Teen Cyberbullying Investigated Part 2

It is interesting to read how the courts try to walk the line between supporting student rights and trying to allow school systems the freedom to discipline their students.  Judge Jacobs frequently makes reference to how there are still many gray areas in the law of cyberbullying in schools and the decision of the case comes down to how the local courts feel about a particular issue.  The book was published in 2008, and several of the cases were still pending a vertict at the time of  the publication.  Also, there are several more states (including Connecticut) that are not listed as having cyber bullying laws that have been passed since its publication.  Here is a link to Connecticut’s law (and other state laws), passed in 2011, in case anyone else is interested in reading how the bullying law was updated.

Some of the cases in this book deal with issues that my students face quite frequently. One chapter discusses “sexting” and the consequences of distributing pictures of naked teens (which is considered child pornography).  Most of the teenagers were charged and convicted.  Recently we had an incident where several of our students were at a party where a girl passed out from alcohol and several pictures were taken of her being subjected to lewd acts.  Several students were trying to look at the pictures on their phones during class and gossiping about what happened.  This was similar to the cases mentioned where the acts happened off campus but they affected students in school. Several actions were taken against both the students showing the picture to others and those who continued to gossip despite staff requests to drop the subject. While it was clear that the students’ actions were not condoned by the school, I think that it is clear we missed a chance to try to talk to students about being aware of digital media.  Many of my students are frequent users of cell phone cameras and have Instagram or Facebook  accounts where they post pictures frequently.  They often seem to not think anything of posting pictures frequently, and find pictures of people drunk or high funny. This book could help be a powerful teaching tool of the permanence of digital media and how “once it’s out there, anyone can see it”.  Quotes from and statistics  about bosses, college professors and other adults reactions to inappropriate media and how it affects a student’s ability to navigate the world are printed alongside the cases that changed people’s lives.  I think the best take away message that Judge Jacobs tries to impart (through questions and presentation of court cases) is that while the students can and do win their cases, their lives are forever changed and in some cases they lose time and experiences that they can never retrieve.   It would be interesting to have a class divide the chapters in the book and create an alternate timeline for the cases.  How could the student have handled the situation differently to create a more positive outcome? The project could be called “Back to the Future” and students could create a video to be shared in class of how their alternate timeline would have affected the student, his/her peers, family, and the school officials.  It would be a lesson that emphasized the four C’s of the 21^st century learner by asking the students to be critically think about the situation and create something together.  It also would bring into focus several important pillars of digital citizenship (rights and responsibilities, law and access).