Back to School and Cyber-Bullying: keeping school accountable

Today, I have bullying on the mind as I prepare my special need daughter to enter elementary school.  This is a guest post on cyber-bullying featuring Carolyn Reinach Wolf, Esq. is Senior Partner at Abrams, Fensterman, Fensterman, Eisman, Greenberg, Formato & Einiger, LLP – with the only mental health law practice in New York. She is also founder of Campus Behavioral Health Risk Consultants, LLC – a consulting firm that addresses mental health and security legal issues on school campuses.  Share your experiences with kids and computers and help me as I foray into this new world.

As August comes to an end, parents and their children can already see a new school year just around the corner. In the past, kids used to be concerned with getting picked-on by bullies in the playground during recess or in the hallways in between classes. But child and adolescent mental health legal expert Carolyn Reinach Wolf sees a disturbing trend in teen violence going from face-to-face confrontations to aggressive attacks via the Internet.

And if schools do not address how to protect students from cyber-bullying and parents do not demand that safeguards are put in place to keep their children out of harm’s way, the consequences will be deadly and the schools may be liable.

In recent years there has been a rash of suicides as a direct result of cyber-bullying.

Fifteen-year old Iain Steele of Western Springs, Illinois hanged himself with a belt after being assaulted by schoolmates in cyberspace, where students posted a video on Facebook making fun of his taste for heavy metal music. Thirteen-year-old Ryan Patrick Halligan of Essex Junction, Vermont hanged himself after he was repeatedly sent instant messages from middle school classmates accusing him of being gay. Thirteen-year-old Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, Missouri killed herself after she was taunted through social-networking website Myspace.

In fact, a recent study reveals 45 percent of pre-teens said they have been cyber-bullied at school, and 30 percent of teens say they’ve had the same experience.

According to Ms. Wolf, founder of Campus Behavioral Health Risk Consultants, LLC, school policies are outdated and do not address how to monitor and prevent cyber-bullying attacks on social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace or YouTube.

“Schools have failed to keep up with the newest types of bullying,” said Ms. Wolf, the mother of three. “And as a parent and lawyer, I would hold the schools accountable for anything that happens under its roof.”

According to Ms. Wolf, schools have a myriad of tools at their disposal to combat cyber-bullying, but most are not using them:

• Monitoring computers – Schools have every right to monitor computers being used on their premises and look for keywords that may indicate a cyber-attack and bullying.
• Social Network Sites – Facebook and Myspace should be blocked on school computers. This is the most common area for cyber-bullying.
• Text Messaging – Phones should be turned off during class and texting should be banned by schools. A nuisance to the student? Yes. But we forget they are at school to learn.
• Anti-violence student committee – Similar to New York City’s “If you see something, say something” campaign, students should have an outlet to anonymously report cases of bullying to classmates and administrators without fear of repercussion.
• “Behavioral Intervention Teams” – A multi-disciplined group of administrators, mental health experts, risk management and legal counsel should meet regularly to properly address “red flag” or “at risk” students and act toward preventing specific bullying incidents rather than waiting to go into “reactive” mode.

“Unfortunately, most schools are asleep at the wheel and are not taking proactive steps to prevent an attack,” Ms. Wolf said. “They prefer to say, ‘It won’t happen to us.’ We live in the Digital Age, and schools would be naïve to think that.”

According to Ms. Wolf, before dropping your kids off on the first day of school, parents should talk to administrators about what they are doing to prevent online violence.

“Parents should hold schools accountable for preventing cyber-bullying,” Ms. Wolf says, “On the first day of school, parents should arrange meetings with administrators to discuss what mechanisms they have in place to monitor online activity and how they would address a potential cyber-bullying incident.”