Say No to Cyberbullying: Educate and Inspire
Cyberbuylling studies reveal different percentages of students being bullied online, ranging from 5% to 72% (Patchin, 2012). Regardless of what the actual percentage is, anything greater than 0% is too much. With unlimited resources, there is a lot as a society that we could do to prevent cyberbullying and promote kindness. We might not get it down to 0%, but we can tackle the problem head on and chisel away student by student.
As a teacher, I always look to education first. We need to educate teachers, students, parents, and the community on cyberbullying. When you get married, you have to read something about domestic abuse. When you take a baby home from the hospital, you have to watch a video about SIDS. When you sign your child up for kindergarten, you should have to learn about bullying and cyberbullying. Parents and community members should have guides, videos, and human resources to support them in helping to prevent bullying where they have control, with their own children. Students also need to be educated on cyberbullying and bullying. Preteens and teens often do not realize the consequences of their actions, but through educating them on the issue we can help them to see the damage they are causing. Every student would receive a personal collection of books that touch on bullying, like Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Teacher education would cover how to promote kindness, what to do if bullying occurs, and how to teach the issue to students and parents. Various websites such as Embrace Civility and Cyberbullying Research Center are helpful.
After making sure everyone is educated, I would then bring in reinforcements. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program would be implemented K-12 across the country, as it is a research-based program proven to reduce to bullying. For my more far-fetched ideas, I would have software developed that detects cyberbullying and suspends or deletes the bully’s social media account(s). I would also have celebrities that were bullied and overcame their adversities, like Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, and Michael Phelps, give inspirational speeches to students. In addition, I would hold a concert where popular singers share songs against bullying, like Taylor Swift’s “Mean,” and make it interactive where in between celebrity performances are student talent performances.
The most important thing that society as a whole can do to prevent cyberbullying and promote kindness is to model it. Home and school need to work together because mixed messages do not help our students become better people. If we want to avoid our students getting altitude sickness just from standing up for themselves (Koyczan, 2013), then we need to model kindness. Luckily for us, this is free. Kindness costs nothing.
References
Koyczan, S. [TED]. (2013, March 8). “To this day” … for the bullied and beautiful [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa1iS1MqUy4
Patchin, J. (2012, May 21). Bullying beyond the schoolyard: What we know and what we can do about cyberbullying [Digital file]. Retrieved from https://cyberbullying.org/
