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Here’s a recent query I received from an educator who I have worked with in the past.  I thought her question and my response would be of interest to others so I am posting both here.  Does your school district have a policy regarding cyberbullying or Facebook?  How about cyberbullying on Facebook?

Question: “The reason for my email is that we have recently had issues with Facebook brought to our attention by parents.  Cyberbullying is taking place among our 8th graders and it seems to be affecting the classroom environment.  The principal and I are wondering if you have any sample policies that might help us as we are looking to establish some type of policy quickly to address this problem.”

Response: I am sorry to hear that you are facing problems with Facebook.  We don’t have a sample policy per se, but we suggest elements that you might want to include in your policy.  The problem really isn’t isolated to Facebook.  That is, you don’t need a “Facebook Policy.”  If you tried to be that specific, you would have to update your policy every 6 months or so as different Web sites come in and out of popularity.  You just need a general policy that will cover the kinds of behaviors that are detrimental to your school environment.  You have our book, and you should definitely revisit chapter 5 – especially pages 118-126 to see how your existing policy could be improved based on these suggestion.  Essentially, your policy needs to state that any behavior that disrupts the school environment is subject to discipline.

As I mentioned in my presentation to your folks, you might want to see if you can convene a group of staff, parents, and even students to review your existing policy and to make recommendations for updating it based on these new behaviors that are emerging.  This shouldn’t be a very large group – perhaps 2 or 3 members from each of the above groups – otherwise it may be difficult to get everyone to agree.  This group can then inform your school’s overall approach.  They can make recommendations additions to the policy and for appropriate disciplinary sanctions based on violations of the policy.  I know you are looking for a quick fix (aren’t we all!), but taking the time to develop comprehensive policy, and involving parents and students, will yield dividends in the long run.  It will be easier to sell the policy to parents if key parents are involved in the process.  And the students can help to make sure the policy is comprehensive and realistic.

By the way, in general, if you can demonstrate that the behaviors are substantially disrupting your school environment, even though those behaviors are occurring away from school, the courts have upheld disciplinary sanctions.  And that legal perspective is essentially directed at public schools.  Since you are a private school, you have much more latitude in basically doing what you think is appropriate.  That said, it is still important to have a good policy that parents and even students can get behind.

Recently, we’ve received calls and inquiries about “sexting” and the Jesse Logan case, and so I thought we’d discuss the matter here.  For those looking for an official definition, we characterize “sexting” as “the sending or receiving of sexually-suggestive or explicit text or pictures via one’s cell phone.”  Anecdotally, it seems that the phenomenon is growing in frequency and prevalence, and has garnered a significant amount of attention in the last month due to the publicizing of Jesse Logan’s suicide in July 2008.  In that tragic situation, the 18-year-old girl took her life after an ex-boyfriend circulated nude pictures of her to a large number of their high school peers.  What is interesting is that Jessie contacted the media after the incident about the harassment, but nothing substantive was done in response by any authority figures.  Two months later, she committed suicide after suffering scholastically and relationally on account of the humiliation and abuse she received from classmates.  Eight months later, we are seeing more cases of law enforcement and district attorneys coming down hard (with child pornography convictions) on youth or young adult males who circulate pictures of their underage girlfriends (or ex-girlfriends), and some would argue these convictions are overkill, outside of the original intentions of legislators who formulated the laws, and a double standard that unfairly punishes minors for what adults sometimes do with impunity.  Others believe that such strict interpretation of the law (where it is a felony to take, send or keep any sexually-explicit image of a minor) is necessary in order to prevent tragedies like the Jesse Logan case.

I talked to a school administrator today who underscored how big of an issue this was in their district, gave some suggestions as to what could be done – and when schools could step in and confiscate and search cell phones of students for evidence.  We believe schools (and parents) should at this point emphatically stress to youth that sending, receiving, or storing sexually-suggestive pictures on their phones is extremely risky and could lead to criminal prosecution.  They should also underscore the importance of never taking and sending these types of pictures of themselves to anyone – even those they trust – because of the ease with which they can be forwarded or shared with others (friends, acquaintances, and strangers).  Finally, educators should remind youth that they will work closely with law enforcement should this behavior occur among the student body.  Teens must realize beyond a shadow of a doubt that the act is not worth the pain, humiliation, and penalties that will likely result.

With regard to hard empirical data, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and Cosmogirl.com recently conducted a survey of over 1200 youth which found that 22% of girls and 18% of boys have electronically sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves.   We are currently studying the phenomenon and will share our findings as soon as possible.  I’d be interested to hear what you have experienced in your district or within your organization, and how you’ve responded.  Justin and I will chime in to follow up as well.

A teenager from New York has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, four high-school classmates who used the site to harass her, and their parents.  Specifically, two boys and two girls created a Facebook group called password-protected “90 Cents Short Of A Dollar,” in order to “hold [her] up to public hatred, ridicule and disgrace.”  Content service providers are not liable for statements posted within their site by users because of the Communications Decency Act, and so I don’t believe Facebook will be required to do anything.  This case does, however, once again demonstrate how civil actions can be filed in order to at least send a message to individuals that victims will not take cyberbullying lying down.  Nationwide, it may also prompt more litigation in the same vein, and has led to some of the first media attention we’ve seen covering Facebook-based harassment.  Do you think this case has any leg to stand on?  What if the victim was able to demonstrate severe emotional and psychological harm?  If that were the case, should the law be amended to require content service providers to police the postings of their users?  These questions tend to surface in many cyberbullying cases, and this one gives us another chance to talk it out….