Greene schools target cyber bullying

While grade-school bullies still lurk on playgrounds everywhere, the Internet offers a new realm for abuse.

Cyber bullying is a growing problem nationwide, according to recent research, and it’s an issue that proves complicated and in some cases tragic.

In perhaps the most notorious case, Megan Meier, a 13-year-old Missouri girl, committed suicide after the mother of an ex-friend posed online as a boy and tormented her. Lori Drew was convicted of misdemeanor charges for posing as a teenage boy online.

In an attempt to deal with the emerging problem, states are enacting cyber bullying laws.

Greene County school officials want to get a leg up on the issue.

On Wednesday, Seth Muraskin, William Monroe High School assistant principal, will give a multimedia presentation on cyber bullying.

The event is free and open to the public. It will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at William Monroe.

“Our objective is to be proactive,” Muraskin said.

He said the Greene school system hasn’t dealt with a lot of cyber bullying or Internet abuse issues, but noted that “it’s becoming more prevalent … and a lot of it is occurring outside of school.”

Muraskin and Bethe Lipper, a William Monroe reading specialist, are part of the Greene County District Safety Committee. This school year, the committee has focused on how to deal with bullying in general.

After several meetings, Lipper said, it was clear there was “tremendous growth in cyber bullying.”

In a University of California, Los Angeles, study published last year in the Journal of School Health, nearly three out of four teenagers said they were bullied online. Most were also victimized at school.

The research was based on an anonymous Internet-based survey of 1,454 participants between the ages of 12 and 17, according to the researchers.

Cyber bullying is a complicated issue, Lipper and Muraskin said.

It’s difficult to know where cyber bullying actually happens, they said. Has it been done on school grounds, for instance? Greene County doesn’t allow students to use cell phones at school, but they do anyway, Muraskin said.

It’s also tough to determine who is a cyber bully and who is retaliating.

And there is the thorny issue of free speech.

“There’s a lot of judgment calls that come into play,” Muraskin said. “It’s a very gray area.”

Muraskin said he has been approached by parents frustrated over how to deal with cyber bullying.

While some cases of cyber bullying are innocuous, there can be serious consequences, Muraskin said.

He noted another emerging phenomenon known as “sexting,” when sexually charged text messages or images are exchanged.

He said there have been sexting cases in which students have been charged with child pornography.

“We’re not trying to frighten anybody,” Muraskin said, “but it’s important for people to be involved in their teenagers’ lives.”