Joshua Starr has been an avid Twitter user for several years, so he is used to reading critical posts from students and adults about decisions he makes. But the superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland wasn't prepared for what he saw on a Saturday evening last December.
As the season's first winter storm approached, students began filling Starr's Twitter feed with remarks about cancelling school. Most, he says, were "funny or sarcastic or no big deal," but one middle school student threatened to kill Starr's family and his dog if he didn't cancel school.
That got Starr's attention, and he reported the tweet to the student's principal. He did the same after receiving a handful of additional threatening tweets during the 36-hour period between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning. In those tweets, which also were reported to police, students claimed they would "slash my tires or kill so and so."
"I assume most of our kids are great, thoughtful kids," says Starr. "Even the kids who do really stupid things don't realize the impact they are having. They don't realize it's my responsibility to report them."
Today's students, especially middle and high schoolers, live in a public bubble that is as accessible as the nearest smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Thanks to the popularity of social media, thoughts once kept private or whispered among friends are now out there for the world to see, often in 140 characters or less. And school leaders face great uncertainty as they try to catch up with, intercept, and respond to online misbehavior.
"There's an ongoing discussion about free speech and how it can be regulated online," says Justin Patchin, a University of Wisconsin professor and Cyberbullying Research Center codirector. "The perception is that people have the right to say anything they want, and [they] are pushing the boundaries, in some cases crossing the line without any accountability. It puts educators in a difficult spot."
A Growing Problem
Cyberbullying has made headlines since a spate of well-publicized suicides by high school and college students starting in 2011, but data are scant on how widespread it is. Data are even more limited on "cyberbaiting," where students badger their classmates or teacher into acting out, then record the outburst and post it to the Internet.
In one extreme case, an Algebra teacher from Nashville, Tenn., had to be hospitalized for a nervous breakdown and put on indefinite leave after a meltdown was recorded and posted to YouTube.
Why do people feel free to engage in harassment online when they wouldn't do it face-to-face? Elizabeth Englander, author of Bullying and Cyberbullying: What Every Educator Needs to Know, says the answer is simple: digital environments "tend to disinhibit people."
"When you're speaking to someone in person, you are less likely to be rude or aggressive because you can see their face and reactions," says Englander, who is also director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center. "When you're in a digital environment, you lack those 'brakes' and so are more likely to be extreme in your reactions."
Bill Bond, a veteran principal from Paducah, Ky., who is now a school safety consultant for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, says criticism is "one of those bad things that go with being an administrator."
"Students used to voice how they felt [about teachers and administrators] on the wall of the bathroom," Bond says. "Now they voice it on social media so their friends can see it."
Dave Villafana, a middle school teacher in California, has long been aware of the problems that social media can present. During the 2006–07 school year, a student set up fake MySpace pages for him and a female administrator. The fake chats between the two included inappropriate words and sexual overtones.
"Kids are very savvy. They found places where we had been quoted and set up the pages so they looked very authentic," he says. "Fortunately, people knew this wasn't true." Villafana contacted Myspace and had the pages taken down.
Criticism also has the potential to take on a mob mentality, Englander says, when you chat online with peers "about how you're all upset about something."
"Those messages will actually serve to increase your emotions," she says. "It's called 'priming.' You'll begin to feel the feelings more intensely because you're repeatedly exposing yourself to them through the messages and e-mails, and others are reinforcing the feelings."
Free Speech and the School Environment
Although every state includes electronic forms of communication as part of traditional stalking or harassment laws, only 34 specifically cite cyberbullying in statutes. Just one state, North Carolina, has explicitly made cyberbullying a criminal offense, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The courts have not been especially helpful, Patchin says, issuing a series of limited or seemingly contradictory rulings on the authority of districts to go outside the jurisdiction of the school environment to regulate online harassment.
"The rule that everyone agrees on is that if it presents a substantial disruption at school, then it is subject to school discipline," he says, citing the 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines, which established rules for determining when schools could usurp a student's First Amendment right to free speech. "But that's fuzzy in some cases."
Bond advises principals to keep Tinker in mind when pursuing disciplinary action against students in cases involving social media. "Unless it's disruptive to the school environment in a direct way, then it's protected speech," he says. "That's just how it is."
Patchin says schools regularly call him about troubling online accounts. He advises them to first ask the person responsible to voluntarily shut the site down. If that doesn't work, the school should turn to the social network itself, like Villafana did with Myspace. Fake accounts such as those targeting Villafana and his colleague violate most social networking sites' terms of service.
The Tipping Point
Despite media reports using the phrase "cyberbullying," that's not how Starr describes the snow tweets, which "were just really offensive." He downplays the actions as "cyberharassment," explaining that cyberbullying is very intentional and personal.
But after receiving one "particularly angry" message, which he declines to discuss, Starr knew Montgomery County had to do something.
"This is a real problem," he says. "We have adults in the community who will regularly harass me or say nasty things, but they do it virtually. They never do it in public. Somehow they think that … the expectations for [online] behavior are different."
"Those lines are becoming increasingly blurred," adds Starr, "and we've got to figure out how to manage that, particularly for our children."
What You Can Do
Starr's solution was to write an open letter to the community about his experience and post it online. He also created a cybercivility task force, the members of which were chosen from more than 250 volunteers. The task force is expected to provide recommendations that will be in place by the start of the 2014–15 school year.
"I have three children, and the two older ones are using technology in an increasing fashion," says Starr, whose kids are ages 12, 10, and 6. "My wife and I are in a constant conversation with them on the appropriate use of technology, and they're not online outside the home. Now that they're budding teenagers, we've got to be on top of it, and I have no idea whether we're doing the right thing, what's right, [and] what's not."
Twitter, along with Snapchat and Instagram, are the current social networks of choice among teens, but new ones seem to pop up almost daily. Facebook, despite having hundreds of millions of users, is no longer cutting edge for the 12- to 24-year-old set. Also popular are sites that promote some measure of anonymity, such as Ask.fm and parody Twitter accounts, but students are learning those sites can be traced as well.
Englander says educators should not chase the latest technology, but focus instead on underlying principles.
"Instead of focusing on Facebook or Instagram, focus on how to handle taking, posting, and tagging pictures. Focus on what kinds of sites tend to provoke the most cruelty," says Englander. "By talking about the underlying qualities, you'll prepare kids for both the apps they use today and those that crop up tomorrow."
Bond frequently meets with parents and uses a simple comparison when talking about the power of technology. "We wouldn't dare give our car keys to a 16-year-old without going into elaborate training and elaborate practice about the responsibility of driving," he says. "But we buy a computer or smartphone [with] all sorts of broadband capability, and we give them zero training on what's acceptable. We shudder at the idea of supervising the phone or computer or even looking at it."
That's one reason the cybercivility task force is doing its work in Montgomery County.
"We want students, parents, staff members, and the community to help us think through this," Starr says. "We really do want this to be grassroots and organic. We're working to design toolkits and resource guides for families and for neighborhood conversations …. It's about developing a message together and getting it out to multiple parts of the community."
Patchin agrees with Montgomery County's approach, saying Starr was "exactly right" in setting up the task force.
"Some people are critical of the superintendent, saying that if he's on Twitter he should expect this type of feedback, but he's using it as a platform to educate the community about these issues," Patchin says. "I'm not sure it will change any minds necessarily, but it's important to have that conversation."
Cyberbullying Resources
Cyberbullying Research Center : This website for parents, educators, counselors, and law enforcement provides information on the ways adolescents use and misuse technology, resources on case law focusing on free speech issues, and guidelines for preventing and responding to cyberbullying incidents.
