Hate in 140 Characters

Once upon a time, your average school yard bully had a much tougher time of it. Ever present teachers and facility members made it much more difficult to accomplish their cruel goals. This is not the case anymore. Now, a hurtful message can be transmitted across an entire school in 140 characters or less. It’s safe, instant, and due to a new controversy, possibly not even punishable. I’ve known all of this for a while now, but some new and disturbing things were brought to my attention in an article I recently read by Times magazine called “When Bullying Turns Deadly: Can it be stopped?” It spoke about the new age of bullying, and how easy it has become.

What struck me was how many schools are still using outdated tactics to combat this. Plans made in the 80s will not work as well in the new age of bullying.I think that schools country wide need to drastically change their plans for combating student harassment. If there were a much larger crack down on event the slightest hint of something hurtful being said online, it would become almost impossible to do, with so many students able to see and report it. The reason cyber bullying is so harmful would become a double edged sword. The problem with this is, what constitutes actual bullying? Often one harmful thing will be said to one student, to which the “bully” will immediately get an even more hurtful reply. Even if no retaliation is forthcoming from the victim, the argument of the definition of bullying still casts punishment into doubt. This flat out annoys the you-know-what out of me. Anything that said online and is meant to be hurtful should absolutely be considered bullying. It should be taken just as it would be if a teacher overheard it in the halls. Yes, it is true that something like calling someone a retard online might be an inside joke, or could be not be said in intended cruelty. But if there is even the slightest chance that it is something more, the full wrath of “the system” should come down on the perpetrator’s head.