Woodbine Pupils Mark Red Ribbon Week; Learn of Cyber Bullying

WOODBINE — “Bullying is not cool, and our county’s Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor has identified cyber bullying a top priority,” said Capt. Marie Hayes of the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office.
Hayes spoke to third through eighth graders as part of an assembly for Red Ribbon Week at Woodbine Elementary School with Detective Lakisha Davis, Bess Dyer and Melisha Anderson also of the Prosecutors Office.
Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and violence prevention awareness campaign observed annually Oct. 23-31.
Most parents of today’s children were bullied at school or on the playground with the harassment stopping at the end of the school day. Today’s technologies give bullying a far more lasting effect following children into the home via the means of electronic communications.
Cyber bullying is when a child, preteen or teen, is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.
There are two kinds of cyber bullying, direct attacks, messages sent directly and cyber bullying by proxy, using others to help cyber bullying the victim, either with or without the accomplice’s knowledge.
According to the National Crime Prevention Center, over 40 percent of all teenagers with Internet access have reported being bullied online during the past year.
Girls are more likely than boys to be the target of cyber bullying.
The National Crime Prevention Center National Crime Prevention Center study found that only 10 percent of those youngsters who were bullied told their parents about the incident, and that a mere 18 percent of the cases were reported to a local or national law enforcement agencies.
Only 15 percent of parents are aware about their kids’ social networking habits, and how these behaviors can lead to cyber bullying.
Hayes thinks many children are reluctant to report cyber bullying, fearing their computers and other electronic devices will be taken away. Hayes says when she talks to parents about cyber bullying she advocates that children are not punished for reporting criminal activity.
The presentation quickly grabbed the attention of students with the seriousness of bulling. Hayes told the students she expected there full attention and walked around the room with an intimidating look watching for kids not paying attention, sometimes sitting down right next to them as her colleagues spoke.
While some may have the notion that the behavior of children is untouchable by law enforcement the Prosecutors Office made it clear, “You will be held accountable for your actions, the Prosecutors Office dose not tolerate bullying and if you bully, you will see us come to your door,” Hayes told the assembly.
The methods used are limited only by the child’s imagination and access to technology. Chat rooms, Myspace, e-mail, instant messaging and other online tools have all helped create the cyber bulling epidemic even cell phone cameras and digital cameras are a growing problem in the cyber bullying world.
Children have killed each other and committed suicide after having been involved in a cyberbullying incident.
In 2006, the teenage suicide of 13 year old Megan Meier from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri gained national attention when it was revealed that the mother of a former friend of Megan’s, Lori Drew of St Louis, Missouri allegedly created a fictitious profile in order to gain Megan’s trust and learn what Megan was saying about her daughter. But the communication eventually turned hostile.
Drew allegedly helped create a fake MySpace account to contact Megan Meier who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.
The online relationship between “Josh” and Megan bloomed for several weeks before the tone suddenly changed.
On Oct. 15, 2006, Josh sent Megan a message saying, “I don’t want to be friends with you anymore because you’re not nice to your friends.”
That post triggered a flood of hate posts from other users.
Meier hung herself on the evening of Oct.r 16, 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including the last message sent from Josh which read: “Everybody in O’Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a s— rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you.”
A federal grand jury indicted Lori Drew on May 15, 2008, on three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress, and one count of criminal conspiracy.
A penalty of up to five years in prison corresponds to each of the four counts that the indictment carries.
Hayes told the students, the effects of bullying last a lifetime and many have dropped out of school due to bullying.
The students were also given advice on falling pray to bullying, that included not engaging the harassing conversation of a bully and “taking five” when being bullied, not to retaliate and report the bully to parents. Students were told the importance of not giving out there password and not to post pictures of themselves on the internet.
Arianna Kunkle and Shadera Gibbs both 13-year-old eighth grade students of Woodbine found the Prosecutor’s Office assembly to be a shocking eye opener.
“She really scared me (referring to Hayes) I didn’t think you could get in that much trouble, I think getting all the facts about being held responsible will put a stop to most of the bullying I see, I think it will help allot said Gibbs
“I don’t think most kids think it was that serious just because we are young doesn’t mean we don’t take responsibility for our own actions. I was shocked our parents could be fined or sued,” Kunkle said,
Parent resources on Cyber bullying can be found here http://www.ncpc.org/newsroom/current-campaigns/bully-prevention/ on the National Crime Prevention Council website.
Contact Scheeler at: (609) 404-6515 or hscheeler@cmcherald.com