Kids and cyber bullying

Coddings84

Hi,
As a Head of Year at a large comprehensive school I deal wih this kind of thing on a regular basis (I'm sad to say but social media can be horrible thing).

Most of the advice is correct, you should be accumulating all the evidence and passing it to the police. Yes, there may be some come back but it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. If you want it to stop then you have to raise the flag. The police will also certainly contact the parents of the other pupils.

As for the role of the school here, I'm frankly shocked and disappointed at their max attitude to this considering potential effect his behaviour can have on a young person. I would do the following:
- pass whatever you pass to the police to the Head Teacher and Local Authority demanding a clear response.
- ask to see the schools anti-bullying policy. This should include something on cyber-bullying
- ask what the school has done in the past to warn against and educate around the kind of behaviour and what it plans to do going forward.

At my school this behaviour would certainly lead to a sanction. I have issued 3 day exclusions in the past for behaviour not dissimilar to this. Yes, it's a social action and the police should be involved but at the end of the day all pupils are part of the same school community and the school has a responsibility to educate and lead by example socially as well as academically. What you have said does not come across well on the school at all.

Hope that helps, good luck.

rocketrob5

Coddings84 wrote: »

Hi,
As a Head of Year at a large comprehensive school I deal wih this kind of thing on a regular basis (I'm sad to say but social media can be horrible thing).

Most of the advice is correct, you should be accumulating all the evidence and passing it to the police. Yes, there may be some come back but it's a bit of a catch 22 situation. If you want it to stop then you have to raise the flag. The police will also certainly contact the parents of the other pupils.

As for the role of the school here, I'm frankly shocked and disappointed at their max attitude to this considering potential effect his behaviour can have on a young person. I would do the following:
- pass whatever you pass to the police to the Head Teacher and Local Authority demanding a clear response.
- ask to see the schools anti-bullying policy. This should include something on cyber-bullying
- ask what the school has done in the past to warn against and educate around the kind of behaviour and what it plans to do going forward.

At my school this behaviour would certainly lead to a sanction. I have issued 3 day exclusions in the past for behaviour not dissimilar to this. Yes, it's a social action and the police should be involved but at the end of the day all pupils are part of the same school community and the school has a responsibility to educate and lead by example socially as well as academically. What you have said does not come across well on the school at all.

Hope that helps, good luck.

Thanks for your advice. We're going to take to the police and keep on at the school. It is a well respected and good school, who at the open evenings tell parents how they do not tolerate bullying...

Zeni

Can only reiterate the other comments - definitely get the police involved as creating fake accounts as another person online is a crime. You may not have physical evidence, but if they've confessed they seems plenty enough to get the police on board and make the girls realise what they've done is more than a joke.