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Anne Bubnic

Student Bashes Administrators, Gets Disciplined - 0 views

www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx

ad4dcss blog cyberbullying legal school administrator student discipline

shared by Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08 - Cached
  • According to Doninger, the principal told her that Jamfest was cancelled because of the students’ action. The principal denied saying that. That evening, Doninger posted an entry on her personal blog in which she noted that Jamfest had been cancelled, referred to the district administrators as “douchebags,” and encouraged continued contact with the superintendent to “piss her off more.” The following day the event was rescheduled. Sometime later school officials
  • The appeals court found that it was reasonably foreseeable that Doninger’s posting would reach campus and that the posting created a foreseeable risk of substantial disruption within the school environment because the language used was offensive. It likely disrupted efforts to resolve the controversy, and the posting that Jamfest had been cancelled made it foreseeable that school operations might well be disrupted further.
  • There was no evidence of any disruption at school. The only disruption was to the principal and superintendent in responding to what was an impressive response to the student’s call for complaints. There was no indication in the record that the disruption interfered in any way with the delivery of instruction or in any way impacted student welfare. If administrators are not being appropriately sensitive to the interests of students or are engaging in other actions that cause concern, students clearly should have the free speech right to protest and to call for other students and community members to register their complaints. Inconveniencing school administrators under such circumstances should not be considered to constitute substantial disruption.
  • Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08
     
    A court case upholds administrators' rights to discipline a student who used derogatory language on a blog, but questions arise. In Doninger v. Niehoff, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in May that a Connecticut school district that disciplined a student for vulgar and derogatory remarks made off-campus did not violate her free speech rights.
Lorna Costantini

Free speech vs. class disruption - 0 views

seattlepi.nwsource.com/...316618_youtube22.html

ad4dcss cyberbullying digital responsibilities teachers

shared by Lorna Costantini on 28 Apr 08 - Cached
  • Lorna Costantini on 28 Apr 08
     
    A court case from May 2007. It was a sophomoric online video criticizing the hygiene of a teacher. Is suspension a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech?

    UPDATE: In a federal court session on May 23, 2007, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman turned down the request of Gregory Requa, 18, to grant a temporary restraining order ending the 40-day suspension. "The court has no difficulty in concluding that one student filming another student standing behind a teacher making 'rabbit ears' and pelvic thrusts in her direction, or a student filming the buttocks of a teacher as she bends over in the classroom, constitutes a material and substantial disruption to the work and discipline of the school. "The 'work and discipline of the school' includes the maintenance of a civil and respectful atmosphere toward teachers and students alike -- demeaning, derogatory, sexually suggestive behavior toward an unsuspecting teacher in a classroom poses a disruption of that mission whenever it occurs.
  • Lorna Costantini on 28 Apr 08
     
    Bullying by students - filming teacher in the classroom - targeting a teacher and posting on YouTube ensuing court case about the accountability of the Kent School Board for making a decision on punishing a student using unsigned, unsworn statements from anonymous students
Anne Bubnic

