Technology can negatively impact how students interact

 

Editor’s note: This is the third in a four-part series, “Breaking Down Bullying,” published over four weeks.

More than 36 percent of 12- to 17-year-old girls and nearly 31 percent of 12- to 17-year-old boys reported experiencing cyberbullying at some point in their lives in a 2016 poll conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center.

Locally, educators are working to prevent cyberbullying but are encountering difficulty because of the evolution of technological devices that are out of their control.

The development of cyberbullying

James Scholbrock, secondary principal at Lake Mills Community Schools, said he recently read a book, “iGeneration,” which highlights the release of the iPhone 10 years ago and how the development changed teenage behavior.

Scholbrock said he has seen an increase in cyberbullying cases in the last nine years, especially in the last four to five school years.

“I think that maybe within the last five years, it’s almost become universal that students all have what I call a handheld computer — their cellphone,” Scholbrock said. “And so then they have the ability to communicate with each other 24 hours a day, seven days a week … previous to that, anything that people would have done if they were mistreating each other would have been face-to-face or would have been written.”

Albert Lea High School school resource officer Ted Herman said he has noticed cyberbullying since students began using social media sites such as Myspace and Facebook late last decade.

“There’s been cyberbullying ever since social media,” he said.

According to a 2016 study by the Cyberbullying Research Center, the percentage of people who experience cyberbullying during their lives from 2007 to 2016 nearly doubled, from less than 19 percent to nearly 34 percent.

Alden-Conger FFA adviser Pamela Koenen has worked at the school for 27 years and said though she has not seen the prevalence of bullying necessarily increase since she started, the advent of social media and the increasing willingness of bullying victims to share their stories has increased social awareness of the issue.

“It’s much easier for the taunt, the threat to reach a wider audience,” she said. “It’s easier for them to be sneaky about it.”

“We didn’t have this 25 years ago, but we didn’t have internet.”

Koenen said students have their cellphones in their pocket or use them under school desks during class, and though they usually use their cellphones in an innocent way, there are times when the technology is used for nefarious reasons, she said.

Inappropriate messages on school devices can be tracked, but cellphones pose a unique problem for schools because they are private devices, Koenen said.

Cyberbullying cases

Last Monday morning, Herman addressed a cyberbullying case at the high school, a situation he said he comes across often.

“People get tough behind a screen, and then they eventually figure out, ‘Wasn’t so smart to say those things,’” he said. 

To Scholbrock, cyberbullying cases he sees involve someone deriding someone in front of a large audience using technology or directly sending someone an electronic message that can be considered mean, harassing or unkind. Most of the cyberbullying cases he sees involve Snapchat or Instagram.

Scholbrock said bullying and “poor behavior” that might not meet the technical definition of bullying are both issues that need to be addressed.

Lake Mills Community Schools officials try to catch students behaving positively, and Scholbrock said he does not assume students know the proper way to behave because of the differing backgrounds they come from.

Lake Mills is deemed a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports school under a program funded through a U.S. Department of Education grant. The initiative is referred to as Bulldogs pride by Lake Mills school officials.

“Students who demonstrate Bulldog pride by being safe, responsible, respectful and doing their best are recognized with tickets,” he said.

Middle school students use the tickets to purchase items in the Bulldogs store, and high school students who receive tickets are entered into a drawing for prizes.

Herman said cyberbullying cases he has seen involve rumors about aspects of student life.

He said a way of overcoming cyberbullying includes the victim being internally strong and understanding the statements bullies make do not reflect reality.

According to the Center for Disease Control, middle school students are the most likely to experience cyberbullying.

A 2015 CDC study found that 24 percent of middle school students were cyberbullied and 45 percent were bullied on school property, compared to 15.5 percent of high school students who reported being cyberbullied and 20.2 percent of high school students who were bullied on school property. 

Ninety percent of teenagers who are cyberbullied have also reportedly been bullied offline.

Signs of cyberbullying

Scholbrock said symptoms of cyberbullying include signs of depression and irritability.

