In the article, “Girl’s Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cybullies,” by Lizette Alverez, the author writes about the tragic death of Rebecca Ann Sedwick, and the events that lead her to it. Rebecca was a normal, typical twelve year old pree-teen girl. Because of a disagreement over a boy Rebecca dated, several middle-school children stated bullying her. The bullying started at school, but it esculated to where she was vicously tormented on social media. Even after she stopped dating the boy, the attacks kept coming. Because not much was being done, even though Rebecca’s mother complained to school adiministrators, her mother placed her in a different school. Rebecca’s mother also took her cell phone, and closed her social media …show more content…
A federal law against bullying does not violate the First Amendment, and a federal law is needed. In the past, bullies were bigger children who constatntly picked on the smaller and weaker children. Bullies normally teased the children they victimized. If they got away with it, bullies also demended food and money from their victims. Sometimes, for the few unlucky ones, the bullies got physical with them. When bullyng occurred, it typically happened on school’s premises. Once the children who are being bullied got home, they were safe from the abuse. As scoiety evolve into the world of technology so has bullying. With cyberbulllying, children are never safe from the continous torture of being bullied. Yet, some states do not define cyberbullying as a form of bullying in their anti-bullying laws. Every state has a diverse definition of bullying. While some states specify physical altercation or badgering as a form of bullying, others define it as merely aggravating behavior (Maggie Clark 2). With no definite definition and no sole constitutional course of action, adults are bullie at work as well. They can only fit the crime to a punishment (Allison Ballard 3). If there is a single definition which covers all aspects of bullying, in any type of environment,, adults and children will have the protection they need. With the relentless abuse from bullying, it can cause serious mental health problems in victims. Children can take so much mental and physical abuse
Technology―it’s the focal point of our lives, from sending a quick text to checking the latest news. But the real debate comes when the conversation switches to cyberbullying, which is customarily described as an act that is “repeated, hostile, and severe with the intent to embarrass, threaten, or harass” (“The Dangers of Cyberbullying” by Warnke, lines 26-27). Bullies in the real world can and do get prosecuted, so what makes this any difference. In some cases, the bullying is so deleterious that the victim commits suicide. If all of this can be prevented, then lives will be saved and children will be able to live without the fear of being bullied. The three sources “The Dangers of Cyberbullying” by Brett Warnke, “Sacrificing the First Amendment
The article Girl's Suicide points to rise in apps by Lizette Alvarez are used by cyber bullies and how they use these apps to get to others. To start it all off the author explains that cyber bullies bullie by saying mean things over messages just to make people feel bad. But because the bullies were bulling her the 12 year old girl got punished. Technology travels too fast for parent to keep up. The Next it is impossible to to be certain who is doing the cyberbullying. This is because the apps move to fast for everyone to keep up with everything that goes on. She also got pulled out of school because of the bullies. She got all these punishments because of other people. For example she got pulled
As society has become revolved around materials and money, it has made it tougher for kids to fit in and be considered “cool”. To make someone suffer from physical and emotional abuse is awfully horrible and only leads to consequences on both sides of the situations. Fortunately, the bullying laws enacted protect helpless victims and help a lot to stop bullying but need to be strictly enforced because many kids still suffer from bullying.