Cyber Bullying - School Policies? - 0 views

www.asbj.com/...Cyber-Bullying.aspx

AUP ad4dcss cyberbullying school board

shared by Anne Bubnic on 09 Apr 09 - Cached
  • A punch in the eye seems so passé. Bullies these days are traveling in packs and using cyberspace to their humiliating messages online. Like the toughies of old, they are both boys and girls and they demand nothing less than total submission as the price of peace. It’s a jungle out there. For school districts, patrolling the hallways and adjacent grounds is just a start. In the 21st century, a new kind of vigilance is necessary—an expanded jurisdiction that serves to both stave off legal actions and ensure a safe and productive learning environment.
  • Today’s principals rely on district policy and practice to extend the presumed long arm of the law to off-campus incidents. Potentially, that could mean plunging headlong into the electronic frontier to rescue student victims and thwart cyberbullying classmates who thrive as faceless computer culprits.
  • A December 2009 study by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society found that students on the receiving end report greater emotional distress, are more likely to abuse substances, and are more frequently depressed.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • The report concluded a child is more likely to face cyberbullying by fellow students than being stalked by an online predator. “Bullying and harassment are the most frequent threats minors face, both online and offline,” notes the Harvard report, Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Task Force to the Multistate Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States.
  • Bullying can take a variety of forms. Incidents have included stealing passwords, impersonating the victim online, fake MySpace or Facebook pages, embarrassing photos or information being revealed, threats, rumors, and more. And, bullying tends to magnify the longer it exists.
  • Students sometimes will cyberbully teachers or other school employees
  • In January, a federal court in Connecticut ruled that Regional District 10 was within its rights to discipline a student over an off-campus blog. Judge Mark Kravitz rejected Avery Doninger’s claim that the school violated her free speech rights when they refused to let her serve as class secretary or to speak at graduation because of words she wrote at home
  • According to the Hartford Courant, the school district won “because the discipline involved participation in a voluntary extracurricular activity, because schools could punish vulgar, off-campus speech if it posed a reasonably foreseeable risk of coming onto school property, and because Doninger’s live journal post was vulgar, misleading, and created the risk of substantial disruption at school.”
  • In Florida, a high school senior and honor student was accused of cyberbullying after she wrote on Facebook: ‘’Ms. Sarah Phelps is the worst teacher I’ve ever met! To those select students who have had the displeasure of having Ms. Sarah Phelps, or simply knowing her and her insane antics: Here is the place to express your feelings of hatred.’’ Katherine Evans, who was suspended for “bullying and cyberbullying harassment toward a staff member,” sued the charter school in December 2008. A final ruling is pending.
  • In a 2007 incident, 19 students were suspended at a Catholic high school near Toronto for cyberbullying a principal on Facebook. The students called the principal a “Grinch of School Spirit” and made vulgar and derogatory comments. While the U.S. Constitution does not necessarily apply in private school settings, the incident demonstrates that this kind of behavior can happen anywhere.
  • Districts should have a cyberbullying policy that takes into account the school’s values as well as the school’s ability to legally link off-campus actions with what is happening or could happen at school.
  • Anne Bubnic on 09 Apr 09
     
    Good article from AMERICAN SCHOOL on the policies that schools need to have in place to protect both students and teachers from cyberbullies.
Anne Bubnic

Facebook, Take 2: Cyberbullying - 0 views

blogs.edweek.org/...book_take_2_cyberbullying.html

cyberbullying facebook social networking

shared by Anne Bubnic on 29 May 09 - Cached
  • I also asked them why they allowed certain girls to be on their friends list when they know that some of them will resort to this type of bullying, and most said because they felt they “had to.” This kind of pressure to allow “friends” on one’s site could also be considered a form of bullying, as they feel there may be consequences to shutting some out regardless of their lack of Internet etiquette.
  • As a public school principal, I can’t legally discipline a student for cyberbullying actions that take place outside of school that don’t result in bodily harm at school. However, when cyberbullying that has taken place outside of school becomes a school issue, as it did today, we must reserve the right to take action if the effects of outside cyberbullying threaten the safety or well-being of the student(s) in school, even if it hasn’t caused bodily harm…yet.
  • School officials have the authority to impose discipline if the speech has, or there are particularized reasons to believe it will cause a substantial disruption at school or interference with the rights of students to be secure. Three types of situations generally meet this standard - violent altercations, hostile environment for a student, significant interference with instruction.
  • Anne Bubnic on 29 May 09
     
    Our Acceptable Use of the Internet policy next school year will definitely not only address cyberbullying, it will include a clause that states something to the effect, "If cyberbullying outside of school becomes an issue in which a student feels threatened or unsafe in any way at school, the principal has the authority to discipline the cyber bully." It will give the school community the clear message that cyberbullying will not be tolerated and at the very least will give me a little leverage when I need it.
Judy Echeandia

Friend or Foe? Balancing the Good and Bad of Social-Networking Sites - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...01networks.h02.html

ad4dcss article cyberbullying digital responsibilities school board social networking

shared by Judy Echeandia on 23 Jun 08 - Cached
  • Anne Bubnic on 23 Jun 08
     
    This three-part article includes a discussion of classroom connections to social networking sites and the school's role in intervening when information that affects the classroom is publicly posted on MySpace or Facebook. The authors also provide five key social networking tips:
    1. Establish a policy for dealing with incidents in which students break school rules and their inappropriate behavior is showcased publicly on social-networking sites.
    2. Outline clear guidelines for administrators that spell out how schools should discipline students based on information garnered from social-networking sites, and let parents and students know about those rules.
    3. Educate students about online-safety issues and how to use sites such as Facebook and MySpace responsibly.
    4. Have a policy in place for dealing with cyber bullying.
    5. If teachers are using social-networking sites for educational purposes, they should establish clear guidelines for how they intend to communicate with students via those sites.

