School Involvement in Cyberbullying

March 15, 2012

Dear Mr. President,

                My name is Grace, and I am a student at Parkway West Middle School.  I am writing to you today about cyber bullying. I believe this is a huge issue; however, making schools responsible for monitoring the cyber-bullying that occurs at home will not be good enough. The school just doesn't have the money, technology, or rights. Something bigger needs to be done to stop this.

                Unfortunately, cyber-bullying is a huge issue. A concerned child's parents' natural reaction is to go to the school principal about it, but there won't be much they can do. First you see, the technology they have there is not made for hacking and tracking the web for the bullies! The school has an excellent Microsoft Word program but, unfortunately, not the software to stop the bullies. Plus, the principals can't be expected to police the entire web.

                Furthermore, the schools don't exactly have the Constitutional rights to spy on students' home conversations. What kids post online is their freedom of speech, and no one can take that away (except maybe if their parents don't let them get on the computer).  Plus, if a principal did somehow find a kid that was bullying someone online, how could he or she even prove it?  At least, not without getting into the person's computer. Cleary, cyber-bullying is just a bigger problem than schools can handle.

                So, Mr. President, I am asking you to help raise awareness about this issue.  Also, I think we need some harsher laws about cyber-bullying. If assaulting or beating someone up on the streets is illegal, then why isn't beating someone up mentally and emotionally online illegal? I believe this will help very many kids.

Thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedule to read this letter, I appreciate it!

 

Sincerely,

Grace

Parkway West Middle

St. Louis MO

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