The beauty of online streamed events is that for every important meeting, even those who can’t attend in person can participate online. That was the case last week for the Bullying Prevention Summit and post-sessions hosted by President Barack Obama and members of his staff. ConnectSafely.org’s Anne Collier has a wonderful summary of the morning session on her blog.
It is heartening to see the US Government’s leaders recognize the bullying, online or off, is in violation of civil rights. Most US states have anti-bullying laws on their books, providing protection to citizens from this form of mistreatment. Schools have a legal obligation to address bullying and provide a safe environment for all students to receive an education. The on-campus/off-campus speech issues get blurred when off-campus speech impacts the school environment, preventing students from learning.
You’ll want to check out the new www.StopBullying.gov website with great resources for parents, teachers and administrators, and students to understand and address bullying.
And Facebook, the leading social network, announced a fantastic new resource for users who are being targeted by bullies. They call it a Social Reporting Feature. If you feel a wall comment or photo is bullying or harassment, now you can report it to an adult in your network (like a parent or other relative) as well as to Facebook. I wonder if teachers or principals will consider creating an account within the Facebook network dedicated to receiving these reports from their students who might not be able to engage with their parents or whose parents aren’t on Facebook. What do you think? Would that be a good or bad idea?