Anne Bubnic

Counteracting Cyberbullying Inside/Outside of School Grounds - 0 views

www.districtadministration.com/VIEWARTICLE.ASPX

ad4dcss cyberbullying legislation student discipline willard

shared by Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08 - Cached
  • The problem is that most incidents of cyberbullying occur off-campus because students have more unsupervised time. But the impact is at school where students are physically together. Although there is no data on the extent of harmful impact, anecdotally, it is clear that some incidents lead to students avoiding or even failing school, committing suicide and even becoming violent.
  • Studies on cyberbullying reported in the December 2007 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health reveal that both perpetrators and targets of cyberbullying report significant psychosocial concerns and increased rates of involvement in offline physical and relational aggression
  • One study reported that the victims of cyberbullying were eight times more likely than other students to report bringing a weapon to school. The concerns for student safety are very real. Students who do not believe school officials can help them may seek their own revenge or refuse to come to school.
  • Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08
     
    Do school officials have the authority to impose discipline in response to harmful off-campus online speech? Should they? This is a major challenge facing school administrators today. Many state legislatures are now adding statutory provisions requiring schools to incorporate cyberbullying into bullying prevention policies. But this has presented some concerns. For example, in Oregon and Washington, language incorporated into cyberbullying legislation appears to restrict administrators from responding to any off-campus bullying regardless of the harmful impact on campus. Administrators from these two states are advised to check with their legal council. Administrators in other states should understand that the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to use language in the cyberbullying statutes to override federal case law and restrict administrators from doing anything in response to off-campus harmful speech.
Anne Bubnic

Should Info on Facebook Be Grounds for School Suspension? - 0 views

rmtide.org/index.php

ad4dcss facebook cyberbullying

shared by Anne Bubnic on 28 May 09 - Cached
  • School districts across the country have begun to punish students for the material that they publish online. Schools are correct for punishing students for online activities like character defamation of teachers and posting pictures of themselves engaging in illegal activities. Schools must teach students the hard way that wrong actions should be punished no matter where they occur.
  • Anne Bubnic on 28 May 09
     
    Question posed in a high school newsletter: If a school comes across online material that depicts a star athlete or school government officer engaging in an illegal activity, should they merely ignore it? Surely, one's moral compass would dictate otherwise. Students must be disciplined for their actions in both the real and virtual worlds.
Anne Bubnic

Curbing Cyberbullying in School and on the Web - 0 views

markfranek.wordpress.com/...the-virtual-schoolyard

ad4dcss aup cyberbullying legal school administrator

shared by Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08 - Cached
  • Many of the most egregious acts of cyberbullying do not take place during school hours or on school networks, a situation that presents a dilemma for public school administrators: If they punish a student for off-campus behavior, they could get hit with a freedom of speech suit.  If they do nothing, students may continue to suffer and school officials theoretically could get hit with failure to act litigation. For school administrators, it appears to be an unfortunate “catch-22.” For lawyers, it’s a “perfect storm,” pitting freedom of speech advocates against the victims of cyberbullying and schools that try to intervene. There are no easy answers in this arena, few laws, and no well-established precedents that specifically deal with cyberbullying.
  • “School administrators can intervene in cyberbullying incidents, even if the incidents do not take place on school grounds, if they can demonstrate that the electronic speech resulted in a substantial disruption to the educational environment.”
  • These cases illustrate not only a lack of precedent on cyberbullying cases, but also a dilemma for school administrators on how to handle cyberbullying.  “There are few laws that address how to handle cyberbullying, and many schools don’t have an internal policy to deal with cyberbullying that takes place off-campus,” offers Deutchman.  “It may take an unfortunate and tragic event on school property to get more schools to consider tackling electronic behavior that originates off campus.  It’s only a matter of time before a cyberbully, or the victim of cyberbullying, uses deadly force during school hours.”
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  • So, what should schools do in the meantime?  First, school officials should establish a consistent internal policy (much like a crisis plan) and a team (minimally made up of the principal, school counselor, and technology director) to deal with cyber-misconduct. This team should fully document disruptive incidents and the degree to which the learning environment is affected. The principal should invite the cyberbully’s parents to review the offending material before considering disciplinary action. Most parents at this point will do the right thing.
  • Second, schools should educate children, starting in elementary school, about the importance of cyber-safety and the consequences of cyberbullying, especially on the school’s own network. These rules should be clearly posted in the computer labs and written in age-appropriate language. The rules should be sent home to parents each year—and they should be posted prominently on the school’s website.
  • Third, teachers should continue incorporating in their curriculum projects that utilize the web and other powerful new technologies. This probably won’t help schools avoid lawsuits; it’s just good pedagogy. It’s not surprising that schools that keep up with the latest technology and software—and employ teachers who care about the quality of online communication—report lower incidents of cyber-misconduct.
  • In addition, schools should update their codes of conduct to include rules that can legally govern off-campus electronic communication that significantly disrupts the learning environment. They should also assign enough resources and administrative talent to deal with students who engage in cyber-misconduct. One very big caveat: Disciplining a student for off-campus electronic speech should be done only as a last resort, and certainly not before seeking legal counsel.
  • Finally, schools should realize that not all cyberbullies need to be disciplined. Schools should act reasonably, responsibly, and consistently—so as to avoid the very bullying behavior they are trying to curb. Until the courts provide clear standards in the area of off-campus electronic speech for young people, these recommendations will go a long way in making schools a safer learning environment for everyone.
  • Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08
     
