This article published in the New York Times, talks about young children being bullied through the internet and through text messages. Many desperate parents have been turning to school districts for help. The school districts are at a loss. They're not sure they have the authority to deal with bullying and harrassment that occurs outside of school and they're afraid to overstep boundaries that aren't clear in their codes of conduct.
New questions have been brought up that actually seemed pretty scary to me. The question was, can a principle search a cell phone like they would a computer or a back pack? This seems to be overstepping the boundaries of how much control the school officials should have over the students. Yet, if they have reason to think the student is harrassing another student via text message, and they thinking catching the student in the act could stop the problem, then maybe its a good idea. I'm not sure how I feel about that. What do you guys think?
I kind of feel like cyberbullying shouldn't be dealt with by the schools. I feel like that's a situation where parents should get involved, and in extreme situations, the police.
Cyber bulling does seem like a big deal. Even from the time that I was in school so many things have changed due to cell phones. I know middle school students who have nicer and more expensive phones than I do, which I find rather annoying!!, but I can see how it could be a problem in schools. Even looking at the TV show Gossip Girl, all the characters are informed on the worst gossip about others via their cell phones through text messages and text pictures. With theses kinds of shows on TV I think they can be especially influential to the younger generation that might be going through this cyber bulling.
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