Abstract
There is a need to research the issue of bullying as a school- community issue. There have been many incidents where the school and the community have been both affected by the increasing incidents of cyber bullying on and off campus. This paper highlights the importance of understanding the issue of cyber bullying as a school -community issue since most often, cyber bulling takes place at home. The paper suggests that schools and communities must collaborate for the decision making process and implementation. Policies must be reformed in order to prevent cyber bullying from happening in the first place.
Keywords: cyber bullying, school community issue
Cyber Bullying is a School-Community Issue
Introduction
All varieties of bullying (incorporating cyber bullying) must be handled as a community problem. It is important that schools take efficient measures to prevent and deal with bullying among pupils. Nonetheless, it is equally crucial for schools to inform everybody that the bullying of the personnel whether by pupils, parents or co-workers is unacceptable. A recent study claims that 21% of the teachers, one in every five, have filed having disparaging posts on social media sites about them from both children and parents (Dept for Education, 2014). This paper argues that the policies against bullying should be reformed to include less visible forms of aggression, and that decision making by all stakeholders should be collaborative, so as to be able to prevent incidents of cyber bullying on and off campus.
Issue
Today’s children and youth are growing up in a global setting that is completely different from that of previous times. Many young individuals experience the mobile and internet cellular phone as a productive and imaginative part of development and activities of identity. Most importantly, ICTs support social media platforms which allow young individuals to feel linked with their peers. However, technology is also used to cause harm to other users. When children are targeted by bullies through usage of cell phones or internet, they tend to feel isolated and incredibly misunderstood. They may not realize that their experiences are a sort of bullying, or tend to be confident that their friends will appreciate their shared content. Earlier secure and pleasant activities and environments are most likely to become intimidating and cause them to become anxious. As internet use becomes common, so does the abuse of the technology as a way of frightening others. Analysis carried out abroad shows that cyber bullying is definitely a feature of adolescents’ lives, with implications that are trending up year after year.
One research completed for the United Kingdom discovered that 22% of young individuals reported being the mark of cyber bullying (Shariff, 2008). The practice of any form of bullying is certainly never acceptable. A study by Patchin & Hinduja (2010) found that students who act as offenders or victims in bullying cases tend to possess lower self-esteem as compared to those with no involvement at all. Educational institutions have a responsibility to supply a secure and supportive environment that defends the psychological and physical well-being of all the students. It is important that institutions address all kinds of antisocial behavior, including cyber bullying because bullies and victims are both at risk for future negative outcomes (Milsom & Gallo, 2006). Failing to take action may place the wellbeing of pupils at risk, and could include legal implications for the institution.
Stakeholders
Parents, institution officials, and institution boards play decisive roles in how on-line aggression is comprehended and approached by all those concerned (Coloroso, 2003; Shariff, 2008). It depends on adults to convince children to reach for support and guidance if they experience problems. A study published by Kowalski & Susan (2013) found that children involved in cyber bullying either as victim or bully display negative scores on academic performance along with physical and mental health issues. It is very necessary that stakeholders collaborate and identify the size and scope of the issue in order to address it successfully (Robert Wood Johnson Clinical , 2011).
Parents. Family members are decisive in preventing cyber bullying. Aggressive actions of cyber bullying usually occur at home using communication products that parents typically purchase for their children. The best tactic for parents may be the direct approach. Discussing limits, expectations, and safety measures can stop many of the problems before they begin. Not all parents have children who are victims and the bullies have parents, too. Parents who know about the functions of cyber bullying should do something about the child who is a bully. Contacting other adults who have to be notified and talking about how precisely to avoid these aggressive acts can represent a solution (Coloroso, 2003).
Vision
The vision refers to the need to eradicate bullying in our society by supporting individuals and schools to take positive actions against bullying through the posting of resources, and to direct and teach them to find non-violent answers to the troubles connected with bullying. The mission nevertheless is to improve the awareness regarding bullying and the problems associated with it, and to prevent, remove and resolve bullying in school-communities.
Efforts to Reform
The simplest way to handle cyber bullying is to stop it from happening to begin with. First rung on the ladder is choosing someone inside the school-community to hold responsibility for the synchronization and execution of bullying avoidance and reaction strategies. This individual should be an associate of the school’s senior control team, employee or official accountable for coordinating general anti-bullying activity. This person should make sure that the entire school community plays a part in, and are involved in noticing aggressive behaviors. It is not sufficient to provide a single solution to the serious problem of cyber bullying. However, there are few primary areas that schools have to concentrate on jointly in order to set up a thorough and effective plan.
Collaboration Strategies
The complete school-community includes a component which plays a role in guaranteeing cyber safety. Accepting that children and youth have social lives might aid adults to react to the scenarios effectively. Asking children and young individuals about their experiences may be a good strategy which can provide adults with an essential learning option and a context for talking about online safety. A few recommended collaborative strategies for effective prevention of most types of bullying include the following initiatives:
i) School-community must require a shared and agreed-upon explanation for cyber bullying. Each of the stakeholders should know that the effects and methods of cyber bullying are different from other varieties of bullying. Young individuals and parents ought to be made alert to students' obligations within their usage of ICT, and the corresponding sanctions in case of misuse. Parents along with the students ought to know that school provides them with support if bullying occurs out of the institution campus.