These messages would encourage Rebecca to harm herself and influenced the ultimate decision to commit suicide. Rebecca’s Facebook account was eventually shut down by her mother, but that alone was not enough to stop the bullying. The girls found other means by which to terrorize Rebecca online. The taunting got so bad that Rebecca’s mother complained to the staff at Crystal Lake Middle School, her previous school, before transfering her daughter to Lawton Chiles. One would think that with a new school the bullying would end, but for Rebecca the nightmare only intensified. It was said that Sedwick endured bullying and cyberbullying for a year before she committed
Part I focuses on the “recent emergence of cyber-bullying and its devastating effects on minors” (220), Part II discusses “why current laws fail to protect victims” (220), and Part III discusses “how to criminalize the act of cyberbullying” (220). I found this article in particular to be very useful because it poses a detailed examination of the types of laws in place regarding bullying and why they need to be updated. It also specifically talks about the failure of schools and courts to effectively punish cyberbullying as a crime because of First Amendment issues, “Schools face the challenge of balancing the rights of students, while judges face the challenge of balancing the First Amendment right to free speech” (237). Lastly, this article lists many case examples of students who have fallen martyrs to cyberbullying or experienced the serious short-term or long-term effects that
This problem has become more pressing and has been a greater focus in the media. Social media has also brought the issue to the forefront in the last several years and, itself, plays a role in today’s age of bullying, cyber bullying. The Matt Epling Safe School Law (2011/2014) was amended in 2014 to add a section specifically directed at cyberbullying. The legislation identifies bullying as anything that is composed, spoken, acted out, or conveyed electronically. These acts are said to disrupt educational opportunity, impart emotional disturbances, influence physical and mental health, and/or impact the daily functioning of the educational institution (Matt Epling Safe School Law, 2011/2014). These definitions demonstrate the severity of the social problem,
Along with mental illnesses, there have also been several cases where bullying was the cause for a child to act out in a violent way, or the bullying itself was taken to extreme levels. Bullying is becoming a widely spread epidemic, with students handling it in very different ways. Children have done everything from commit suicide as an escape from bullying to killing entire classrooms of people to get back at the bullies. According to the National Institute of Health, “both childhood bullies and their victims are more likely to engage in more serious violent behavior, like frequent fighting and carrying weapons” (Longley). Bullying is a serious thing that should not be taken lightly and, like any other issue, parents should be
One way that cyberbullying is different from the traditional mode of bullying is that it has expanded the scope of bullying. Social media has made it possible for people from far off regions of the world to participate in bullying one victim. This is unlike traditional bullying, which was mostly local. This study will strictly limit itself to effects of cyberbullying in a school setup. It will also look at the remedies available within the setup. One area of particular interest is the legal
involved in bullying. A longitudinal study of male students who were bullied as children showed their
Bullying can often lead a person(most often kids) into a mindset full of pain and confusion. many kids that
Do something, that is all it takes to save a child from others and themselves. Bullying has a negative impact on children's mental health that can continue into their adult life. Victims of bullying are at a higher chance of developing anxiety, depression, and panic disorders. This is only to name a few of the very serious mental health problems that are plaguing the minds of those who are to lead the world. Although being bullied in childhood affects adolescents’ mental health, there are many of different organizations that seek to help children stop the bullying before it leaves a permanent mental imprint on them.
The article “Girls Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies” by Lizette Alvarez explains that different online and phone applications such as Kik Messages, Voxer, and ask.fm have been used as a source for cyberbullying, and this intense cyberbullying has caused people to cut themselves, loose their self esteem, and sometimes commit suicide. This one article talks specifically about Rebecca Norman, a twelve year old who committed suicide. Many things were done to help prevent it including changing her cell phone number, pulling her out of school, hospitalizing her, and getting her counseling. It was all working, and she was starting to feel normal until she downloaded Kik Messages, Voxer , and ask.fm. That’s when the bullying started
Pushing, shoving, name calling, teasing. When one reads these words, the first thing that we might associate it with is bullying. Whether or not we have experienced it ourselves, we have at least heard about it. However, as technology advances, so does the method of bullying. Today in our world that is run by technology, the modern method of bullying is called cyber bullying. The most recent definition of this is, “…………………This type of bullying allows the perpetrator to hide behind a computer screen or a phone screen and harass their victims without the need to meet face to face. This causes a new problem to arise in our public schools. Traditional bullying taking place at school was easy to spot and see; therefore, immediate punishment
Lawmakers, activists, and parents have all been working to institute laws to help reconcile the bullying that has invaded the schools. It has not been a speedy process, only nine states require the schools to report bullying to the local authorities (Garby, 2013). New Jersey has the stiffest anti-bullying law thus far, by suspending or
Many people do not realize how serious bullying has become. If you look at statistics suicides due to bullying have increased over just a few short years. This has become a very big problem for not only the victim but the bully as well as it affect both of them. School bullying is mentally destructive to not only the victims, but bullies because of the harmful words, harassment, and physical violence involved as well as the consequences for the bully.