mous “confessions.” The principal at Lewis and Clark High School sent a telephone message to the parents of every student in the school, calling the LC confessions page an embarrassment, a disruption and “really just plain cruel.” The underlying lesson was clear: The Internet can turn into a megaphone for bullying. Tormentors have greater reach and invisibility. Anyone could strike without fear of being hit back. When a chubby French Canadian kid videotaped himself frantically swinging a golf-ball retriever like a double-sided lightsaber, his classmates uploaded it to the Internet. It became one of the biggest viral sensations of all time, and ultimately landed the “Star Wars Kid” in therapy. The problem isn’t just Facebook. It’s texting and smartphone cameras and Twitter and Instagram and Skype and Gchat and Snapchat. In Coeur d’Alene, one student photographed a less popular girl changing in the locker room and sent the picture to all her friends. At Sacajawea Middle School, anonymous students uploaded a collection of student photos to Instagram, slapped on cruel captions and called it the “Sac Burn book.” The page came down quickly, but the social damage lingered. Asked if she’d rather be humiliated on Facebook or at a pep rally, the answer’s obvious to Brown. She has more than 2,000 Facebook friends — double the population of her high school. “If somebody humiliates you at a pep rally, half the student body will forget it the next day,” she says. But get humiliated on the Internet? It’d stick around until deleted, staring back at her — or future employers — forever.
J
eff Bengtson, principal of Lakes Magnet Middle School, walks in 30 minutes late to his interview with The Inlander. He says he’d spent a half-hour arbitrating a student conflict involving Instagram. “I didn’t even know what Instagram was,” Bengtson says. He’s been an administrator for 15 years and is seeing far fewer
physical fights these days. But the amount of time he spends dealing with bullying has doubled. “Social media is the hardest thing for us to control,” he says. “Kids used to be able to go home and get away from the bullying and harassment. Now they’re actually safer at school.” Cellphones, by Coeur d’Alene district rule, sit in lockers during the school day. But when the bell rings, and the texts start zinging back and forth, the problems start. The Internet makes it all the harder to distinguish between “home” and “school.” Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union demanded the Everett School District apologize after a middle school vice principal investigating bullying forced a student to log onto her Facebook page. But those fighting bullying are beginning to adapt with technology of their own. Coeur d’Alene School Board member Brent Regan proposes adding discipline issues and character feedback to the secure student gradebook pages. Parents could then log on to see what their children have been doing right or wrong. Spokane Public Schools has considered using QR codes to link to the bullying harassment complaint form. Students could scan them with their smartphone in the halls, connect to the form and report bullying immediately. One parent-turned-entrepreneur in Coeur d’Alene has developed a plan of her own. Hannah Masters wants to hand parents powerful tools to watch what their children are doing — and having done to them — online. With the help of a tech-savvy dad, she invented a program called aBeanstalk, which tracks social media and automatically emails or texts parents when cruel, sexual, profane or drug-related words are posted. “You know, in the beginning, the biggest criticism was parents saying, ‘I don’t want to spy on my kids.’ What they don’t realize is that Facebook is not a diary. It’s a billboard,” Masters says. “You ...continued on next page
“Building a Culture of Trust”
William P. (Bill) Robinson is president emeritus of Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. He served as Whitworth's 17th president from 1993 to 2010, His tenure as Whitworth's president was the second longest and one of the most influential in the university's history. He writes and speaks widely on leadership, organizational culture and communication in corporate, non-profit and ministry settings. 11:45 am to 1:00 pm First Presbyterian Church 318 S. Cedar St, Spokane
Luncheon costs $15 for general admission & $5 for students Reserve by Monday, April 15th @ noon
Email: cityforum@spokanefpc.org Phone: (509)777-1555 www.spokanecityforum.org
Bullying and middle school
B
ullying peaks in in middle school. Blame hormones, the undeveloped brain, and the sudden transition away from small community grade schools. “It’s a time when children become increasingly aware of social status, increas-
Spokane County students reporting they have been bullied in the past 30 days, according to 2012 data from the Healthy Youth Survey.
ingly interested in social power and positions,” says bullying researcher Elizabeth Englander. “In the middle school, just saying hello to someone as you walk past them still has meaning. You want power, so you won’t feel stressed and vulnerable.” The pain of being bullied in
6th graders 8th graders 10th graders 12th graders
middle school can linger years later. “I am 48 years old — I just had a birthday. I still have nightmares of my middle-school experience,” East Valley School Board member Mike Harris says. “People later in life called me to apologize. They go through some 12-step-program and had to
apologize.” Despite vocal community opposition, Harris and the rest of the East Valley board have been moving to switch to a K-8 model, getting rid of middle school entirely. Already, the change appears to have led to a small reduction in bullying. n
30.4% 30.7% 25.1% 18.4%
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APRIL 11, 2013 INLANDER 25