    Most school administrators have more than one story to tell about cyberbullying. They report that victims of cyberbullying experience low self-esteem, peer isolation, anxiety, and a drop in their grades. They note that victims may miss class or other school-related activities. Principals also point to recent high-profile cases where cyberbullying, left unchecked, led to suicide. In response, some schools have created new policies and curbed free speech on the school's computer network and on all electronic devices used during school hours. This article offers practical advice for actions schools can take to curb bullying, ranging from policy development to education.
Anne Bubnic

Cyber Bullying Presents a Complex Legal Landscape - 0 views

socialworktoday.com/...index.php

ad4dcss cyberbullying legal

shared by Anne Bubnic on 04 Sep 08 - Cached
  • Cyber bullying conducted at school allows school authorities to more easily impose discipline. The use of school equipment to cyber bully also makes a stronger legal argument for action by the school. And if the student e-mails offensive speech to school or downloads it at school and then distributes it, the school is in an advantageous position regarding disciplining the student. However, speech created at home—such as the creation of a Web site—affords greater legal protection for cyber bullies.
  • “The problem with the approach that web speech created at home can—if accessed at school—become school speech that can be regulated is the very nature of the Internet. Once something is created and placed on the Internet, the author loses control over who can access the speech and where it can be accessed.”
  • Anne Bubnic on 04 Sep 08
     
    As students across the country return to school, school districts face an often complicated and confusing legal landscape on how to deal with cyber bullies in their schools, according to Todd DeMitchell, EdD, a professor of education, who studies school liability, adequate supervision, and responses to preventing bullying and cyber bullying from school administrators and state legislatures.
Anne Bubnic

Cybersafety Legal Issues for School Administrators - 0 views

www.ctap4.org/...AdminLegalIssues.htm

ad4dcss cyberbullying cybersafety cyberthreats digital law digital responsibilities digital safety legal school administrator school board

shared by Anne Bubnic on 19 Apr 08 - Cached
  • Anne Bubnic on 19 Apr 08
     
    Technology has out-paced the legal system in issues related to cyberbullying in the schools. When a cyberbullying incident happens at your school, how will you handle it? What board policies will protect you? What is appropriate discipline? What kind of documentation do you need? How will you assure a safe environment for your students? Learn from national experts who have studied court decisions related to cyberbullying of students, teachers and school administrators.
Anne Bubnic

Bullying Policy at Hudson Area School District - 0 views

www.neola.com/...po5517.01.htm

ad4dcss cyberbullying AUP

shared by Anne Bubnic on 14 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Bullying or other aggressive behavior toward a student, whether by other students, staff, or third parties, including Board members, parents, guests, contractors, vendors, and volunteers, is strictly prohibited. This prohibition includes physical, verbal, and psychological abuse, including hazing, gestures, comments, threats, or actions to a student, which cause or threaten to cause bodily harm, reasonable fear for personal safety or personal degradation. Demonstration of appropriate behavior, treating others with civility and respect, and refusing to tolerate harassment or bullying is expected of administrators, faculty, staff, and volunteers to provide positive examples for student behavior. This policy applies to all activities in the District, including activities on school property, in a school vehicle, and those occurring off school property if the student or employee is at any school-sponsored, school-approved or school-related activity or function, such as field trips or athletic events where students are under the school’s control, or where an employee is engaged in school business. Misconduct occurring outside of school may also be disciplined if it interferes with the school environment. "Bullying" is any gesture or written, verbal, graphic, or physical act (including electronically transmitted acts – i.e. internet, telephone or cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or wireless hand held device) that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or a mental, physical, or sensory disability or impairment; or by any other distinguishing characteristic. Such behavior is considered harassment or bullying whether it takes place on or off school property, at any school-sponsored function, or in a school vehicle.
  • Anne Bubnic on 14 Mar 10
     
