Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is use any form of technology to bully a targeted person or group. Often times, people think that just the victim is affected by cyberbullying but the effects of it are contagious. Many friends, family members and onlookers are affected as well as the intended target. In addition, the culture on campus can be affected significantly if and life altering decisions are made due to cyberbullying. We see it happen all the time. Students will self harm, slip into depression or harm others as outlet. Many students don't have the mental capacity of cognitive structure to handle these difficult decisions as many adults would so they employ the fight or flight model. In order to make students more aware and vigilant of when cyberbullying occurs, I would first inform students on what cyberbullying is and how it affects people by using real world examples and possibly bring Ryan Halligan's dad in to present a program on cyberbullying. I would also offer open counseling sessions and open dialogue when students feel like that are experiencing cyberbullying, know someone who is experiencing cyberbullying or is heavily affected by acts of cyberbullying. In this program, I would also incorporate the district and state laws on cyberbullying and the legal ramifications that are correlated. Seeing that our campus is mainly one to one, before issuing devices, I would make parents and students complete and pass a cyberbullying course in addition to signing an oath to be cyberbullying free that includes consequences for the students and parents.

Our district has adopted Common Sense Media as its basal for educating our students on cyberbullying and in looking at it, it has quality educational tools that will help all students. I like how it is divided into primary and secondary content.

This week in class,  we were charged with watching a ted talk about Monica Lewinsky. My biggest take away from the Monica Lewinsky video is mainly to be mindful. Mindful of what you do and how it can affect your life in a positive or negative way and also be mindful of the way you react to situations that may not necessarily involve or impact you. I believe that the situation was wrong but I do feel as if Monica made a mistake and she wasn't mindful of the consequences. Yes, President Clinton went on to be impeached for his decisions and actions but he was still able to remain president and where was Monica left? We have to be mindful that America has always been a man's world and women typically don't get the same treatment in situations, especially like this, as their male counterparts.

If I had to use one word to describe how I felt after watching the video, it would be empathetic. I am glad that the mistakes I made at such an early age weren't digestible by the masses. It could seriously break you. Because this scandal occurred before social media, I believe it's a double edged sword. There is tons of mystery behind the scandal still so there is room for denial but if this were to happen now, EVERYTHING would be placed online for everyone to see. There would be no secrets, no hiding but I also feel as if things would clear quickly, because it's never a long time before the next scandal hits. I feel as if it is hard to guard ourselves against the unknown sharing of private data and information but we could write our representatives and get more laws and coverage about people first laws when it comes to data. I don't feel as if what I do online will make a difference in anything, if anything they would find that I live a very boring life and have an Amazon shopping issue, but that's about it.
I think if we believe that the government is always watching then that will motivate us to have as good of a digital footprint as possible. To cope with the shame game that we often see on social media we just have to disengage. As hard as it may be. We shouldn't give energy to anything that brings us or others down. We should put ourselves in the shoes of those affected and see what we can do to better the situation, even if that means staying out of it or standing up in solidarity. If I had unlimited resources I would make it mandatory for all states to have a cyber bullying program at all campuses and I would promote laws to be stricter on parents and children when it comes to cyber bullying. We all have seen the effects of bullying and cyber bullying and I wouldn't want anyone else to lose their life or have mental health issues develop due to this. I would also make it mandatory for all child and family counselors to take courses on cyber bullying and the effects so they know how to approach the situation. I've encountered some adults who really lack the understanding of cyber bullying and their main suggestion is to just ignore it.... NEWS FLASH....kids can't ignore it, they don't have the problem solving skills yet, which is why it's important to teach them and us. I would also like to develop a system that spans across all social media that detects cyber bullying and alerts proper officials and not only blocks their username but the IP address associated as well.