Delegate targets cyberbullying

Concerned about cyberbullying, a local delegate is hoping to expand Virginia’s law barring profane, threatening or indecent language over public airways to include cell phones and other wireless telecommunications devices.

Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle. said a case in Culpeper where someone was sending threats via text message has inspired him to propose a House bill. He said school officials are wrestling with cyberbullying problems and want to handle them without breaking the law.

“It used to take a week of conversation for gossip to spread through the cafeteria and gym,” Bell said. “Now it blows up overnight. It is seen by 300 students all at once.”

Meanwhile, the Rutherford Institute’s John W. Whitehead released a letter written Thursday to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli regarding his Nov. 24 cyberbullying opinion. Whitehead said the opinion, which was issued at Bell’s request, undermines the privacy rights of students under the Fourth Amendment.

Bell said he asked Cuccinelli to address cyberbullying via students’ cell phones and laptops and what the school may do if it finds what appears to be child pornography on those devices. The questions arose at Bell’s meeting with principals and staff from Albemarle schools.

Cuccinelli issued an opinion on Nov. 24 backing searches of student cell phones and laptops by school officials if there is reasonable suspicion that the student is violating the law or school rules and if the search is focused and not excessively intrusive. The attorney general said officials who discover suspected child pornography should give it to police.

Whitehead’s letter to Cuccinelli said searches based on that opinion would violate the privacy rights of students under the Fourth Amendment. He wrote that the opinion doesn’t acknowledge that school officials have a duty to corroborate facts and “pays mere lip-service” to the fact that school officials must not be too intrusive.

“We don’t want state officials going through some young child’s laptop and looking at everything trying to find something about whether he made a remark about someone’s body,” Whitehead said. “The easier way is if someone complains, look at that person’s cell phone and check to see if the phone number is the same as the other person’s. Why do you need to download and look through their phone?”

Bell said he thought Cuccinelli’s letter showed the logical extensions of existing case law, noting that the courts have treated searches of school students differently than adult searches.

June Jenkins, the Safe Schools/Healthy Students project director for Charlottesville and Albemarle, said between 2 percent and 3 percent of students reported being cyberbullied during a spring student survey. Jenkins said cyberbullying victims can be reluctant to report it for fear that their parents will take away their cell phone or computer privileges.

Jenkins said technology has changed bullying.

“I think it’s human nature,” Jenkins said. “We have a tendency to say things in writing that we wouldn’t have had the courage to say to someone’s face.”

Bell’s proposed bill was endorsed last month by the Computer Crimes Advisory Committee of the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.