Cyber Bullying.

Many teenagers hear the term cyber bullying and they don't think anything of it or they think it would never happen to them. Cyber bullying is a way to bully someone using different types of technology and is becoming a big problem. Its only natural for teenagers to gossip and for harsh talk to go on between students but it has reached a level of sexual harassment and even death threats but does the school have the authority to handle something like this? Many schools are proactive in the stoppage of cyber bullying but telling kids not do something really doesn’t influence them in not doing it as much as most people would think. Students often intentionally go against the adult telling them not to do things because they don’t want their fun to be ruined. Kids now focus less on calling people and now its all texting and when someone sends you a text, its not like you can understand the tone of that text so this can often lad to misinterpretations and only complicate things more. Children are killing themselves because of the humiliation of cyber bullying. When I went to Hollidaysburg, there was a girl who sent out a picture of herself with nothing on to my friend. Naturally, when getting this photo he wanted to impress everyone so he sent it to a lot of us and then we sent it to our friends and soon the world was seeing this fourteen year old girls innocence (keep in mind I didn’t have a phone so I sent nothing). I was good friends with this girl but as a guy if you choose a girl over a guy people will instantly judge you.. Ever since this photo was sent around she couldn’t live with the mistake she made and she tried to kill herself several times. She has been reported on suicide watch and we haven’t talked in years. Naturally the parents wouldn’t accept the reality that the daughter sent the text of free will so they wanted the boy to be thrown out of the public school but the school didn’t interfere and he continues going their to this day. Sometimes I wonder if im the only one who remembers what he did to one of my best friends. Even in this article if children did do a presentation on how you shouldn’t have a facebook under the age of thirteen I would be shocked to find out if none of them did. People may preach about a certain thing but that doesn’t mean they agree with it at all. Ive seen people at my old school do anti drug speeches and then the next week I see a photo of them and some guys hitting up a bong or doing other things. Does the school truly have a right to interfere with something like this if it happens in school or what if it happens outside of school? What do bully's really think they accomplishing when they crush how a person feels about themselves or when they send things around and cause chaos in the child's life. I grew up in a town where cyber bullying was second nature for everyone and I wonder if the same would happen to my child, if I were to have one. All parents want someone just to be blamed even if they are innocent for what happened to their child though cyber bullying they all just want results. I truly believe that cyber bullying will never go away and I am frightened for how future technology will not only enhance life styles but enhance cyber bullying.

Hoffman, Jan. "How Should Schools Handle Cyberbullying? - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Tiffany and Co Jewelry, 27 June 2010. Web. 06 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/style/28bully.html?pagewanted=all>.