Cyber Bullying issue for students

There is a new type of bullying taking place in our schools that most parents have never been through. It’s called cyber bullying or Internet bullying.
Parents of today’s middle school or high school students experience bullying by a student trying to intimidate a student through physical or mental behavior in person. Twenty or 30 years ago students knew who was bullying them.
Today, that is not the case because of cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying affects many adolescents and teens on a daily basis. Cyber bullying involves using technology, like cell phones and the Internet, to bully or harass another person. Cyber bullying can take many forms:
• Sending mean messages or threats to a person’s e-mail account or cell phone
• Spreading rumors online or through texts
• Posting hurtful or threatening messages on social networking sites or web pages
• Stealing a person’s account information to break into their account and send damaging messages
• Pretending to be someone else online to hurt another person
• Taking unflattering pictures of a person and spreading them through cell phones or the Internet
• Sexting, or circulating sexually suggestive pictures or messages about a person
Over 80 percent of teens use a cell phone regularly, making it the most popular form of technology and a common medium for cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying can be very damaging to adolescents and teens. It can lead to anxiety, depression, and even suicide. Also, once things are circulated on the Internet, they may never disappear, resurfacing at later times to renew the pain of cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying is occurring in Vermilion Parish schools. It causes fights amongst male and female students.
A group of seniors gathered at the Abbeville Library to speak about today’s issues that students are dealing with. The discussion was hosted by the Abbeville Rotary Club.
Rotarian Don Chauvin asked the students about drugs, alcohol, teen pregnancy and bullying.
All the seniors agreed the only type of bullying they now see is cyber bullying.
Abbeville High senior Kyle Duplantis said last month cyber bullying took place moments after Abbeville High science teacher Nick Willis was arrested for allegedly having sex with an Abbeville High student. Students created images on the Internet displaying the female student and Willis - which is a form a cyber bullying.
The Abbeville Police got involved and contacted the students who made the images and informed them they could be arrested for cyber bullying .
“The majority of the bullying is cyber bullying,” said Duplantis. “Actual in school bullying, I don’t see it as much. Social media is how kids bully now.”
Social media bullying is easy because the student can do it behind a fake screen name.
Teens can type, “You should die.” or “Go kill yourself” and send to a student, who will never know where it came from.
According to national statistics, 40 percent of all students have been a part of bullying.
Girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying.
A student said she does not see too much one-on-one cyber bullying. She reads students making broad statements for example about teachers and how they hate teachers and school. “Is that bullying?, she said.
Other students said hiding behind a “shield” makes it easy to bully.
Fewer than 1 in 5 cyber bullying incidents are reported to law enforcement.
Only 1 in 10 teens tell a parent if they have been a cyber bully victim.
Fewer than 1 in 5 cyber bullying incidents are reported to law enforcement.
One in 10 adolescents or teens have had embarrassing or damaging pictures taken of themselves without their permission, often using cell phone cameras.