Students will often not want to speak about bullying, Scholbrock said, but he recommended they  contact a school guidance counselor, trusted adult or principal.

“It’s very important,” he said.

Onsite counselors are now available for Lake Mills students twice a week.

To Scholbrock, it is important that by their online presence, adults set a good example for their children. 

“It’s good for adults to remember that, that younger eyes are watching what they do,” he said. “And so if we can set a really good example and be supportive of kids, that’s probably the very best thing we can do.”

Herman said he receives calls from people saying they’re afraid because they’re being cyberbullied. When the school receives those calls, concerned students can generally come to school because there is a plan in place to help them address the situation, he said.

Face-to-face meetings take place so cyberbullying victims can ask the perpetrator why they harassed them on social media.

To Herman, using technology to communicate can cause messages to be misconstrued. 

“When you send a text to your friends, it can be misconstrued based on how the message is delivered and how that person is feeling,” he said.

“You lose that communication (skill) when you don’t have face-to-face (contact), and that basically is what social media is doing to the human race. No one is having face-to-face contact.”

Combating cyberbullying

The Albert Lea school district prohibits bullying, which in its policy includes cyberbullying.

The district defines cyberbullying as “using technology or other electronic communication, including, but not limited to, a transfer of a sign, signal, writing, image, sound or data, including a post on a social network internet website or forum transmitted through a computer, cellphone or other electronic device.”

The school stated the term applies to “prohibited conduct which occurs on school premises, on school district property, at school functions or activities, on school transportation or on school computers, networks, forums and mailing lists, or off school premises to the extent that it substantially and materially disrupts student learning or the school environment.”

Per the policy, the district stated it investigates all complaints of bullying.

Punishments for cyberbullying range from remedial responses or positive behavioral interventions to suspending or expelling the student or students who engage in cyberbullying.

Lake Mills officials advise students fill out a bullying/harassment form on its website and turn the form into either Scholbrock, pre-K to fifth-grade Principal Kari Wagner or school counselor Rachel Rognes.

The district advises students follow up with the school administrator or Rognes if they have not heard from an official within 72 hours.

Written notification is expected to be sent to people involved in the investigation after it is complete, and students are advised to immediately report any retaliation or further harassment.

Beyond the written policy, both Scholbrock and Herman believe parents play a role in preventing cyberbullying.

“We tell parents, ‘You never have to abdicate your technology rules at home,’” Scholbrock said. “If you don’t allow students to have their computers in their homes overnight, that’s completely understandable.

“If you don’t allow any technology use beyond 9 p.m. because of the studies about what it does to sleep, that’s completely acceptable.”

Scholbrock said the important role parents play in the lives of their children must include overseeing the way their children use technology.

“They’re the first and most important teacher of their children, and they should never abdicate control of technology 100 percent to their teenager, because kids are very sophisticated,” he said.

“They can communicate with people, use it in ways that you might never dream possible, but it could be harmful to them or someone else.”

Scholbrock advised students use strong passwords, make sure they know who they are communicating with online and capture troubling online images they see. 

Koenen said to end cyberbullying, students need to respect each other.

The Alden-Conger school district discusses safe and appropriate ways for students to use the internet and works to protect students who could be targeted by predators online, Koenen said.

Herman advised students involved in an online altercation temporarily remove themselves from the situation. 

“The biggest thing you could teach those kids when it comes to cyberbullying is, shut it off … if they are truly not a friend of yours, why do you accept them as a friend on your Facebook or Snapchat account?” he said.

“If you limit your social media to a group of people that you know or have (groups) in common, half of the stuff wouldn’t be out there.”

Herman stated that since oftentimes parents pay the phone bill for their children, they should have a say in how they use technology.

“As a parent, you really need to be on top of that, because there are some sites out there that are pretty bad,” he said. “They’re made to trick people, they’re made to be nasty, and you don’t want your kids getting ahold of that, being part of that and getting wrapped up.”