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By Jackie Valley (contact) 
Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
Sun archives
Police and school officials are urging parents to “break that code of silence” with their children and discuss cyberbullying — a form of schoolyard tormenting now considered criminal.
On Tuesday at R.O. Gibson Middle School, Metro Police Lt. Ray Steiber announced a new Nevada law aimed at curbing cyberbullying, a growing trend nationwide where students use technology — text messages, social networking sites, e-mail — to intentionally hurt others.
“We have remedies in place to deal with face-to-face bullying,” Steiber said. “However, the way technology has moved and advanced is that it has now become anonymous.”
The new law, which went into effect July 1, makes it a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor, depending on the circumstances, for students to threaten “to cause bodily harm or death to pupil or school employee by means of oral, written or electronic communication.”
Cyberbullying, aided by the fact that 83 percent of middle and high school students own cell phones, often stems from schoolyard disagreements or simply because a person doesn’t like someone else, Steiber said.
“It’s not just a normal part of growing up,” said Capt. James Ketsaa of the Clark County School District Police. “It’s a very serious concern of ours.”
Because roughly 85 percent of parents with school-age children don’t understand cyberbullying, Ketsaa said, a letter defining cyberbullying and what’s not tolerated will be distributed online to warn parents. The Clark County School District also has updated its regulations to deal with cyberbullying, he said.
“It’s not funny and we need to really urge kids to report bullying,” he said. “Unfortunately, there are some tragic consequences if we don’t.”
Children who are victims of cyberbullying might show signs of depression, anxiety, outbursts of anger, isolation, low academic achievement or threaten suicide, Steiber said.
No suicides related to cyberbullying have occurred in southern Nevada and,
Steiber said, he hopes these new initiatives keep it that way, especially given the nationwide statistics:
• Eighty-one percent of students who cyberbully say they do it because they think it’s funny.
• Twenty percent of students say they have been bullied in the past.
• Twenty percent of students say they have been bullies.
• Girls are more likely to cyberbully and be the victims of cyberbullying.
To buck the trend, Lt. Ken Young of the school district police said, the district links students with counselors and professionals who deal with cyberbullying issues, teaches students how to report it and operates several anti-bullying projects.
School district police also use electronic mediums to investigate possible cases of cyberbullying, he said.
Even so, Linda Archambault, principal of R.O. Gibson Middle School, said it’s up to students to eradicate the issue, which is why the school participated in a national challenge program last year and intends to do so again this year.
The program pulls 100 students from the school — about 30 considered bullies, 30 considered leaders and 40 other students — and puts them with 25 adults in a behind-closed-doors setting where they learn the consequences of their actions.
After its debut last year, Archambault said, she noticed a significant decrease in the number of arguments and referrals to the dean’s office.
“I think kids don’t always realize how painful it is,” she said. “Through that training, they realized it’s not right.”
During the program, Archambault said, students began apologizing to each other and eventually helped spread the word through the rest of the school with noticeable results.
For instance, she said, a few students perceived as bullies voluntarily began helping blind students navigate the school.
Amberly Lopez, a seventh-grader at R.O. Gibson Middle School, said the real problem with cyberbullying is the need for a winner. The ugly exchanges through text messages and on the Internet escalate until one person finally gives up, she said.
“Whenever I see it, I feel like I should go up there and say, ‘Quit it,” said
Lopez, who added that a friend of hers has been a victim of cyberbullying.
It’s that mindset Archambault hopes continues to build among students, but she’s realistic.
It’s impossible to know the full magnitude of cyberbullying, so the school is updating its website with a section where students can anonymously report incidents, she said.
R.O. Gibson Middle School has a zero-tolerance policy about cyberbullying, so the bottom line is “it’s not acceptable,” Archambault said.
I remember a rhyme as a child about sticks and stones. Today parents, schools, and police are trying to control the words. Amazing.
Here we go .... Cyberterrorism strikes again.
When caught and convicted the animals should be used for spare parts to save worthwhile people. If not they will become the robbers and killers of tomorrow.
Bullying is part of growing up. Kids need to learn how to deal with it as they mature. That their parents don't "understand" it shows they may know about it but don't take it seriously -- and that's their call to make, not government.
This is just the police state burrowing deeper into our lives where it was never meant to be. And that could very well signal the beginning of the end of free speech and other privacy protections.
nez212 -- your post shows you would have made a good Nazi.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Isaac H Tiffany (1819)
Government should not get involved in the personal lives of the people.
To bad the People (Parents) won't teach their kids how to act in public.
Personal responsibility is long gone in this country so the government is feeling the need to step in.
Hopefully some generation will wake up and take responsibility before the government totally takes over our everyday way of life.
"Government should not get involved in the personal lives of the people."
vegaslee -- more than that, it's one of the original reasons for the Bill of Rights and Nevada's Constitutional equivalents. The U.S. Supremes used to enforce it under the terms "zone of privacy" and "penumbra." Given that our precious republic is fast becoming a police state, your post is worth paying attention to.
"The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people." - Noam Chomsky
It is sad to hear you all. you were probably all bullies in school Beatthewolfpack yea lets teach our kids to solve all things with violence, you're a dumb A**!!!!!! You all are the problem and parents like me with a daughter who came home last year with burses on her legs from other girls kicking her and the CCSD not doing anything except twisting the issue that is was an accident!!!! I do not know who Steiber is but they said "We have remedies in place to deal with face-to-face bullying," Steiber said. Well I guess turning a blind eye counts to solving the problem. I'm glad my wife and I wend to the PD to file a report about the girls who were doing this to my daughter. It is a sad place when we can not all just get along.
Killerb: I have no tolerance for criminals, nether should you or anyone else.
nez212 -- depends on how you define "criminals." But then there's that inconvenience called "due process" and "innocent until proven guilty."
I'd like to hear/see your thoughts on this after you're on the receiving end of a false accusation, especially from a teenager.
Killerb: I did say convicted, I believe that means proven guilty!