New Item on Cyberbullying
Explosives, firearms and knives aren't the only weapons young people around the world are taking to school each day. Cellular phones and their increasing role in cyber-bullying are of real concern when the 21st century bully is not only techno-savvy, but uses modern communication technology as a vehicle for aggression and harassment. "˜Cyber-bullying' is committed through electronic means when peers use the Internet and cell phones to taunt, insult, threaten, harass and intimidate a peer. The cyber-bully uses text messages, pictures and web pages to circulate rumours, secrets, insults, and even death threats to harm their victims. Thus a profound change in the nature of bullying and youth violence is a subject in drastic need of more research, according to Dr Juliana Raskauskas in the College of Education.
Schools of alienation
Needless to say, nothing shifts the final responsibility for violence away from its perpetrators. But such unexpected fellow-feeling should give us great pause, even as it also helps to explain the recurring motif of school-related alienation and discomfort in popular works as varied in age, tone, setting, and genre as The Catcher in the Rye, Rebel Without a Cause, Blackboard Jungle, The Outsiders, The Basketball Diaries, Carrie, Pink Floyd's The Wall, Heathers, MTV's Daria, Bully the Vampire Slayer, and She's All That. These and similar works are not all violent, but all in some way address the stultifying effects of a school culture that is widely acknowledged as nasty and brutish, conformist and repressive - and, all too often, brazenly anti-intellectual.
UK Swarming
Source: Daily Mirror, 26/11/2004 Forty girl bullies tormented a petrified 15-year-old like a "swarm of bees", a shocked school head said yesterday. The TV pictures show the ugly mob slowly forming a circle round the helpless victim at school gates after a row with a girl of 14 got out of hand. Yelling "Slag!" and "Bitch!" the bullies then pushed and shoved the youngster - and even threatened to kill her if she returned to class next day. Head teacher Pam Orchard, who has suspended all 40 bullies until Monday, said: "When I went out there to break it up I couldn't believe what I saw. They were swarming about the girl like bees round a honey pot, punching and kicking out. "The girl was absolutely terrified. This was so disgraceful I had no option but to suspend for a fixed term the girls who participated in it. I won't tolerate bullying of any kind in my school." Last night, Mrs Orchard sent all pupils home with a letter for parents explaining her reasons for the mass suspensions. She wrote: "You may have heard it was necessary to exclude a relatively large number of senior students for the rest of the week. "They were involved in an unpleasant incident of mass intimidation of one pupil. I hope you will all agree such behaviour is totally unacceptable. "Please discuss with your daughter why it is wrong for large numbers of girls to become involved in a dispute between two girls. "We shall continue to address these issues in school. But without the support of parents we are unable to make a real difference to students' behaviour." One in three secondary school pupils experience bullying and one in four primary pupils are victims of playground abuse, Government figures show. More than half of all children believe bullying is a "big problem" or "quite a big problem". Almost 80 per cent of incidents happen at break and lunch time.
http://www.bullyingawarenessnetwork.ca/site.php?page=news