ii) There is a need for students to understand that they should not handle cyber bullying all alone. Instead, they should report the incident of cyber bullying before it aggravates. It is necessary to provide and publicize various ways of reporting cyber bullying in schools - for example, a learning student council squad, reporting to peers could handle anonymous complaints, and provide information directly regarding contacting service providers.
iii) The technology is effectively being used to aid engaging, effective and positive learning, and also to recognize and raise the potential of personal learning by producing more flexible, accessible and creative learning. Students should discover safe means of acquiring benefits from technology in regards to assertiveness, learning and socialization. Furthermore, this study suggests promoting and talking about e-safeness and digital literacy. Moreover, it suggests that the youth in the institution should understand the systems they use or ask other students to instruct them. Various schools are struggling to generate policies that handle cyber bullying and the utilization of mobile phones on campus. Several of the studies claim that banning technology is not a solution, but teaching everybody to be very good digital citizens can be an option instead. When schools adopt codes of conduct, they should connect with activity in or out of school and set the results up front. The idea that school and residence are two separate areas no more exists in the thoughts of digital children.
iv) The schools are a crucial setting for increasing the collaboration with the parents of the students and disseminate information regarding online safety. It is thus necessary to collaborate with parents by organizing seminars about cyber bullying and talking about the institutions’ policy for preventing it. The educators have to convince parents to regulate and supervise children’s online behavior. The parents are required to become involved with everything their children are doing online, the same way they are passionate about football and sports. In the same way that parents would resist letting children run around an amusement park, they should not allow the children to surf online without supervision.
Shared Decision Making
i) The plan emphasizes the necessity to upgrade schools’ anti-bullying strategy - for instance, policies on tendencies, pastoral health care and e-learning strategies. Furthermore, it is recommended to assess the current AUPs - the guidelines that students need to have the same rules to follow, as a way of benefiting from ICTs in the institution - and publicize the information in order to make students and the parents aware. Also, the data regarding incidents of cyber bullying should be kept in records. Then, school officials should possess the ability to conduct queries of internet usage inside the school. Realizing that the institution is addressing the issue may become a warning for bullies not to abuse school-community resources.
ii) Regular opinions are essential to be sure those anti-bullying policies will work and are up-to-date. Consider conducting a gross annual survey of students' activities of bullying, incorporating cyber bullying, and survey of parents’ satisfaction. Then, it is a must to publicize improvement and tasks to the school- community, so as to maintain cyber bullying as a current concern.
Conclusion
The literature advocates that it is through education and consciousness that accurate strides will be produced in the deterrence of cyber bullying (Shariff, 2008). Prevalent reactive practices by institution systems which use disciplinary actions against those who commit cyber bullying have not been proven to be effective. The reactive measures taken by academic institutions may reduce extreme incidents from reoccurring in the case of those previously caught, but there are courses which cultivate balanced behaviors to affect permanent adjustments (Perry, 1999). Teen responses to the web, its uses, and issues related to it must be directly afflicted by the responses of the adults who are around them. If this response is constructive, educated, and positive, more teenagers are likely to respond in the same manner.
References
Coloroso, B. (2003). The bully, the bullied, and the bystander. New York: Harper Collins.
Dept for Education. (2014, November). CyberBullying. Retrieved from Gov.Uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/374850/Cyberbullying_Advice_for_Headteachers_and_School_Staff_121114.pdf
Kowalski, R. M., & Kowalski, S. P. (2013). Psychological, Physical, and Academic Correlates of Cyberbullying and Traditional Bullying. Journal of Adolescent Health 53(1): S13-S20.
Milsom, A., & Gallo, L. L. (2006). Bullying in Middle Schools: Prevention and Intervention. Middle School Journal 37(3):12-19.
Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2010). Cyberbullying and Self-Esteem. Journal of School Health 80(12): 614–621.
Perry, C. (1999). Proactive thoughts on creating safe schools. School Community Journal 19(1): 113-119.
Robert Wood Johnson Clinical (2011). School Bullying: A Closer Look and Possible and Interventions. University of Pennsylvania .
Shariff, S. (2008). Cyberbullying: Issues and solutions for the school, the classroom and the home. New York: Routledge.
Cyber Bullying is a School – Community Issue
Prospectus
As compared to other forms of bullying, which occur mainly on school premises, cyber bullying takes place at home, even though it often involves students and teachers who work and learn in the same schools. Therefore, effective policies and strategies against cyber bullying must involve collaboration between the schools and the communities in which they are based. The paper will argue that the policies against bullying should be reformed to include less visible forms of aggression, and that decision making by all stakeholders should be collaborative, so as to be able to prevent incidents of cyber bullying on and off campus.
This research is significant because in most cases, the schools do not take cyber bullying into consideration as long as it does not occur on the school premises. The paper will look at the literature in the field in order to come up with effective strategies to address the issue. The identified problems refer to the fact that schools often ignore cyber bullying, or limit the actions against it to school premises, they do not involve the parents in preventive actions, they do not empower the students by teaching them how to act in these cases, and they do not collaborate with other stakeholders in the community.
This paper will draw from relevant books and articles in the field. For example, Coloroso’s book provides an insight into the phenomenon and explains the behavior of each of the participants in the conflict. On the other hand, Shariff looks specifically at cyber bullying and provides expert information on the topic. The author explains how cyber bullying occurs and gives examples on the ways in which it is handled. The sources will form the basis of this research. Based on data from these sources and others, the research will develop strategies which can be used in order to address cyber bullying as a school-community issue.
