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Ty Nordic understands the need to inform kids about the dangers of sexual predators on the Internet. But when his 16-year-old daughter was targeted during an assembly at Windsor High School on the first day of school Tuesday afternoon, Nordic was left with plenty of unanswered questions for the presenter whom he said used inappropriate language during the assembly and singled out specific students.

Existing law, the Interagency School Safety Demonstration Act of 1985, states that the intent of the Legislature in enacting its provisions is to encourage school districts, county offices of education, law enforcement agencies, and agencies serving youth to develop and implement interagency strategies, in-service training programs, and activities that will, among other things, reduce school crime and violence, including bullying. Existing law establishes the School/Law Enforcement Partnership and charges it with undertaking several efforts intended to reduce school crime, as specified,including bullying.

This bill would specify that bullying, as used in these provisions,means one or more acts by a pupil or a group of pupils directed against another pupil that constitutes sexual harassment, hate violence, or severe or pervasive intentional harassment, threats, or intimidation that is disruptive, causes disorder, and invades the rights of others by creating an intimidating or hostile educational environment, and includes\nacts that are committed personally or by means of an electronic act, as defined.

Existing law prohibits the suspension, or recommendation for expulsion, of a pupil from school unless the principal determines that the pupil has committed any of various specified acts, including, but not limited to, hazing, as defined. This bill, in addition, would give school officials grounds to suspend a pupil or recommend a pupil for expulsion for bullying, including, but not limited to, bullying by electronic act.

A group of eight Windsor High School parents will file grievances with Re-4 School district in the wake of an Internet safety assembly that saw one girl leave in tears. The eight parents came together feeling nothing has been done since several high school students and their MySpace pages were used in an Internet safety presentation by Cheyenne Police Department officer John Gay on Aug. 19, the first day of school in the Windsor-Severance Re-4 School District.

Schoolyard bullies are a long-standing problem but now, in the age of the Internet, they are increasingly using electronic devices to torment their victims. Because cyberbullying has become so prevalent, several states, including New York, have proposed legislation to control cyberbullying.

News coverage about a middle school student victimized by online and offline bullying has prompted a grassroots solidarity campaign. She's received over 1,400 letters of support so far, and it's serving as a teachable moment that no school should ignore. Olivia Gardner was just a sixth grader when the bullying began two years ago. Previously diagnosed with epilepsy, Olivia was tormented by her peers because of the disease. In school, they'd call her "retard." Online, they created an "Olivia Haters" page on MySpace and would use it to make fun of her. The school district eventually got involved, bringing in the families of the kids who were involved in the bullying, as well as holding a series of student assemblies on the problem. But it was too little, too late for Olivia, who soon transferred to another school.

School bullies who use the Internet or text messaging to harass fellow students could be kicked out of school under a bill being considered by the California Legislature [AB 86]

Fabulous School Assembly Program! Although the team is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, they travel and give presentations nationwide. They bring a sense of balance to all of the predator-based talks given by law enforcement. The creators of this project are graduates of Stanford's Learning, Design & Technology program and also have a background in film making. They have won numerous awards at local, national and international film festivals for their work and were a huge hit at the California League of Middle Schools Conference, last Fall.

You can see a video clip of Adina's Deck at: adinasdecktrailer

You can download Katie Canton's story here. When she was 15, she met a 22 year old guy in a chatroom and fell in love. Only after playing the game MISSING with her family, did Katie come to realize that "John" was an online predator, who is now serving 20 years in prison. Katie has become an articulate spokesperson for Web Wise Kids and she speaks at school assemblies to advise other kids.

The California Department of Education (CDE) and the Office of the Attorney General (AG) co-administer the School/Law Enforcement Partnership program. The Partnership has funded the Kern County Office of Education for a five-year period to administer the statewide School Safety and Violence Prevention Training Grant. The grant provides for safe schools planning, bullying prevention, and crisis response training. This training program does not currently include prevention of bullying that occurs via electronic communication devices. Need for the bill : A poll commissioned in 2006 by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, showed that one in three teens and one in six preteens have been victims of cyber bullying and that more than 2 million of those victims told no one about the attacks.

Anne Collier recounts the saga of the Windsor High School teen who was recently singled out at a school assembly meant to warn students about the dangers of providing too much personal profile information on MySpace. She asks us for input on whether we think this is effective cybersafety training - or a form of public humiliation.

Florida's Cybersafety Initiative consists of SafeSurf Web sites for Kids, Teens and Adults and a cybersafety school assembly program that specifically targets middle and high school students to educate them about cyberpredators and personal internet safety.

Learn the latest about Adina's Deck, the award winning cybersafety film, which now has two additional sequels. The team is available for school assembly programs.

Gina Healy didn't expect to hold an assembly with her middle schoolers about sexting. But after the school newspaper wrote about an alleged incident involving 8th graders sending nude photos over cell phones, Healy consulted with the Newton, PA, police department-and then talked to her students.

One afternoon in the spring of 2006, for reasons unknown to those who knew him, Mitchell Henderson, a seventh grader from Rochester, Minnesota, took a .22-caliber rifle down from a shelf in his parents' bedroom closet and shot himself in the head. The next morning, Mitchell's school assembled in the gym to begin mourning. His classmates created a virtual memorial on MySpace and garlanded it with remembrances. One wrote that Mitchell was a "hero to take that shot, to leave us all behind. God do we wish we could take it back." Someone e-mailed a clipping of Mitchell's newspaper obituary to MyDeathSpace.com, a Web site that links to the MySpace pages of the dead.

This video from WebWise Kids tells Katie Canton's story and is excellent to use in class with students. When she was 15, Katie met a 22 year old guy in a chatroom and fell in love. Only after playing the game MISSING with her family, did she come to realize that "John" was an online predator. He is now serving 20 years in prison, after Katie worked with the police and turned in evidence against him. Katie has become an articulate spokesperson for Web Wise Kids and she speaks at school assemblies to advise other kids. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Blog post resource for parents, students and teachers on cyberbullying and internet safety.

This blogpost is intended as a resource for parents, pupils and staff and came from the excellent PHSCE evening for parents recently organised by Ms Tina Duff. It supported the strong approach to these topics by the school's senior leadership team. Cyberbullying and Internet Safety have been the subject of whole school assemblies and are part of the IT curriculum taught in KS2 and KS3 when pupils are given their own blogs and encouraged to use social networking tools to support their learning in class.

The cyberbullying suicide story of Ryan Halligan, as told to Middle Schoolers at a school assembly. The raw pain in this video will move you to tears and it's obvious that John Halligan's story of his son makes an impact on his youth audiences as well. For more information on how to get copies of the video, go to Safe Passage Media . I like the fact that he encourages "bystanders" to get involved.

Suggested classroom use (4th-10th grade): writing, literature, history, technology/computer teachers, character education, leadership classes. Additional use: school-wide assemblies, school broadcasts, district streaming, counselor sessions, "back to school" programs on cheating/plagiarism, college prep, in preperation for assigning a major writing assignment,

Debbie created the Adina's Deck film for her master's thesis in the Learning, Design and Technology program at Stanford. See: http://www.adinasdeck.com