    Includes a clause for cyberbullying.
Anne Bubnic

The Fight Against Cyberbullying - 0 views

www.thejournal.com/22567

ad4dcss cyberbullying cyberethics cybersafety digital citizenship digital communication digital responsibilities

shared by Anne Bubnic on 15 May 08 - Cached
  • Anne Bubnic on 15 May 08
     
    As tales of online cruelty mount, districts are trying a mix of prevention and punishment, incorporating internet safety into curriculum and tightening student conduct codes.Whether a pattern or merely an unfortunate streak, what's not disputed is the direction of the general drift in cyberbullying cases: upward. Once relegated to the playgrounds and back lots, the schoolyard bully now finds prey online. While the states are responding to cyberbullying by adopting legislation that mixes prevention with punishment, for school districts the issue quickly turns from educating the community about the threat of cyberbullying to crafting a response when an incident actually occurs. Districts are realizing that integrating internet safety education into curriculum isn't enough. They must also address cyberbullying in their conduct and discipline codes.
Anne Bubnic

Digital Natives and the Myth of Multi-Tasking - 0 views

blogs.law.harvard.edu/...-and-the-myth-of-multi-tasking

ad4dcss digital learning digital media digital youth

shared by Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08 - Cached
  • Dave Crenshaw discussed his latest book, The Myth of Multitasking. Crenshaw makes a strong distinction behind “background tasking”—reading a magazine while waiting in line, for instance, or listening to music while coding—and “switch-tasking.” Most of the time, when we talk about “multi-tasking,” we’re actually talking about the very costly practice of “switch-tasking.” Every time you switch your attention from one place to another—even from one browser window to another—you take a significant hit to your focus
  • Switch-tasking, he definitively proves, causes you to execute each task more slowly than you would otherwise, with more errors
  • pecifically, what can parents, teachers, and employers do to help their kids, students, and employees focus their attention more effectively? As a kid, student, and employee myself, I have to say that I believe the solution is emphatically not to limit access—at least not for older teens. Rather, I think the key lies in laying out the facts and discussing strategies. Information overload and the allure of infinite access, after all, are challenges that affect everyone with an internet connection—not just young people. And, though writing a stellar book report might not be a cause compelling enough to warrant total focus, every young person will at some point find a pursuit worth paying attention to. Maybe it’s writing short stories; maybe writing music. Maybe it’s making art. But when that pursuit comes along, they’re going to want to know how to firewall their attention, focus their efforts, and—for once—stop switching.
  • Anne Bubnic on 05 Sep 08
     
    What ever happened to old-fashioned "discipline?" This question has come up constantly in my conversations with parents and teachers over the course of my involvement with the Digital Natives project. When parents glance over and see not only 50 browser tabs open on the family computer, but iTunes and a computer game and AIM too-with a book report relegated to a tiny corner of the screen-they're understandably bewildered. How do kids ever get anything done? "I'm just really good at multi-tasking, Mom," a savvy student might reply. And, as long as the work gets done, it seems hard to argue with that logic.
Anne Bubnic

Cyberbullying: A Legal Review - 1 views

www.ascd.org/...rbullying@_A_Legal_Review.aspx

ad4dcss cyberbullying school administrator teacher social networking legal

shared by Anne Bubnic on 10 Apr 10 - Cached
  • If the disruption or danger can be clearly enunciated and quantified, student discipline is likely warranted and legally appropriate.
  • Anne Bubnic on 10 Apr 10
     
    School officials are justifiably concerned about when and how to respond to cyberbullying of educators. What actions, if any, should administrators and teachers take when faced with such occurrences? Which responses will stand up in a court of law? Educators' most important first response is to pause, step back, and take a deep breath. Administrators and teachers must avoid reacting to students' offensive online communications in anger or fear.
Anne Bubnic

Schools Left in the Dust on the Social Media Highway - 4 views

www.coshoctontribune.com/...article

ad4dcss digital citizenship social media blocking filters AUP policy legal

shared by Anne Bubnic on 17 Mar 10 - Cached
  • "Our computer use policy is extensive. The frame is this is how you will use the computers when you are here, you can't go on these sites and do these things while you're at school, but when they get out from school and start using computers of their own to do some of these things, then it becomes a little bit more clouded," he said.
  • The problem NEOLA faces is a lack of law to base policies on regarding student and staff use of Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. In turn, there are no policies for district administrators to follow, leaving a gray area for disciplinary issues. State legislature was passed regarding bullying, so NEOLA set policies based on that, but in terms of writing policy on technology, direction is what NEOLA is lacking.
Anne Bubnic

Social Media and Digital Citizenship - 2 views

www.edsocialmedia.com/...-media-and-digital-citizenship

ad4dcss digital citizenship social media blocking filters AUP

shared by Anne Bubnic on 17 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Content filters, policies and guideline aren’t the final answer. If we are to have our students become true citizens we need to it though teaching.
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