software will let you know if you child is using the internet connection you are supplying them with to bully others online!

January 31, 2012
Cyber-Bullying and Internet Trolls: Is Your Child a Victim?
By Helen Levinson, business2community.com

I have served as a panelist on several school industry advisory councils. One topic frequently raised is social responsibility and the cyber-bullying epidemic, which continues to grow. Cyber-bullying is when a child or teenager is harassed, humiliated, embarrassed, threatened or tormented using digital technology. This is not limited to the Internet; cyber-bullying also encompasses bullying done through such things as text messages using cell phones.

What astounds me most is the lack of awareness parents have regarding this issue, and it is more prevalent in older generation parents that do not use technology nor understand the social networks. Let’s face it, verbal bullying isn’t new. It’s been an ongoing problem where children pick on other children, tease them and make them feel horrible.

In your adolescent days, you probably watched it happen, or even were the victim of it. So, it’s no surprise that bullying still goes on. Let’s fast-forward 20 years, and thanks to technology, it has become much worse. When someone is bullied through the social networks, humiliation is broadcast for the masses to see, and since the Internet never sleeps, the bullying posts are instantaneous and can become viral more quickly. Read more ›